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Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences.
In the online edition I'm reading, the story title is "Eveline." This might be the briefest story in the collection. It seems rather more direct in its picture of helplessness than any of the others, would you agree? Eveline sits breathing the air of musty fabric while dreaming of better air--Buenos Ayres, in fact. I suppose the best we could say about the life the narrator describes is that it could be worse; at least her father doesn't beat her, cruel though he is. What keeps her from abandoning her paltry job and unloving family, then? Is it love for dear old Ireland?
As we advance through the ages (of the characters), do we see less opportunity for them to change or assert themselves? It seemed that with the first stories there was at least possibility for the young characters, though their striving ended in frustration or stalemate. Is Joyce presenting an essentially deterministic world?
Last edited by DWill on Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
Eveline represents a change in direction for the book. The first three stories were of people which life had imposed something on them that was somewhat out of their control. They were young and it was the world which largely affected them, for the first time. They were being molded from without. Now we have someone who is reaching near adulthood and for a woman, it was adulthood. We have someone which has the freedom to make a choice. So now we're dealing with someone who can effect their own change, someone with the power to do something. This is a major turning point. Before we had something in the making and now we have a finished product making life decisions. We have an adult.
Eveline is in keeping with the paralysis theme, someone who has grown very comfortable with 'the situation', and will probably wind up perpetuating everything that's 'wrong' because it's what she's a part of and what she's comfortable with. Dreams are no longer worth the chase, they are dangerous, and she has no courage. She probably has much distrust for men and adventure and she's probably too timid to take any leap of faith towards bettering her situation. She'll become her mother because that's who she is and what she finds value in.
It's not an undesirable life and she'd get respect. She's a conservative and a home body. She's not built for greatness. She's built for simplicity... an unmovable lump of responsibility that gives up when offered a chance of improvement... nothing but defeat. She's completely dominated.
From Aristotle to Tocqueville, men have been trying to find a correlation between a successful state and that state's women. Aristotle owes Sparta's decline to the decline in the morality of their women and Alexis owes America's political success to their women.
Despite taking a back seat in affairs, it seems that the West constantly looks towards their women for strength and virtue. It seems we collectively have a sense of their supreme worth and know that without their good judgment, things can quickly deteriorate. That if they find value in shit - men will become that.
The scary aspect of the story for me is that Eveline doesn't conceive of any positive good in staying in her situation. But venturing into the unknown is terrifying and full of risk, while on the other hand she has the security of habituation to her family and job and the knowledge that she can continue to live with being unhappy. It's not unlike anyone who feels a perverse sense of devotion or obligation to people who don't even value them for who they are.
DWill wrote:The scary aspect of the story for me is that Eveline doesn't conceive of any positive good in staying in her situation. But venturing into the unknown is terrifying and full of risk, while on the other hand she has the security of habituation to her family and job and the knowledge that she can continue to live with being unhappy. It's not unlike anyone who feels a perverse sense of devotion or obligation to people who don't even value them for who they are.
Yes! This story made me profoundly sad. I really wanted Eveline to get on the boat. In big and small ways we all make Eveline's choice and stay on the dock. It is funny how we get stuck and even resistant to taking an action or making a choice that has the potential to improve our lot or at least alleviate a bad situation. It is far easier to stay with the predictable. I continue to be amazed when life pushes me into something that I'd been wanting but was afraid to take the leap and it turns out to be okay and sometimes better than ok.