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The Theme of Paralysis in Eveline by James Joyce Eveline is a short story in James Joyce's series Dubliners. When the author thought about writing several stories, he had quite a specific idea in his mind. He made his intent clear in his letter addressed to Grant Richards: My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the centre of paralysis. I tried to present it to the indifferent public under four of its aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. The stories are arranged in this order. (5 May 1906; Selected Letters, 83) Eveline belongs to adolescence part and is about 19 -year-old girl, trapped in her world, longing for escape but finally unable to accept the change. The plot of the story is quite simple.
It is a description of one day in the girls life, not ordinary day, though, but fate defining. We find Eveline looking out of the window, leaning her head against the window curtain, inhaling the odour of dusty cretonne. She reflects on her life and through her reflections it becomes clear that her life is not an easy one she works too much, she hates her job and is not respected at her work place. The situation at home is no better; her mother and one of her two brothers are dead, she has to deal with her abusive father and take care of him and the house on her own. But today she has a chance to escape from these gruesome circumstances and inner fight goes on in her when she strives to make a decision whether to leave or to stay. Obvious as the decision might seem, its not so easy for her and between routine, poverty, misery and the chance for possible, almost certain, happiness, she chooses the former.
The story is filled with both unsettling feeling of missing something important and at the same time with some smug contentment. All the time Eveline is considering what is better for her. And although it seems she understands the need to move forward in her life, she realizes her life is meaningless and poor, she still makes a huge effort to find bright sides in her obviously pale life and she does that too, she recollects about her, usually quarrelsome, father: he had read her out a ghost story and made toast for her at the fire. Another day, when their mother was alive, they had all gone for a picnic to the Hill of How. She remembered her father putting on her mothers bonnet to make the children laugh.
She seems to try and justify her wish not to take any chances changing her life so irreversibly. She meditates, It was hard work a hard life but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life. Now she is presented with wonderful opportunity, the perfect way out of the rut and still, she chooses to remain where she is, with poorly paid hateful job, unloving and occasionally drinking father, unmarried and unfulfilled. Why? Why is there such paralysis in her feelings, thinking and actions? Is it because the known is always better than the unknown?
Is it because she is simply a fool or a coward? Or is her behavior conditioned by the society? As it was already mentioned, in his series Dubliners Joyce wanted to show the paralysis of the city, its citizens. So the conclusion can be made that story of Eveline is, in fact, story of any person residing in that city, so it must be the influence of the society and not the fault of her personality. The author dwells on this theme and thoroughly explores different forms of paralysis that he sees in Dublin society. He sees not only emotional and spiritual passivity but also inability to get out of social and economic routine.
The reflection of all these problems can be found in Eveline. The embodiment of physical paralysis in Eveline can be little Keogh the cripple, who appears early in the story. This character can be approached from two different angles. On one hand, he can be seen as a precursor of further Eveline's inability to accept the change; he foreshadows her own spiritual and emotional paralysis. On the other hand, however, he can be seen as representation of paralysis itself, used to keep nix and warn of any change coming and thus avert moving forward and any progress. It is some sort of fence that makes one get stuck in the routine, being high enough not to let one see the horizon.
Social paralysis, that of the fixed thinking of the society is, perhaps, represented by prejudice against certain professions and kinds of people. When Eveline's father finds out about her relationship with Frank, he forbids her to meet him: I know these sailor chaps, he said, of course, implying unflattering characteristic. Joyce describes Frank in much detail, showing him as very kind, manly, open-hearted, funny, intelligent. Not only is he good in his profession and well traveled, he is also a nice storyteller, awfully fond of music and theatre. In all respects, he is the most decent man, but people have their own set bundle of ideas and are unable as well as unwilling to change their views. Frank is also her way to get out of her poverty, he had a home waiting for her in a big beautiful city.
But that also doesnt mean much to her. She still prefers the known routine of poverty and hard work. Taking her thinking as a pattern, the author comes to describe spiritual paralysis of people. It is known that Joyce doubted the influence of Catholic Church and he incorporates this in the story also. When Eveline is already at the station, she finally realizes she cannot make this shift to something exciting and new, she starts praying She felt her cheek pale and cold and, out of a maze of distress, she prayed to God to direct her, to show her what was her duty.
And as she makes the decision to let this opportunity slip through her hands, Joyce wants to show how church can contribute to staleness of unchanging life and prevent from real improvement and joy. The atmosphere of passiveness, inertness prevails all throughout the story. However, the author manages to portray inner conflict in such detail that the reader gets absorbed in the story and is left shocked at the end. Eveline is immersed in recollections, realizing the futility of the way she lives, at the same time longing for change and understanding that this change will be for the better People would treat her with respect then. She would not be treated as her mother had been. Still she hangs on to small familiar things that fill her life and only once does she show some emotion and urge to re-invent her life: She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror.
Escape! She must escape! Frank would save her. He would give her life, perhaps love, too. But she wanted to live. Why should she be unhappy?
She had a right to happiness. Joyce uses such a powerful description of this outburst of emotion, as he calls it terror. What remains the most shocking, even tragic, is that Eveline herself does realize that life she lives is not really life but existence, prison even, since she wants to escape. She is unhappy too, she is not content with her way of living, she does want more.
But she finds herself paralyzed by false security of her own world and doesnt find enough courage to make this vital step into the change that will bring her happiness, even though it means a whole range of new experiences. Having all the potential of a winner, she remains a loser and victim of her own narrow mind and limited outlook. Where another person will get excited in expectation of something new, Eveline becomes frozen with fear of the unknown, all the seas of the world tumbled about her heart, and goes back to mediocrity of her life. The theme of paralysis is central in Eveline. Joyce very vividly describes her inner conflict between stability and perpetuation of existence and initiation of irrevocable change.
The way Eveline cannot move forward, cannot find enough strength and courage to free herself of her stifled oppressive situation, being too scared to go from Ireland, not being open to new experiences, all this shows the emotional and spiritual paralysis of Eveline as a representative of her society. Her behavior is conditioned but ultimately it is she who is going to suffer the consequences of her choice. Reference list: Joyce J. Eveline (web) Selected Letters of James Joyce. Ed. Richard Ellmann.
New York: Viking, 1975.
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Research essay sample on James Joyce Move Forward
