The narrative style of “Eveline” reveals Joyce’s early experiments with representing the inner experiences of his characters; although the text is written in third-person perspective, the point of view is clearly Eveline’s. The story is driven by the whims of her reminiscences and observations, revealing the world through her eyes and with her commentary. The text does not read like Leopold Bloom’s or Stephen Daedalus’s thoughts in Joyce’s 1922 novel Ulysses, but the narrative experience is similar, reading as stream of consciousness despite the distance of the third-person narration. By revealing Eveline’s thoughts as they happen, Joyce closes the distance between protagonist and reader, creating an early iteration of Modernist conceptions of “realism.” In 19th-century realist novels, the representation of reality was shaped by what was considered an objective perspective, representing people, landscapes, and events as they are. These novels used third-person perspective, and the drive for objective realism combined with third-person narration created the sense of an omniscient narrator. Modernists, especially after seeing the effects of rapid industrialism and social changes alongside the horrors of World War I, searched for alternate ways to represent a reality in which Victorian sensibilities no longer fit within the modern Western world’s social, technological, and political landscapes.

One element of this move toward a new type of realism was the push for psychological realism. To accomplish this, writers developed techniques like stream-of-consciousness narration, interior monologue, and multiple points of view. Ulysses eventually came to epitomize some of the more experimental modes of representing modern reality. T. S. Eliot described Joyce’s technique as “a way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history”; furthermore, Eliot describes Joyce’s technique as the “mythical method,” emphasizing that the novel is “a step toward making the modern world possible for art” (Eliot, T. S. “Ulysses, Order, and Myth (1923).” Selected Prose of T. S. Eliot. Ed. Frank Kermode. Harcourt Inc., 1975). “Eveline” marks a step on Joyce’s path to this technique, giving the reader a glimpse into Eveline’s inner experience, which, like many of Joyce’s works, makes up the majority of the story. Instead of providing an action-heavy plot, “Eveline” illustrates Joyce’s tendency to reveal the conflicts and meanderings of a character’s inner life. His characters’ thoughts and conflicts are often microcosms exploring larger themes and issues; in this case, Eveline’s internal monologue alludes to emigration, colonialism, and sexism.

Eveline’s home life also represents a common element of Joyce’s work. Nearly all of Joyce’s works take place in Dublin, and most of his stories are set in either middle- or lower-class areas, focusing on the everyday occurrences of ordinary people. Like many of Joyce’s characters, Eveline’s experience reveals the meaning to be found in everyday life. Given the description of her home and her arguments with her father over money, Eveline is likely middle or lower-middle class and searching for a better life. Joyce represents her struggles and her wavering thoughts with the same “scrupulous meanness” (v) that he uses with all his characters, “depict[ing] fleeting but decisive episodes in the quotidian life of turn-of-the-century Dublin” (v). Joyce reveals even darker elements of life, such as Eveline’s father’s abuse and threats toward Eveline. Joyce represents the family’s violence, small joys, and financial struggles in all its “meanness.” In doing so, he illustrates larger issues of duty to family versus freedom (and potential happiness), the choice between an unknown future and a known but dismal present situation, adolescence on the cusp of maturity, and the effects of imperial control and religious strictures on Irish citizenry. “Eveline” illustrates just how much an author can pack into a short story, as Joyce uses the characters, setting, and symbolism to explore all of these concepts in the span of just four pages.

One of these issues—the effects of English imperialism—manifests in “Eveline” and throughout Dubliners through the characters’ paralysis, mirroring Ireland’s paralysis after centuries of colonial oppression. In his 1907 lecture in Trieste, “Ireland: Island of Saints and Sages,” Joyce called Ireland “poor and, moreover, politically backward” after centuries of English rule (Joyce, James. “Ireland: Island of Saints and Sages.” James Joyce: Occasional, Critical, and Political Writing. Ed. Kevin Barry. Oxford University Press, 2008). Ireland, from Joyce’s perspective, was stuck; despite many rebellions over several centuries, the island remained under Britain’s imperial thumb, continually drained of its resources. The poverty created by this drain led to widespread Irish emigration. Widespread poverty and imperialist violence made it difficult to stay in Ireland, and because of this, Ireland was frozen in time, torn between the frightening unknown (revolution) and the familiar colonialist oppression.

“Eveline” represents this paralysis through the narrative’s major conflict: Eveline is considering leaving, abandoning duty and all she has known, to find freedom and happiness in the unknown. As the story opens, Eveline has already agreed to leave Ireland with Frank, but the primary conflict plays out as she questions her decision and moves between two positions. On one hand, her present life is difficult and abusive, providing little hope for a happy future. On the other hand, now that she is at the threshold and ready to pursue a future in Argentina, her view of her familiar home takes on a rosy tinge as she recalls happier times and, at times, makes excuses for her father. Eveline is stuck, and the primary driver of her flight to the docks is the recollection of her mother’s oppressive life and final moments, creating Eveline’s “sudden impulse of terror” (23) and her need for escape. By linking Eveline’s fate to her mother’s, Joyce hints at the cyclical nature of patriarchal oppression and misogynistic violence.

When she reaches the docks, however, Eveline finds herself paralyzed by indecision once again. The unknown future is represented in the “black mass of the boat” (23), evoking feelings of uncertainty and dread, even as her lover waves to her. In the end, Eveline, like Ireland, allows this paralysis to keep her frozen in place, staring at the boat as it carries away her opportunity for escape and freedom. The major conflict of “Eveline,” then, is not only about Eveline’s escape but Ireland’s political future.