Noor Ul Ain

Roll no. 13
Eveline by James Joyce
MCQs
1. Where does Frank have a home?
a) Patagonia
b) Buenos Aires
c) England
d) Belfast
2. To whom has Eveline written letters?
a) her father and Harry
b) her father and Ernest
c) Frank and Harry
d) Harry and Ernest
3. What does Harry do for a living?
a) He is a sailor.
b) He is in the church-decorating business.
c) He does not work because he is still in school.
d) He is a builder.
4. According to the story, which of the following statements about Frank is NOT
true?
a) He tells stories of his travels.
b) He has challenged Eveline's father to a duel.
c) He wants to marry Eveline.
d) He likes music.
5. Where is Eveline at the end of the story?
a) at home
b) on the ship
c) at the quay
d) in church
6. At the end of “Eveline”, what decision does the title character make?
a) She decides to stay in Ireland
b) She decides to quit her job
c) She decides to leave her mother
d) She leaves for France
 7. What is Eveline holding in her lap as she looks out the window at the start of
the “Eveline”?
a) Letters to her family
b) A white cat
c) A china horse
d) A bowl of soup
8. What sound does Eveline hear that reminds her of her mother’s death?
a) A pigeon cooing
b) A train whistle
c) A breaking glass
d) A street organ
9. What did Eveline promise to do before her mother’s death?
a) Maintain the family house
b) Get education
c) Marry a nice man
d) Poison her father’s soup
10. How does Eveline intend to leave Dublin to elope with her lover?
a) By boat
b) By train
c) On foot
d) In a carriage

Short Questions
1. How is Eveline's identity defined by her fears in "Eveline" in Dubliners?
Eveline's entire existence is based on fear. She fears her father's violent behavior will cause him
to beat her, although he has not yet done so. She fears her father not giving her grocery money
in time for her to complete the shopping on Saturday nights. She fears being reprimanded by
her supervisor at the store where she works. She also fears becoming like her mother, trapped
in a bad marriage and slowly losing her mind. These are the fears that prompt her to make
plans with Frank to leave the country. However, as much as she fears these things, she fears the
unknown even more. She fears finding herself on a ship bound for another country, unable to
turn back. She fears leaving what she knows and what is familiar. With all of these fears roiling
around inside her, there is very little of Eveline left to know in the story.
2. In what ways is Eveline's decision to remain in Dublin a good one or a bad one?
Eveline lives in fear of a father who was violent with her brothers and who is stingy with her,
making it nearly impossible for her to run their small household with two young children. Being
married and having children would bring her a respectable social status, but Frank has not
proposed. He has spent some time with her. Frank promises her a home and a marriage, but
the story contains no evidence about his career beyond being a sailor. It is not clear whether he
will be able to provide her a good life or she’ll be left alone in the city. Eveline also has a weak
model for marriage in her own family. Such an example provides Eveline with little incentive to
commit to marrying anyone. Eveline's instinct that Frank "would drown her" indicates she fears
entwining her life with a man's the way her mother entwined with her father.
3. Why does Eveline's story begin with memories of her neighborhood when she was
a child?
Eveline is contemplating whether to leave Dublin, which makes her nostalgic for better times in
her life. She may even be delving deep into her memories in order to find a happy one that will
prompt her to stay. However nothing is same as it was in her childhood, a change so profound it
might provide incentive for Eveline to change herself and go with Frank. The neighborhood
reflects the inevitability of change, but Eveline chooses to focus instead on the past. This
pattern will repeat at the end of the story when Eveline again chooses to focus on what is
comfortable and known to her from her past—her father, her job, her familiar surroundings.
She chooses familiar experiences, even though they are unsatisfying, rather than brave an
uncertain future.
4. What does water symbolize in “Eveline”?
Water, specifically the sea, represents the unknown, and Joyce uses it to illustrate Eveline’s fear
of the unknown. At the end of the story, when Eveline is filled with anguish and rendered
immobile by the difficulty of her decision, she feels “all the seas of the world tumble[d] about
her heart.” The fact that her heart comes back into the story is significant since she reveals that
she has a health issue of palpitations. This image implies that the very thought of leaving Dublin
and entering the unknown “seas” is causing her emotional distress, and perhaps heart
palpitations as well. She feels that Frank is “drawing her into” the seas and that eventually “he
would drown her.” She is not ready for the unknown, and she feels like Frank is pressuring her.
The sea also represents freedom, which is one and the same as the unknown to Eveline. She is
afraid of both freedom and the unknown.
5. What does dust symbolize in “Eveline”?
Dust represents monotony. The dust in the house keeps collecting no matter how
frequently Eveline cleans it, paralleling the monotony of Eveline’s life in Dublin: she is
constantly taking care of people or cleaning, only to wake up and do the same thing the next
day. The children will always grow hungry again just as the dust will always collect again.
6. What do the colors “brown and red” symbolize?
Joyce uses the color brown to signify the dreariness of Dublin. However in this particular story,
he also contrasts it with the new red houses that are being built on Eveline’s street. So here,
brown represents Eveline’s childhood image of Dublin, and red represents the changes that
have happened in Dublin since Eveline has become an adult. This contrast from brown to red is
a change, but it is a very small one. Eveline knows that Dublin is changing, but the changes are
tiny in comparison to the changes that moving to an entirely different country would present.
7. What is the role of gender in “Eveline”?
If we look the story from feministic point of view, we see that the representation of the story’s
three major male characters - Eveline’s father, Frank and Harry demonstrate the degree to
which men enjoy greater freedom than women. While looking at the character of Eveline,
although he life seems dominated by men, her decision at the end of the story demonstrate
that she has been empowered by and inspired by women like her mother and Blessed Margaret
Marry Alacoque to trust her own intuitions.
8. How is Eveline a round character?
The first round character developed by Joyce is obviously Eveline herself. One on hand, Eveline
expresses utter misery in the current lifestyle she is currently forced to live. She has to fulfill her
mother’s promise to take care of her family. Due to the sheer unhappiness of such a lifestyle,
Eveline expresses a desire to run off with her lover, Frank, to begin a new life in Buenos Aires.
On the other hand, however, Eveline begins to feel guilt for leaving her father and her current
lifestyle behind. She is also paralyzed by the fear of leaving the life that she is “comfortable” in
and venturing out into unknown lands with a man whom she hardly loves. She assures herself
that her life at home isn’t unbearably miserable and, in reality, much more familiar to her. The
constant presence of this internal conflict within Eveline therefore reveals that she is a round
character in nature, for there are many dimensions to her personality.
9. Develop a contrast between Eveline’s father and Frank.
Eveline’s father is a figure of violence and fearful authority. He symbolizes the harsh realities of
time and adulthood. His domestic tyranny connotes the male dominated world that Eveline
inhabits. Eveline also presents a softer side of her father in the past but these depictions only
serves to make his daily cruelities appear crueler and more irrational. Frank on the other hand
as Eveline describes him a “kind, manly and open-hearted” man. He is loaded with romantic
passion. Frank gave her happiness and excitement. She was under the spell of his stories and
his adventure, she sought a sort of liberation through his company. . He was an escape from her
dull life. He was offering her a different view and a different reality of life. 
10. In what ways Eveline’s mother is visible as an influential figure in Eveline’s life?
During the final days of her mother’s memories, a promise is made to her to take care of her
family. As if to warn Eveline against following her heart and abandoning her family in order to
pursue a life of romance and fulfillment, her mother in a terminal madness warns her that
“Derevaun Seraun” which translates to “the end of pleasure is pain.” Her use of Gaelic to
express this dour aphorism loads the sentiment with a sense of prophecy as if Eveline’s mother
is voicing the wisdom of ancient druids rather than the hard lessons of her own sad life. As
Eveline remembers her mother’s words on the eve of her possible departure, it is as if Eveline’s
mother is returning from her grave to admonish Eveline to keep her promise. So as she
hesitates and shuts down at the threshold of her new life her mother’s influence seems to
reassert itself.