1 PARTE LA BIOGRAFIA SOFIA

James Joyce was an Irish writer, novelist, poet and short story writer who is most famous for his epic novel
Ulysses.

Early Life and Childhood

James Joyce was born in Rathgar, Dublin, Republic of Ireland on 2 February 1882. Joyce’s parents had
twelve children together. Two of their children died in infancy, and James was the eldest of the surviving
children. The family was very comfortable financially, his father worked as a rates collector and came from
a wealthy family. When Joyce was young, his family moved to Bray. However, Joyce’s father had terrible
drinking and gambling habits which led to his bankruptcy and the loss of his job in 1891.

Education

James Joyce attended the private Jesuit secondary school, Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare.
However, as the family’s financial situation worsened, he was first to leave Clongowes, and he attended a
Christian Brothers school in North Dublin briefly. He then moved to another Jesuit secondary school,
Belvedere College, after a family friend arranged for him to attend on reduced fees. Joyce proved to be a
competent linguist at school studying, Italian, French, and Latin.

Joyce also showed great interest in classical literature during his school days. At age sixteen Joyce enrolled
in the University College Dublin. Joyce continued his interest in languages as he studied English, French and
Italian. Joyce graduated in 1902 and moved to Paris. He quickly abandoned his original idea of studying
medicine.

Later Life and Career

During his time in University, James Joyce published articles and two plays and was occasionally censored
by the University’s paper. After graduation though Joyce struggled to make a living, getting by on reviews
and teaching. Joyce was a heavy drinker, and this led to many altercations which often ended in violence.
After one serious incident in 1904, Joyce left Dublin for Croatia and eventually settled in Italy. Joyce earned
a living in the city of Trieste by teaching English.

On his return to Dublin in 1910 and during World War I Joyce lived in Zurich, Switzerland. It was in Zurich
that the early stages of his great work, Ulysses, were also written. 1920 saw Joyce move to Paris.

James Joyce published Ulysses in 1922, and it was under heavy censorship as publishing houses saw
vulgarities throughout the novel. It took until 1933 for Ulysses to be published in America because of its
explicit content. Following the invasion of France by Nazi Germany in 1940 Joyce returned to Zurich, where
he died on 13 January 1941.

Personal Life

In 1904 James Joyce met Nora Barnacle and the pair fled, married and had two children together, George
and Lucia. The day that Joyce met Barnacle is the date chosen as the setting of Ulysses. Throughout his time
in Italy, Joyce was joined by a number of his siblings; the Austrians interned his brother Stanislaus during
the First World War.
Health

James Joyce suffered a fear of dogs, cynophobia, and fear of thunderstorms, astraphobia, from childhood.
Throughout his life, Joyce suffered many problems with his eyes and had some operations. It is suspected
that Joyce had schizophrenia. Joyce suffered a perforated Ulcer and died after surgery on it.

Religion

Early in his life, James Joyce became openly hostile to Catholicism. He refused to pray at his dying mother's
bedside and also denied his request to confess. Later, his opinion softened, and he never tried to dissuade
any member of his family from attending mass. Despite his death, Joyce did not receive a Catholic burial.

2 PARTE MARTINA

INTRODUCTION

Eveline is a short story by the famous author James Joyce. It was published for the first time in 1904 but
only in 1914 was it included in the '' Dubliners '' collection.

EVELINE SUMMARY

The story, a psychological study of frustration, is about a young woman who wishes to escape the tyranny
of her father and the responsibilities of surrogacy, which were imposed on her after her mother's death.
When offered an escape route, she finds she lacks the spirit, courage and strength of character to take it.

Though only nineteen, Eveline Hill lives in the past, her mind occupied with the way things "were" as she
sits by the window of her father's house. The world around her has changed, as has the neighborhood. A
Belfast landowner built brick houses on the field where "other people's children" played. One of the
children who played there is now dead and others have left the area; some have even left the country.
Eveline stays. His brother Ernest, who was "too grown up" to play, is now dead, as is his mother. His father
turned to drink and is used to violence, especially on Saturday nights.

Eveline works as a saleswoman at "The Stores", earning a miserable seven shillings a week, which is then
passed on to her father. He promised his dying mother that he would "keep the house together," raising
the two youngest children and contending with his father's bad mood and drinking that has worsened since
his mother's death. She dreams of escaping the boring and routine existence that circumstances have
imposed on her.

Eveline meets a young man named Frank, who has traveled the world and represents a means of escape for
her. He wants to marry her and take her with him to Buenos Aires, from Ireland to the other side of the
world. Even though she accepted his offer of marriage and he arranged for her to pass by ship, she has
second thoughts about the day of her scheduled departure. At first, her fears at home center around a
memory from her past, as she sits by the window, clutching the letters she has prepared for her father and
brother to explain her departure. At the end of the story, he discovers that he really does not want and is
unable to leave Ireland. She is a prisoner of the past; it has no future; in the end he cannot leave.

3 PARTE AURORA THEMES IN EVELINE

MANY FORMS OF DEATH

Death is both figuratively and literally discussed in this tale. According to Joyce, the meaning of life in
Dublin is death and Evelin fears that running away will be considered dead by those who know her, and this
causes her to stop and change her decisions.

In those days, when women got married, they lost all their rights and freedoms, so evelin compares
marriage to death, because she will lose her identity.

NOSTALGIA

In Eveline, the main chain of the protagonist is nostalgia, her thoughts begin and end with nostalgia, and
this prevents her from freeing herself. He is aware of the problems of Dublin life that emotionally kill a
person. But he can't leave Dublin because with it all his memories and his identity will die, he won't have
the memory of the sacrifices he made for his family.

WOMEN AND SOCIETY

Eveline is the first female story of the Dubliners. In that society, the hierarchy was the organizational
structure and women were of less value than men. Women were subdued and thus rendered powerless.
This space was filled by a man who was powerful, and therefore pretended to be doing her a favor by
granting her his power, and she should be thankful.

The perception of women in that society is of a fragile and delicate being in need of protection, and this
point of view was shared by men and women. This is an obstacle in Eveline's way, and she accepts it,
leading herself into a closed alley.

CORRUPTION

If we try to define corruption, we can call it deterioration, depravity and loss of moral sense. In Eveline,
most of the characters have lost their moral sense and cannot decide between good and evil. It prevents
progress and is complementary to mental paralysis, or the inability to make decisions.

REALISM

This is a realistic work, and scholars have found instances of Joyce’s real life in this story. Dubliners saw
hurdles in its publishing because no publisher was ready to take it. There was a realistic description of
things and places in these stories, and for this reason, the publishers feared lawsuits. There is a realistic
representation of life in Dublin, and we can confirm the instances that happened with Eveline because it
used to happen to a number of women in the twentieth century. Through the realistic representation of
things, the writer is both able to delight and instruct the audience regarding a rampant problem in society.

RELIGION
Religion is used logically and symbolically as a tool of oppression in this story. It is the reason behind the
maintenance of situations and the system does not change, as I said earlier when talking about the themes
contained in the story.

HISTORY SETTING

The spatial setting of the Dubliners is Dublin and its suburban areas. Eveline's time environment was the
beginning of the twentieth century, when women fought for their rights. In Eveline's opening, the setting is
her home, which later turns into a station, while the weather doesn't change much because the action
doesn't take long.

In describing Eveline, the author used sentimentality. Joyce does not exaggerate the events in history, and
for this reason her works are naturalistic, they describe things as they are. It does not stray from the
characters, which gives them a personal touch, not leaving them wooden characters that have no impact
on the readers.