Eveline

Eveline Hill sits at a window in her home and looks out into the street while fondly
recalling her childhood, when she played with other children in a field now developed
with new homes. Her thoughts turn to her sometimes abusive father with whom she
lives, and to the prospect of freeing herself from her hard life juggling jobs as a shop
worker and a nanny to support herself and her father. Eveline faces a difficult dilemma:
remain at home like a dutiful daughter, or leave Dublin with her lover, Frank, who is a
sailor. He wants her to marry him and live with him in Buenos Aires, and she has already
agreed to leave with him in secret. As Eveline recalls, Frank’s courtship of her was pleasant
until her father began to voice his disapproval and bicker with Frank. After that, the two
lovers met clandestinely.
As Eveline reviews her decision to embark on a new life, she holds in her lap two letters,
one to her father and one to her brother Harry. She begins to favor the sunnier memories
of her old family life, when her mother was alive and her brother was living at home, and
notes that she did promise her mother to dedicate herself to maintaining the home. She
reasons that her life at home, cleaning and cooking, is hard but perhaps not the worst
option—her father is not always mean, after all. The sound of a street organ then reminds
her of her mother’s death, and her thoughts change course. She remembers her mother’s
uneventful, sad life, and passionately embraces her decision to escape the same fate by
leaving with Frank.
At the docks in Dublin, Eveline waits in a crowd to board the ship with Frank. She appears
detached and worried, overwhelmed by the images around her, and prays to God for
direction. Her previous declaration of intent seems to have never happened. When the
boat whistle blows and Frank pulls on her hand to lead her with him, Eveline resists. She
clutches the barrier as Frank is swept into the throng moving toward the ship. He
continually shouts “Come!” but Eveline remains fixed to the land, motionless and
emotionless.
THEMES:
War→ in particular the process by which the protagonist removes himself from it. The
characters are resentful of the destruction the war causes and doubtful about the glory it
is supposed to bring. Hemingway described the brutality and violence of war. The war is a
senseless waste of lives and the ones who support it are zealots or young naive. The novel
doesn’t condemn war, it presents it as something inevitable in this cruel world.
Love→ thanks to love, the characters find a temporary relief from pain. Love is more
important than honor, in fact the protagonist decides to leave the army to be with
Catherine. The tragedy is that love is surrounded by loss and it is only temporary in this
world, because Catherine will die in childbirth.
Reality/fantasy→ harsh reality corrupts the fantasies that the characters created to make
themselves feel better and to make war easier to deal with. Ideals such as glory and honor
fade quickly in front of the absurdity of the battle.
Religion→ there is no such thing as an atheist during tough times.
Masculinity→ Hemingway celebrates a certain kind of man that is domineering,
competent and virile. The respect with which Hemingway sketches these men, even at
their lowest points, is highlighted by the humor with which he describes their opposites.
The success of each of these men depends, in part, on the failure of another.
SYMBOLISM: the title (farewell to the war and to the arms of the woman he loves); water
in the form of rivers (rebirth) and rain (pain and foreshadowing of tragic events); plains
(disease, death, indignity) and mountains (love, health, happiness); Catherine’s hair
(couple’s isolation from the world).
Araby
This is a story of young love. A boy is remembering the games he played with a
neighborhood boy named Mangan. They ran throughout the abandoned houses
and darted from shadow to shadow trying to avoid being seen by his uncle or
Mangan's sister. But, as time passes the boy tries to catch glimpses of Mangan's
sister instead of avoiding her. When he sees her leaving, he walks behind her,
then passes her. Although the two hardly speak, he is always thinking of her. He
fears that his feelings are so intense, he would never have the courage to speak to
her.

One morning she asks the boy if he is planning to go to the Araby Bazaar. He
would like to go, but is committed to a class outing. As soon as his tongue unties,
he tells her that he is planning to and asks if he can get her a present. Now he has
something to look forward to and can't concentrate on his studies. Finally, on the
morning of the Bazaar, he reminds his uncle to return home in time to give him
money to attend. The boy waits for his uncle anxiously, and when the man does
return it is late. The boy doesn't arrive at the Bazaar until just before ten at night,
as the Bazaar is about to close. He stops at one of the stalls but doesn't buy
anything because he feels unwanted by the proprietress who was busy talking to
two young men. He realizes that the young lady has no interest in selling the boy
anything, so the boy leaves without purchasing anything. This is where he has his
paralysis because he is unable to buy the girl anything. This paralysis also displays
the fact that the boy is paralyzed from loving the girl. Soon the lights began to be
turned off, so he stayed outside feeling anguished and angry.

This is where the boy gets his epiphany. He thought that going to Araby was
going to bring him closer to the girl, but after hearing the young lady flirt with the
young gentlemen, he realizes that the girl doesn't love him. He now knows that
buying her something won't make her love him the way he loves her. The way
that the girl spoke of the bazaar made it sound so enchanted to the boy that he
just had to go there to impress her, but it ended up being an illusion.

This paralysis and epiphany the boy goes through happens in Joyce's "Eveline" as
well. Thinking of her mother's life, Eveline has an epiphany to go away with her
boyfriend Frank in order to escape her father's abusive behavior. However, right
when she is about to board the boat with Frank, she is paralyzed. Eveline is
paralyzed because she realizes that she has to stay home and take care of the
house and her father, even if he is abusive. She made a promise to her mother
that she would maintain their home as long as she could.

Both the boy in "Araby" and Eveline realized that they cannot love who they
thought they were in love with at the time. The boy realizes that the girl he was in
love with didn't love her back. Eveline realizes that even if her father doesn't love
her, she made a promise to her mother that she would take care of him.
The Soldier
Rupert Brooke wrote this poem at the beginning of the war. There are many
references to the countryside. The poet is not afraid of death. His dead body will
enrich the soil with his dust. There is no emphasis on war in this poem. The poet
speaks to English people. He sees England as a beautiful country: the traditional
qualities he stresses are dreams, gentleness, politeness, joyfulness. The tone is
soft, patriotic and idealistic. The themes are the exaltation of England and the
idealization of the mother country and war.
This poem, that is made up of 14 lines, has 2 stanzas and the rhyme scheme is
ABAB CDCD EFG EFG. It is a typical Petrarchan sonnet (an octave and a sestet).
In the first stanza, the poet tells the reader that if one day he should die in a
foreign country, his dead body will make that land a better place because a piece
of England will be buried there. England is personified: she is like a mother to him
who gave him life, education and good values. The poet loves his country for its
beautiful landscape full of flowers, rivers and roads where man can live in close
contact with nature.
In the second stanza, the poet tells us that dying at war will be a way to show
gratitude to his mother country for all the joy and happiness that she gave him.
The poet’s soul will be purified by his death and when he dies his spirit will be
given back to England and will live forever in peaceful hearts.

Analysis
The poet is a soldier speaking to a person from his family, perhaps a woman. The
poem deals with the themes of war and patriotism. The poet will be proud to die
for England, his mother country. Death in battle is not regarded as a tragic
experience but as a noble act. In England he has spent a pure and innocent life,
full of joy. Brooke shows a classic romantic attitude to war: he expresses his
strong enthusiasm, patriotism and idealism because he hasn’t experienced the
cruelty of war. The poem was written at the beginning of the war. Brooke died in
1915 of blood poisoning. He didn’t die at war and didn’t have time to see the
horrors of fighting in the trenches. The use of alliterations and enjambments or
run-on lines makes the rhythm of the poem smooth and flowing. The tone is
patriotic and nostalgic.