Language of Eveline

A good writer is the one who can effectively use the language to examine the problems
of his society and James Joyce is the perfect example. Joyce manages to reflect the
lifelessness and the monotony of Dublin through his characters .The Joyce’s use of diction is
a key part of his writing style in “Dubliners”. The careful selection of words affects the
meaning the writer wants to interpret or the themes and images he wants to convey. For
instance in ”Eveline”, the story to be discussed in this essay, Joyce used specific vocabulary
so as to show the passiveness of eveline and to shed light on the paralyzed mindset of the
people of Dublin as well. So, In order to analyze James Joyce’s writing style in” Eveline” , it is
important to concentrate first on analysing the language he used; including the analysis of
choice of words, figurative language, diction, imagery, use of dialects, unfamiliar phrases,
and so on.

Choice of words plays a crucial part in Joyce’s writing style. From the very beginning of
the story, eveline appears as an inactive and dull person. The writer uses the passive voice in
many occasions to reveal her character to the readers. For example, instead of writing “She
leaned her head against the window curtains”, he writes, “Her head was leaned against the
window curtains”. By freezing eveline's actions like that, a passive tone is emphasized. Joyce
also states that eveline” sat at the window watching the evening invades the avenue” to shed
light on the passiveness of this character once more. Actually, he does not use the word
“invades” for a military meaning at all. If eveline can barely hold herself up while it' is getting
dark ”evening invades”, how is she supposed to take care of her life and set her goals?.She
feels like she is out of control of her own life, and that outside forces are taking control and
shaping her future .By using terms like "sat", "invades", ”she was tired” ,to describe her
behavior, Joyce made her look more lifeless just in the first paragraph. In the second
paragraph, the writer mentions eveline’s childhood friends of the avenue “The children of
the avenue used to play together in that field—the Devines, the Waters, the Dunns, little
Keogh the cripple, she and her brothers and sisters”. Here, eveline is stated after the crippled
Keogh which foreshadows that eveline, later in the story, will not only be crippled but totally
paralyzed, both physically and mentally. On the other hand, Frank, eveline’s boyfriend, is
presented as an active person, “he rushed”, “was shouted at”, “called to her”.All the
previously mentioned expressions and terms emphasize one theme, being paralyzed. The
story of Eveline is one in which the protagonist is bound to her home and Dublin traditions
which emphasizes how she is unable to change because she promises her dead mother to
continue to take care of her family. Her frozen appearance in the end of the story is "passive,
like a helpless animal," and “her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition”.
She chooses herself to be as a servant to her abusive father rather than free herself from the
traditional paralyzed Dublin. Moreover, the text contain some unfamiliar phrases that might
difficult to understand for some such as “Derevaun Seraun” which was told by eveline’s
mother when she was about to die. It suggests that at the end of pleasure, there is always
pain but Joyce preferred to leave it unknown.
 Joyce uses a variety of techniques in this short story. First of all, Let us shed the light on
the fact that “eveline” is mostly written as a long interior monologue. One voice is heard and
one point of view is presented. Eveline’s point of view is presented by the third person
limited, using the free indirect speech so as to pave the way for the reader to enter eveline’s
interior monologue .To describe eveline’s emotions and the flow of her thoughts ,Joyce used
a technique that is known as “stream of consciousness». It is a writing technique based on
describing a character’s emotions and thoughts rather than stating a series of events and
actions. He also used this technique to show the readers that eveline experiences a great
dilemma; she was in an inner conflict“Was it wise? She tried to weigh each side of the
question». Another aspect of Joyce’s style is epiphanies. Joyce's method of "epiphanies" in
"Eveline" occurs two times in the story. The first one is when she realized that she must
escape with frank “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». This
epiphany led eveline to question herself whether this decision will bring her happiness in the
end .The other one happens at the end of the story when she refused to escape with frank.
Honestly speaking, this strategy succeeded in portraying Eveline’s inner conflict which led
her to stay in the paralyzed and dull Dublin.

The figures of speech are of a great importance for Joyce’s style such as simile,
personification, onomatopoeia, metaphor, and synecdoche. In the end of the story, eveline
“set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal” is a simile. The metaphor is
present in the eleventh paragraph when Joyce said “her distress awoke a nausea in her body
and she kept moving her lips in silent fervent prayer” and in “a bell clanged upon her heart
and all the seas of the world tumbles about her heart». Also, Joyce used the personification
for two times. The first one was in the first paragraph , sayin that “the evening invades the
avenue” and the second one was “the boat blew a long mournful whistle into the mist”.
Onomatopoeia is another figure that Joyce used to make the reader hear the details of the
story as if he is present with the characters.For example, using terms like “clacking” and
“crunching” to describe the sound of footsteps. He also used the synecdoche in the eleventh
paragraph to show how frank would protect eveline from everything “frank would take her
in his arms, fold her in his arms”.

James joyce is considered as one of the most talented and successful modernists
writers of the 20th century. Joyce is also well known with the” scrupulous meanness” style
which was the style that covered his “Dubliners”. In fact, Joyce used eveline to show readers
how can different factors can affect the biggest decisions in your life. Joyce succeeded in
painting the realistic image of Dublin through the eyes of Eveline. He also succeeded in
using different techniques such as symbolism, epiphanies, figurative language to convey
different themes such as paralysis, woman and society, escapism and how catholisism affects
the mindset of Dublin people. Through the theme of escapism for example, joyce shed light
on an important event that happened in Ireland which is the emigration of Irish people
because of the potato famine. Besides, Violence and Alcoholism were very common at that
time James. Thus, just like eveline many people tried to escape for a better life.