-
essay of
Eveline
Back to Square one
摘要
乔伊斯的短篇小说《伊芙琳》描
述了女人公伊芙琳沉闷乏味的生活经历以及在出走
的最后一刻却退回原地，
选择放弃的故事，
结尾处的女主人公的决策使得小说晦涩难懂，
本文以此为着眼点，
展示了民众内心瘫痪的主题，
揭
示了女性意识的觉醒，
以及梦想的
幻灭导致的无助的退却。
关键词：
伊芙琳
;
瘫痪；女性意识觉醒；幻灭；退却
Abstract
Eveline
is
a
novel
by
James
Joyce
,
which
describes
the
protagonist’
s
stultifying
life
experiences and her giving up of
leaving at the last minute. At the end of the
story, her final
decision was obscure
and confusing. Thus, I take it as a key
point
to demonstrate the
public
psychic
paralysis
which
is
the
theme
of
this
novel,
then
further
display
the
awakening
of
female consciousness and the helpless
retreat brought about by the disillusion of
dream.
Key Words:
Eveline; paralysis;
awakening of female consciousness;
disillusion
；
shrink back
I. Introduction
For a long
time, James Joyce has always been considered as
one of the most influential
modernist
novelist
of
the
early
20th
century.
He
was
born
in
an
Irish
Catholic
family
in
Dublin.
Though most of his adult life was spent overseas,
Joyce's fictional universe does not
extend
beyond
Dublin
where
seemed
to
be
the
center
of
paralysis
[l]
.
His
masterpiece
Dubliners
is
a
powerful
illustration,
which
was
completed
in
1905,
composed
of
15
short
stories
[2]
.
Eveline
,
as the fourth story
in
this
collection,
reflects
the paralytic life
of the
young in
Dublin in a
most direct and vivid way. The protagonist, a girl
at the age of 19, had suffered an
oppressive life ever since her beloved
people died. She was ordered about at the store,
and
she lived an impoverished life with
an abusive father who refused to let her have a
life of her
own. In order to seek for a
brand new life with her boyfriend Frank, she
decided to run away
to
Buenos
Aires.
Howerver,
just
before
boarding
the
ship,
she
had
a
change
of
mind
and
shrunk back to her
depressing life. Many people hold the view that
this ending simply shows
1
essay of
Eveline
a dilemma
between family and love. Eveline choosed to stay
beacause her sense of obligation
to her
family outweighed her desire for a whole new life.
However, in my opinoin, it is not
totally
so.
Actually,
such
a
process
of
decision
making
happens
to
reveal
the
theme
of
Dubliners
—
the
psychic
paralysis
.
The
paralysis
of
Dublin
life
hinders
the
awakening
of
woman consciousness and causes
the disillusion
of dream.
This
gives me the
aspiration of
writing this
paper.
II.
The paralysis of Dublin life
In this short story, through the
depicting of the depressive surrounding, the
paralysis of
Dublin
life
was
presented
vividly.
At
the
very
beginning
of
this
story,
Eveline
sat
at
the
window,
leaned
against
the
window
curtains,
surging
thoughts
and
emotions
about
stay
or
leave,
and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty
cretonne. Clearly, the word
dusty
symbolized
the dry,
uninteresting life in Dublin. Even Eveline
wondered where on earth all the dust came
from,
though
she
had
been
cleaning
it
out
for
so
many
years[2].
Obviously
the
thick
dust
suggested
the
degree
of
Dublin's
paralysis.
This
foreshadowed
the
destiny
of
women
in
Eveline’s
period.
Some
of
them
are
fully
apathetic;
others
might
have
ever
tried
to
escape
from the dull li
fe only to
find that the “dust” cover on the heart and soul
is too thick.
While reading this story, the unhappy
experiences of Eveline were unfolded little by
little.
Since her mother
died, Eveline
began to
lived in a state of
endless
uncertainty. She
had
to
shoulder the
responsibility of supporting her
family.
She felt no longer
protected because of
the heavy burden
of family and her father’s threatening.
She, in fact, played a double role in
her
family,
a
mother
for
the
young,
a
wife
for
her
father.
Under
the
mounting
stress
from
different aspects, she
tried to fight against this
“paralysis”. She was about to explore
another
life
in
another
world.
However,
before
boarding
the
ship,
she
was
totally
at
a
loss
about
whether to go or not, and at last fail
to go. This reveals
Eveline’s
puzzlement and the
spiritual
dilemma on the one hand; On
the other hand, it shows the lingering repression
and paralysis
of Dublin.
III. the awakening of woman
consciousness
In
such
a
male-dominant
society,
women
had
a
hard
life
even
when
they
were
still
young. Through the
presentation of Eveline’s and her
mother’s life
, it shows that women at
2