James Joyce’s Eveline

A story that speaks to the human condition

Nigelleaney
5 min readNov 2, 2022
James Joyce

The fourth story, Eveline, in James Joyce’s Dubliners takes a diversion from the previous stories. Not in themes or ideas but in stylistic approach. The protagonist, Eveline, is a young woman and her story is written in the close, or subjective, third person. This means that although we don’t have the unmediated voice of the first person, we are subject to her perspective (point of view) and inner thoughts, and hers alone. In close third person, the narrative may slip into indirect free speech or point of view inflection, which is when it takes on the assumed voice of the character, using their choice of words and rhythm of speech. Typically the narrative will move closer to the character, indirect free speech, and then move out again, back to the voice of the narrator. This is sometimes referred to as changes in psychic distance. For example the sentence,

Then she would be married — she, Eveline.

The dash and the final two words seems to denote a change in voice to that of the main character. The narrative is still using the third person, ‘she,’ but it seems to echo her style and rhythm of voice rather than the narrator’s or author’s.

Eveline is poised to leave her home in Dublin and journey with her fiance, Frank, to Buenos Aires…

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Nigelleaney
Nigelleaney

Written by Nigelleaney

Recently retired and completed MA in creative writing. Trying for the writer’s life with no more excuses about the day job. Named top writer in music.

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