The Lost Rooms of an Endless Conscience: "Eveline! Evvy!"

When we read “Eveline”, we read the first appearance of a woman as the main character in the book Dubliners, written by James Joyce. This short story is about a 19-year-old woman who gives the title of the chapter. She wants to leave Ireland and get to Buenos Aires, Argentina with an Irish sailor. Eveline is trying to escape her reality; a dead mother and brother, an aggressive father, her work, and her duties as housekeeper.

Death is present throughout all the beautifully written passages of Dubliners. This presence is what we would call a gnomon. According to Oxford Dictionary, a gnomon is the projecting piece on

a sundial that shows the time by the position of its shadow. However, as we discussed in class we can use this word to understand, on a deeper level, the enduring longing for those who died.

Eveline, who was ready to leave, started recalling family memories. She was responsible for keeping the family together, since her mother asked her before passing away. But her father’s drunken barbarity will push her to make the decision of leaving Ireland for good. Yet, her thoughts kept taking her to those satisfactory days when they were all alive and joyful.

The day finally came, they would leave Ireland behind, but Eveline wasn’t prepared. And here is an excerpt, which is my favorite of the whole story:

“All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing.”

To me, this quote is powerful because Eveline sees herself reflected in her lover’s eyes. She felt that he already had planned everything for her, and even when she felt abandoned in her home town, she preferred what she was acquainted with; routine. I can relate it to what we may live time to time, we prefer to stay in a comfortable place, or maybe not so comfortable but a known place. But that makes ask myself, am I living? Are we living or just surviving? If we don’t make decisions, our lives will stay the same.

It’s clear that Eveline didn’t want to be defined by Frank, but did she stay there to face her reality or to keep living as she was living before? Perhaps… We won’t know. Still, I believe that sometimes is better to discover who you are by doing different activities, such as travelling, finding beauty in daily situations, enjoy yourself, and do what you really love.

I’d relate this song to Eveline’s if she wasn’t just a character of a story. Just click the link and reflect about it:

Dido - Life for Rent