Masters of the prose: James Joyce Essay connecting various Joyce works together by different literary techniques and also offers summaries of a few works.

Eveline

James Joyce's Eveline is a story about a young woman, Eveline Hill, who being discontented with her life decides to elope with a man whom she courted with. To develop the plot of the story, Joyce spreads the exposition throughout his piece, showing the depth of Eveline's character and her problems (mainly with her father and all that arose from their relationship) at times that helps you to best understand the reasoning behind her actions. The climax of Eveline only comes only after the long flashbacks into Eveline's life end, where the time finally comes for her to shed her past life behind and join Frank in Buenos Ayres; Eveline is torn between her desire to leave, and the safety and comforts of her life. The conflict between Eveline's decision to leave and her desires to stay never does come to a true resolution, the story only ending in the lines, "She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal.

James Joyce statue next to O'Connell street in Dub...

James Joyce, one of the controversial omissions of...

James Joyce, 1 photographic print, b&w, cartes-de-...

Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition." In leaving the ending of the story as such, Joyce gives the reader two options of what they believe the ending would be - Eveline leaving with Frank, or Eveline staying behind as Frank is forced to leave. With that choice of what the reader wants the ending to become, Joyce ultimately gives the control of the reader's emotions back to them, allowing them to seek whatever sort of responses to the story that they desire and a response that reflects their beliefs in life.

To tell the story of Eveline, Joyce tells the story from a third person perspective. None of the references to Eveline come in any first-person form; all the references that are contained within the story are in...