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James JoyceA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
James Joyce wrote Dubliners as a meditation on Dublin, which he described as “the centre of paralysis” (Walzl, Florence L. “Pattern of Paralysis in Joyce's Dubliners: A Study of the Original Framework.” College English, 1961). On the first page of the collection’s opening story subtly introduces this theme to the reader: “Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis” (7). Each character throughout the 15 stories feels emotionally paralyzed in some way. Many wish to leave Dublin but are ultimately unable to (such as Eveline standing at the docks watching her new life disappear), or simply want to break free from their static state, such as the various working class characters who aspire to a greatness they’re never able to achieve.
“Eveline” reveals a deep thematic interest in the moment when a character finds themself at a crossroads—an opportunity to escape from the inertia and paralysis of their life and pursue a new, propulsive future—but remains unable to break free. In “Eveline,” Joyce presents a girl from difficult, underprivileged circumstances who is offered a clear way out: a paid voyage to a distant land with her new boyfriend, Frank.
By James Joyce
An Encounter
An Encounter
James Joyce
A Painful Case
A Painful Case
James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce
Araby
Araby
James Joyce
Clay
Clay
James Joyce
Counterparts
Counterparts
James Joyce
Eveline
Eveline
James Joyce
Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake
James Joyce
Ivy Day in the Committee Room
Ivy Day in the Committee Room
James Joyce
The Boarding House
The Boarding House
James Joyce
The Dead
The Dead
James Joyce
The Sisters
The Sisters
James Joyce
Two Gallants
Two Gallants
James Joyce
Ulysses
Ulysses
James Joyce
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