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It’s all too easy for violence to become normalized.
Eveline Hill lives in an abusive household. Joyce conveys this to the reader through Eveline’s memories. For instance, when reflecting on her childhood, Eveline describes how her father used to hit her brothers and her mother and how the neighborhood kids used to have to keep watch when they all played in the field because Eveline’s father used to come hunt his children out of the grass with a blackthorn stick. Towards the end of the short story, Eveline also states that her father has been threatening violence against her recently even though he never used to hit her in the past.
Despite these traumatizing memories, Eveline is notably detached when she discusses the violence that fills her home. She recalls how her father used to physically abuse members of her family but swiftly pivots to happier memories from her youth and claims that her family “seemed to have been rather happy then.” She remembers that her father has threatened violence against her recently, but she still decides to go back to him in the end instead of escaping with Frank to Buenos Aires. In each instance, Eveline moves swiftly past all mentions of violence to discuss other, more palatable topics. Joyce structures Eveline’s inner monologue in such a way to show that, tragically, Eveline is so enmeshed in the routine of violence that it has become normalized to her.
Doubt is paralyzing.
In most of the stories in Dubliners, a character has a desire, faces obstacles to it, then ultimately relents and suddenly stops all action. These moments of paralysis show the characters’ inability to change their lives and reverse the routines that hamper their wishes. Such immobility fixes the Dubliners in cycles of experience. These moments evoke the theme of death in life as they show characters in a state of inaction and numbness. Throughout the collection of short stories, this stifling state appears as part of daily life in Dublin, which all Dubliners ultimately acknowledge and accept.
Eveline is one of these characters. Eveline spends the entire story agonizing over whether or not she should leave Dublin and pursue a better life in Buenos Aires with her lover Frank. Her indecision gets the best of her by the end of the text. Eveline makes it all the way to the docks before she realizes that she cannot go with Frank. Poised on the threshold of a new beginning, Eveline’s final surge of doubt kicks in and she is unable to move or speak. Eveline’s literal and mental paralysis leaves her a “helpless animal,” stripped of human will and emotion. The story does not suggest that Eveline placidly returns home and continues her life, but shows her transformation into an automaton that lacks expression. Eveline, the story suggests, will hover in mindless repetition, on her own, in Dublin. On the docks with Frank, the possibility of living a fully realized life left her.
The dead can still haunt the living.
Eveline’s mother has died before the events of the story take place. That being said, her presence is felt throughout “Eveline” to such a degree that she is one of the text’s key players despite only existing as an echo of a memory. Eveline consistently finds herself thinking of her mother while she tries to decide if she should leave her family or not. However, as the story proceeds, readers can determine that Eveline is not simply thinking about her mother, she is haunted by her. For instance, Eveline is wracked with guilt as remembers how her mother made her promise that she would take care of their family after her mother died. The memory of her mother’s final wish is clearly one of the main reasons why she is hesitant to leave with Frank. That being said, Eveline is, at the same time, drawn to a life with Frank because she feels that she will “not be treated as her mother had been” if she goes with him to Buenos Aires. Eveline also feels that her mother’s miserable life casts a “spell” over her and pushes her towards Frank and the new life that he offers. These contradictory moments reveal that Eveline will be haunted by her mother’s presence no matter what she decides.
