"Eveline" by James Joyce is a story about duty and family ties. The author introduces us to a young woman who is conflicted between her desire for freedom and the promise she has made to her dead mother. Throughout the story Eveline is perceived as a helpless animal caged in her own house by a tyrant father. In this story James Joyce focuses mainly on the feelings of the young heroine. He uses setting, symbolism and foreshadowing to reinforce his portray of Eveline as a weak and distressed woman.
             The narrative begins with Eveline gazing out of the window, watching the beginning of the evening. As the story unfolds the young woman takes us on a trip down memories lane where we are introduced to the members of her family. Right away the reader is stroke with the tangled feelings Eveline associates to her past: happiness mixed with fear.
             These feelings are an implication, on the author's part, of the melancholy that consumes Eveline's family. Death seems omnipresent in Eveline's house and is emphasizes on by the somber mood of the story as well as the departure of Eveline's childhood friends. The author accentuates the dark mood of the story by the young woman's memory of her mother's last night of illness:
             "As she mused the pitiful vision of her mother's life laid its spell on the very quick of her being – that life of commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness. She trembled as she heard again her mother's voice saying constantly with foolish insistence:
             "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!" " (p.4)
             Eveline is petrified at the idea of leading a life like her mothers and James Joyce exploits these feelings throughout the rest of his story, leading us to believe that Eveline's real desire is to break away from the ghost life of her mother's.
             Symbolism plays an important part in "Eveline". The author suggests that the objects t...