James Joyce utilizes free indirect discourse throughout Dubliners. That is when he writes the characters and their attitudes and emotions influence the way the story is narrated. This adds a layer of complexity to the writing in which the reader better to fully understand the character and the changes taking place within them through a close following of the word choice and tone in the story. “Eveline” details an adolescent girl who must choose between staying home and going away with her lover, and in the end many would argue that Eveline makes the choice to stay based on the passage,”.She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition” (Joyce). While it may seem that
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“ Of course, her father had found out the affair and had forbidden her to have anything to say to him. "I know these sailor chaps," he said. One day he had quarrelled with Frank and after that she had to meet her lover secretly”(Joyce). Joyce utilizes Frank as a personification for escape. Thus the reason that her father is so troubled about her relationship is that it is a means of escape for her. He has control over her life and wants to keep it that way. He wants to keep her the passive, helpless animal that he can control and have power over. She asserts herself by choosing to keep dating Frank and going so far as to assert that she must leave with him and going to the dock with him. Once she gets there she loses her confidence and assertion. She doesn’t feel as if she has anything she can do except for stay, thus the word helpless is used to demonstrate how she feels. Illustrating that rather than her choosing to stay or go, she is simply paralyzed in a state of fear and ultimately gives up her will to fight back.She is unable to do anything or think anything.In the end, she felt she had no power or opportunity to make a decision. Joyce ‘s use of free indirect discourse causes the tone to shift as the character shifts emotions. There is a dramatic shift in emotions throughout Eveline that Joyce employs to illustrate that Eveline staying in Ireland was not …show more content…
Without use of this writing style we would have seen Eveline’s choice as whether to stay or go, and concluded that she stayed. Through Joyce’s use of free indirect discourse we are introduced to Eveline’s thoughts and actions and see that in the end she felt as if there was no choice. She simply believed she could not fight for herself any longer, and forfeited her will and ability to fight back. A choice is about having the power of decision as opposed to submission which is about the forfeiting of power. Thus through the word choices of helpless and passive combined with hauntingly empty tone of the last few sentences that Eveline lacked power and sense of self in the final moments of the story making her fate a submission rather than a
“ Of course, her father had found out the affair and had forbidden her to have anything to say to him. "I know these sailor chaps," he said. One day he had quarrelled with Frank and after that she had to meet her lover secretly”(Joyce). Joyce utilizes Frank as a personification for escape. Thus the reason that her father is so troubled about her relationship is that it is a means of escape for her. He has control over her life and wants to keep it that way. He wants to keep her the passive, helpless animal that he can control and have power over. She asserts herself by choosing to keep dating Frank and going so far as to assert that she must leave with him and going to the dock with him. Once she gets there she loses her confidence and assertion. She doesn’t feel as if she has anything she can do except for stay, thus the word helpless is used to demonstrate how she feels. Illustrating that rather than her choosing to stay or go, she is simply paralyzed in a state of fear and ultimately gives up her will to fight back.She is unable to do anything or think anything.In the end, she felt she had no power or opportunity to make a decision. Joyce ‘s use of free indirect discourse causes the tone to shift as the character shifts emotions. There is a dramatic shift in emotions throughout Eveline that Joyce employs to illustrate that Eveline staying in Ireland was not …show more content…
Without use of this writing style we would have seen Eveline’s choice as whether to stay or go, and concluded that she stayed. Through Joyce’s use of free indirect discourse we are introduced to Eveline’s thoughts and actions and see that in the end she felt as if there was no choice. She simply believed she could not fight for herself any longer, and forfeited her will and ability to fight back. A choice is about having the power of decision as opposed to submission which is about the forfeiting of power. Thus through the word choices of helpless and passive combined with hauntingly empty tone of the last few sentences that Eveline lacked power and sense of self in the final moments of the story making her fate a submission rather than a