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"Eveline"
Author	James Joyce
Country	Ireland
Language	English
Genre(s)	short story
Published in	Dubliners
Publication type	Collection
Media type	Print
Publication date	1914
Preceded by	""Araby""
Followed by	""After the Race""

Eveline is a story from Dubliners by James Joyce.

The story

A young woman of about nineteen years of age sits by her window, waiting to leave home. She muses on the aspects of her life that are driving her away, while "in her nostrils was the smell of dusty cretonne". Her mother has died as has her older brother Ernest. Her remaining brother, Harry is on the road "in the church decorating business". She fears that her father will beat her as he used to beat her brothers, and she has little loyalty for her sales job. She has fallen for a sailor named Frank who promises to take her with him to Buenos Aires (spelt Buenos Ayres). Before leaving to meet Frank, she hears an organ grinder outside, which reminds her of a melody that played on an organ on the day her mother died and the promise she made to her mother to look after the home. At the dock where she and Frank are ready to embark on a ship together, Eveline is deeply conflicted and makes the painful decision not to leave with him. Nonetheless, her face registers no emotion at all.

Like other tales in Dubliners, such as "Araby", "Eveline" features a circular journey, where a character decides to go back to where their journey began, and where the result of their journey is disappointment and reluctance to travel.

Cultural impact

"Eveline" inspired a song by the same name by the band Nickel Creek.^{[citation needed]}

"Eveline" is the name of, and inspiration for, a song by Armenian rock band The Bambir.

"Eveline" was heavily drawn upon by horror writer Clive Barker^{[citation needed]} for a portion of his collaboration with EA Games, on the critically acclaimed 2001 video game "Clive Barker's Undying", a Lovecraftian horror-adventure set in 1923 Ireland. The character of Lizbeth Covenant is largely shaped by Joyce's story. The parallels are many; Lizbeth's mother was named Eveline, who died when Lizbeth was young. Joyce's Eveline lost her brother Ernest, and Lizbeth's siblings Jeremiah, Ambrose, Bethany and Aaron are all deceased. There is much domestic violence in Eveline's and Lizbeth's families. Also, both characters spend a large amount of time looking out their bedroom windows.

External links

• Full text
• Eveline by JC Harris from the album Compartments