摘 要

《都柏林人》是爱尔兰作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯的代表作之一，它是由十五个短篇故事构成。伊芙琳是其中令人印象深刻的一篇故事。本文旨在分析主人公—伊芙琳逃离的原因、其心理变化以及由于软弱的性格最终无奈地向社会妥协的心路历程。

关键词：伊芙琳；逃离；心理变化；妥协

Contents

1. Introduction----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1
2. Demonstration-------------------------------------------------------------------------------2

2.1 Factors causing idea of escape-------------------------------------------------------------2

2.1.1 Social environment-----------------------------------------------------------------2

2.1.2 Family background-------------------------------------------------------------------3

2.1.3 Call from Eveline’s lover—Frank-------------------------------------------------------4

2.2 Eveline’s psychological changes----------------------------------------------------------4

2.2.1 Eveline’s hesitation------------------------------------------------------------------------4

2.2.2 Decision to stay----------------------------------------------------------------------------5

2.3 Eveline’s compromise----------------------------------------------------------------------5

2.3.1 Compromise with the character---------------------------------------------------------6

2.3.2 Compromise with the society------------------------------------------------------------7

3 Conclusion--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8

Works Cited-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9

Bibliography-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10

A Study of Eveline’s Psychological Journey in Eveline

1. Introduction

James Joyce is one of the greatest novelists and poets of the early 20^th century in Ireland. He was born in Dublin in 1882. His father had a firm faith in nationalism and his mother was a devout christian. When he was born, Ireland was fully under the control of England and many Irish died in the wars between the two countries. In 1893, the rise of Renaissance in Ireland took a great effect on him and he was also affected by the national independence movement. Joyce began his education at Clongowes Wood College, a Jesuit boarding school near Clane, County Kildare, in 1888. But he had to leave in 1892 when his father could no longer pay the fees. Joyce then studied at home and briefly at the Christian Brothers O'connell School on North Richmond Street, Dublin, before he was offered a place in the Jesuits Dublin school, Belvedere College, in 1893. The publication of his first short-story collection—Dubliners in 1914 made him known by lots of people. He is best known for the stream of consciousness in his works, like Ulysses (1922), which was a landmark novel which perfecting his stream of consciousness technique. His other major works are the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man(1916), Finnegans Wake(1939) and so on.

Eveline is one of the short stories in Dubliners. The story was set in the 1910s. A 19-year-old girl called Eveline was tired of her poor and pathetic life in Dublin. Her mother passed away and left her with her father and two younger brothers. Her father was a cruel man and beat her many times. They often quarreled for money. So she decided to escape and explore a new life with her lover—Frank. However, before she boarded the ship, she hesitated and gave up in the end. The whole story is almost the internal monologue of the heroine, which clearly reflects her mental experience from helplessness, to hope, and finally to the abyss of despair.

This thesis will study Eveline’s psychological journey through the factors causing her idea of escaping the present life, her hesitation, her final choice and her compromise in the story.

2. Demonstration

2.1 Factors causing Eveline’s idea of escape

Eveline was the protagonist of the story. Being the only girl in her family, she had to support the whole family after her mother passed away. However, the oppression from the social environment and family background was too much for her, thus she made a decision to escape. And her lover—Frank gave her another big hope to leave.

2.1.1 Social environment

Dubliners was published in 1914. At that time, most Irish people were stuck in impoverished life and political and cultural oprression from England. England started to invade Ireland in the 17^th century and set up Ireland slave world trade market. It was the darkest time in the history of Ireland. On the one hand, the English colonial rulers not only invaded Ireland, but also killed the Irish cruely. They destroyed the historic buildings and local culture in Ireland. Their violent behaviours brought the Irish huge disasters. On the other hand, they carried out catholicism brutally and damaged the Irish people’s freedom of worship. They intended to push enslaving education, deprive the Irish of proper political rights, crush their ideas of peace. These actions aroused strong resistance of the Irish people. From 1558 to 1603, four large-scale uprisings broke out in Ireland. In 1641, the crowd riot broke out. However, they all suffered from brutal crackdown from English rulers. On condition of that, the Irish wanted to fight for national independence in various. Until the end of the 19^th century, their national liberation movement began to take effect. Dublin was glutted with pessimism and decadence.

What’s worse, Irish people, especially women, suffered a lot of violence and maltreatment from their husbands or fathers. The torture to their bodies from men made their spiritual worlds paralyzed. As the Irish people at that time were fully ruled by Catholicism, they did not have their spiritual lives. Then, more and more paralysation in religion, politics, emotion and psychology made Dubliners, including women, live lonely. Trapped into outer environment and submissive to inner weakness, they were eager to escape but have no courage. At last, they had no choice but to live numbly, and die in numbness. Eveline was one of those poor women. And the oppression of partriarchy and hard life has benumbed her heart and mind. She decided to escape just like other women and finally failed unsurprisingly.