Dubliners

Reading Report 2: Dubliners Analyzing “Eveline” and “Araby”: Paralysis Through Everyday Objects and Liminal Moments 1. Story Selection & Understanding (Rationale) I choose “Eveline” and “Araby” because both stories capture young protagonists trapped between desire and duty. Instead of focusing only on classic “epiphany,” I will examine how Joyce uses ordinary objects (dust, windows, shopping lists) and in-between spaces (doorways, train platforms) to reveal paralysis. This angle is less discussed but very visible in the text. In “Eveline,” a nineteen-year-old girl plans to escape her abusive home by sailing to Buenos Aires with a sailor, Frank. At the last moment, she freezes at the dock and cannot move. In “Araby,” a nameless boy is infatuated with his friend’s sister. He promises to bring her a gift from the Araby bazaar, but when he finally arrives, the bazaar is closing, and he sees his dream as “a vain illusion.” 2. Narrative Technique Analysis Joyce uses free indirect discourse – a third-person voice that slides into the character’s inner thoughts. In “Eveline,” the narrative shifts from “She sat at the window” to “Now she was going to go away like the others.” Without quotation marks, we hear her mind. This technique makes her paralysis feel intimate, not judged. Symbolism of dust and objects: In “Eveline,” dust covers the curtains and the broken harmonium. “Dust” appears four times, symbolizing decay and a life without movement. The window is another symbol – she looks out, but the glass separates her from action. In “Araby,” the boy’s house has a “musty” garden and an abandoned bicycle pump. The bazaar itself becomes an object of failure: he hears “the fall of the coins” and sees “English curtains” – not the exotic romance he imagined. Irony of the mundane: Both protagonists plan grand escapes (Buenos Aires, the bazaar) but are stopped by tiny, ordinary things. Eveline hears a street organ playing “The Lass of Aughrim” – the same sound that reminded her of her mother’s death. That ordinary music paralyzes her. The boy in “Araby” arrives late because his uncle forgets to give him money, and the train is slow. Joyce mocks romantic dreams with cheap stalls and bored shopgirls. Epiphany as anti-climax: Traditional epiphany brings revelation. Here, the revelation is of paralysis. Eveline’s “epiphany” is when she prays to God “to direct her” – then she “set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal.” The boy’s epiphany is seeing himself as “a creature driven and derided by vanity.” These are not liberating moments; they are moments of recognizing entrapment. 3. Thematic Interpretation The central theme is paralysis. Eveline physically cannot board the ship; the boy cannot buy a gift. Joyce links this to Irish cultural context: early 20th-century Dublin was a city of stagnation under British rule and Catholic conservatism. Eveline’s promise to her dead mother (“to keep the home together”) echoes the Church’s pressure on women to sacrifice. The boy’s frustration mirrors Ireland’s failed dreams of independence – the bazaar’s name “Araby” suggests Eastern exoticism, but it ends in empty English commercialism. Alienation and entrapment appear through domestic spaces. Eveline is trapped in a house where her father is violent, yet she cannot leave. The boy is trapped in a dark, quiet street. Joyce shows that prison is not only physical – it is psychological, made of guilt (“I had never spoken to her”) and false hopes. A new angle: Joyce uses thresholds to dramatize paralysis. Eveline stands at the railing of the ship – one foot could move, but she cannot cross. The boy stands in the darkened hall of the bazaar. These liminal spaces (between home and away, childhood and adulthood) become the exact place where freedom dies. No villain locks them; they lock themselves through memory and fear. Critical thinking: Unlike romantic heroes who leap into the unknown, Joyce’s Dubliners cannot leap because their everyday objects – dust, a broken pump, a street song – hold more power than their dreams. Paralysis is not dramatic; it is quiet, dusty, and ordinary.