Empty Spaces in James Joyces Eveline from Dubliners Essay

Evelines Empty Spaces It seems highly appropriate that James Joyce lived in Europe during the time of Cà ©zanne, Seurat, Gauguin, and Matisse; throughout his book Dubliners he sketches his characters in a style that could be characterized as post- impressionist. Rather than smoothly, cleanly outlining and clearly delineating his characters every feature, Joyce concentrates on hinting at the emotional meanings of his depictions with a rich thick dab of paint here and there. Although Joyce flexes his descriptive muscles in the Dubliners short story Eveline (1914,) he leaves much to the imagination of the reader through calculated omissions and suggestive phrases. Such omissions begin at the opening of the story; She†¦show more content†¦Joyce here refers to something obscure, an old kind of keyboard instrument which was worked by a series of bellows. What is most notable in this case however, is placement; broken harmonium evokes a sense of the discord present in the home that Eveline briefly touched on at the beginning (Her father was not so bad then; and besides her mother was alive. That was a long time ago [...])(37). The reference to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque may be even more obscure, but upon learning of its background one finds that it is indeed apt; St. Margaret Alacoque was an orphan who became a nun to escape the bad treatment she received from relatives, only to find the convent no more welcoming a home. She has a vision of Christ in which she places her hand in his heart. Eveline can be compared to St. Alacoque in that they both experience poor treatment at the hands of family, and one could draw parallels between the later description of the character Frank being open-hearted, and the seemingly senseless mention of how her fathers violence [...] had given her the palpitations (38, 39). Joyce uses more that just the readers own imagination and discreet references to generate motion towards the climax of the story. The readers ideas about morality and who and what are right and wrong play a key part in the sensations that are elicited by Joyces suggestive style. Defiance of her father brings Eveline closer to the reader; merely going