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Abstract：The subject of this paper is the influence of the author’s life experience on “Eveline”. It analyzes James Joyce’“Eveline”as an example from historical approach. “Eveline”is set in Dubline where James Joyce lived for many years. Even the character he chose and the sculpture of her could reflect his own experience. Eveline's early died mother, poor family, religious belief were all familiar with his early experience. Her struggle of whether to go or not and final decision could show the author's feelings. Eveline was short of courage which was a common characteristic of Dubliners. The whole story would reflect the author's life experience and feelings at that time. So we can see the author's life experience has great influence on his works.
Key words：life experienceinfluenceEveline
I.Introduction
“Eveline”is a chapter of James Joyce's short story collection——Dubliners. Dubliners,Joyce's first major publication in fiction, is a collection of stories which were published in 1914. Dubliners is Joyce's quarrel with his native city, and his homage to it. Written between 1904 and 1907, it is the most accessible of Joyce's works. Eveline described a teenage girl named Eveline. She was born into a poor family. Her mother died several years ago and she lived with her alcoholic father. She took charge of all the boring housework. The bore life made her tired and sad. One day, she met a wonderful sailor named Frank. She decided to elope with him and lead a new life. However, at that very moment, she lose the courage and refused to go with Frank. She returned to her old boring life at last. This thesis intends to analyze “Eveline” by historical approach. It aims to demonstrate the influence of James Joyce's life experience on his works.
II. The Influence of the Author's Life Experience on “Eveline”
James Joyce (1882-1941), Irish novelist, noted for his experimental use of language in such works as Ulysses (1922) and Finneganns Wake (1939). James Joyce was born in Dublin, Ireland, during a time of political upheaval. The country had endured nearly a century of economic depression and terrible famine and continued to suffer under what many Irish regarded as British oppression.Joyce came from a declining middle-class family of more than a dozen children, eventually reduced to poverty by his father's drinking. Nevertheless, Joyce received a fine classical education at Jesuit schools, including University College, Dublin. His strict early education was strongly traditional in its Catholicism, but when he entered University College, he rejected both his religion and his national heritage.From 1920 until shortly before his death in 1941, Joyce settled in Paris, where he enjoyed the stimulation of living amid writers and artists.
We know that a writer's works must have materials. And most materials come from the writer's life experience. The settings, characters he choose, the characteristics of the main characters, and even the developing and the ending of the stories could reflect his life experience and also his feeling, hope .And the feeling and hope are the products of his life experience. So we understand how important the life experience is. Eveline is one excellent work of James Joyce. His life experience had great impact on this short story. The setting is a good example.
Setting is one of the most significant elements in a story. The setting goes far beyond the simple physical attributes and external face value. It seems “Eveline” solely takes place in Dublin in an old room. The setting of the short story “Eveline” by James Joyce goes far beyond the physical characteristics. The setting goes past being located in Dublin, Ireland in an old room. We know that Dublin was the very city where the author was born and lived in for many years. He knew a lot about this city and also the people around him. Therefore, this place had great influence on his works. He wanted to express his own thoughts and feeling about this place, and also himself. He chose this city to be the main setting of his story. It's very natural.
There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. Originally appearing in Dubliners, a compilation of vignettes by James Joyce, his short story Eveline is the tale of such an unfortunate individual. Anxious, timid, scared, perhaps even terrified——all these describe Eveline. She is a frightened, indecisive young woman poised between her past and her future. However, she was a common feature of Dubliners who was short of courage. The author chose her to reflect the average Dubliners. Though the author was very different from Eveline, at that time, he had the same feeling with her .Having experienced a lot in his life and the city he lived, he was hurt in reality. However, he didn't know where to escape. For the strong sense of keeping his family, he couldn't be divided from the familiar objects. Eveline was a character created by his own feeling. We can see the similarities from Eveline's action and emotion. Eveline loves her father but is fearful of him. Eveline wants a new life but is afraid to let go of her past. She wants to keep the deathbed pledge made to her mother but is alarmed at the prospect of sharing her mother's fate. Eveline thinks she loves Frank but is apprehensive about her future with him. The author Joyce once was going to leave his hometown, his hesitation was somewhat very similar to Eveline. From Eveline's thought and mental state, we know the author's mental conflict at that period of time.
This story follows a certain pattern that Joyce uses to express his ideas: “Joyce's focus in Dubliners is almost exclusively on the middle-class Catholics known to himself and his family”. Joyce's early life, family background, and his catholic background appear in the way he writes these stories. “Where Joyce usually relates his stories to events in his life, there are some stories which are actually events that took place in his life”. In the story, Eveline's family is described poor, and they probably don't live a very comfortable life. Another pattern, perhaps the most significant, is his catholic family background. Eveline comes from a strongly catholic family, her mother was catholic while she was alive, and Harry, her brother, is in the church decorating business. Just like Eveline, Joyce has been raised in a catholic family.
Joyce also writes some stories where a child lives through childhood and early adult life with only one parent or even parentless. A very good example is Eveline who has lost her mother and she is stuck with her father whom as earlier mentioned is somewhat cruel: “That was a long time ago; she and her brothers and sisters were all grown up; her mother was dead.” Her mother was alive when she was still a child and she might have died when Eveline was in her early teenage years. Joyce's mother died when he was twenty-one and must have gone through the experience of losing a parent rather early in life,so he is able to create characters with this experience: and her [Joyce's mother] death when James Joyce was only twenty-one.
“Eveline” has a base theme of security and love. Eveline had to pick from two extremes, what she was comfortable and familiar with and something that was a mystery to her.Eveline decided to choose her family over someone she was not sure she loved, Frank. Growing up in Dublin, Joyce had experiences and feelings like Eveline's. Joyce is able to “combine both the dreams and desires of his characters with the aspect of Dublin life that socially limits their choices and options”.
Ⅲ. Conclusion
The author's life experience has great influence on his works. James Joyce's “Eveline” is a good example. He chose a city which was very similar to Dublin as the setting of the story. Everything in that city just tells us that was Dublin. He created a teenage girl named Eveline by his own feeling and experience. They had the similar family and early life,the poor families, the catholic family background, their early died mother. Even the characteristics, in some degree, were alike. For example, their strong sense of duty, and didn't want to be divided from familiar objects. Eveline's conflicts between security and love were also Joyce's. Eveline's remaining at home was the author's choice, too. Therefore, the author's life experience has greatly influenced his works.
References:
[1]Microsoft Bookshelf 1996-1997 Edition. CD-ROM. Microsoft Corporation. 1996.
[2]“James Joyce”From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
[3]Joyce, James. Eveline. Literature and the Writing Process. Eds. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan.X. Day, and Robert Funk. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 1996. 4-6.
[4]“Eveline, Dubliners and James Joyce.”2008,6.
[5]“Character Analysis of Eveline from James Joyce's Dubliners.”2008,6.
Key words：life experienceinfluenceEveline
I.Introduction
“Eveline”is a chapter of James Joyce's short story collection——Dubliners. Dubliners,Joyce's first major publication in fiction, is a collection of stories which were published in 1914. Dubliners is Joyce's quarrel with his native city, and his homage to it. Written between 1904 and 1907, it is the most accessible of Joyce's works. Eveline described a teenage girl named Eveline. She was born into a poor family. Her mother died several years ago and she lived with her alcoholic father. She took charge of all the boring housework. The bore life made her tired and sad. One day, she met a wonderful sailor named Frank. She decided to elope with him and lead a new life. However, at that very moment, she lose the courage and refused to go with Frank. She returned to her old boring life at last. This thesis intends to analyze “Eveline” by historical approach. It aims to demonstrate the influence of James Joyce's life experience on his works.
II. The Influence of the Author's Life Experience on “Eveline”
James Joyce (1882-1941), Irish novelist, noted for his experimental use of language in such works as Ulysses (1922) and Finneganns Wake (1939). James Joyce was born in Dublin, Ireland, during a time of political upheaval. The country had endured nearly a century of economic depression and terrible famine and continued to suffer under what many Irish regarded as British oppression.Joyce came from a declining middle-class family of more than a dozen children, eventually reduced to poverty by his father's drinking. Nevertheless, Joyce received a fine classical education at Jesuit schools, including University College, Dublin. His strict early education was strongly traditional in its Catholicism, but when he entered University College, he rejected both his religion and his national heritage.From 1920 until shortly before his death in 1941, Joyce settled in Paris, where he enjoyed the stimulation of living amid writers and artists.
We know that a writer's works must have materials. And most materials come from the writer's life experience. The settings, characters he choose, the characteristics of the main characters, and even the developing and the ending of the stories could reflect his life experience and also his feeling, hope .And the feeling and hope are the products of his life experience. So we understand how important the life experience is. Eveline is one excellent work of James Joyce. His life experience had great impact on this short story. The setting is a good example.
Setting is one of the most significant elements in a story. The setting goes far beyond the simple physical attributes and external face value. It seems “Eveline” solely takes place in Dublin in an old room. The setting of the short story “Eveline” by James Joyce goes far beyond the physical characteristics. The setting goes past being located in Dublin, Ireland in an old room. We know that Dublin was the very city where the author was born and lived in for many years. He knew a lot about this city and also the people around him. Therefore, this place had great influence on his works. He wanted to express his own thoughts and feeling about this place, and also himself. He chose this city to be the main setting of his story. It's very natural.
There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. Originally appearing in Dubliners, a compilation of vignettes by James Joyce, his short story Eveline is the tale of such an unfortunate individual. Anxious, timid, scared, perhaps even terrified——all these describe Eveline. She is a frightened, indecisive young woman poised between her past and her future. However, she was a common feature of Dubliners who was short of courage. The author chose her to reflect the average Dubliners. Though the author was very different from Eveline, at that time, he had the same feeling with her .Having experienced a lot in his life and the city he lived, he was hurt in reality. However, he didn't know where to escape. For the strong sense of keeping his family, he couldn't be divided from the familiar objects. Eveline was a character created by his own feeling. We can see the similarities from Eveline's action and emotion. Eveline loves her father but is fearful of him. Eveline wants a new life but is afraid to let go of her past. She wants to keep the deathbed pledge made to her mother but is alarmed at the prospect of sharing her mother's fate. Eveline thinks she loves Frank but is apprehensive about her future with him. The author Joyce once was going to leave his hometown, his hesitation was somewhat very similar to Eveline. From Eveline's thought and mental state, we know the author's mental conflict at that period of time.
This story follows a certain pattern that Joyce uses to express his ideas: “Joyce's focus in Dubliners is almost exclusively on the middle-class Catholics known to himself and his family”. Joyce's early life, family background, and his catholic background appear in the way he writes these stories. “Where Joyce usually relates his stories to events in his life, there are some stories which are actually events that took place in his life”. In the story, Eveline's family is described poor, and they probably don't live a very comfortable life. Another pattern, perhaps the most significant, is his catholic family background. Eveline comes from a strongly catholic family, her mother was catholic while she was alive, and Harry, her brother, is in the church decorating business. Just like Eveline, Joyce has been raised in a catholic family.
Joyce also writes some stories where a child lives through childhood and early adult life with only one parent or even parentless. A very good example is Eveline who has lost her mother and she is stuck with her father whom as earlier mentioned is somewhat cruel: “That was a long time ago; she and her brothers and sisters were all grown up; her mother was dead.” Her mother was alive when she was still a child and she might have died when Eveline was in her early teenage years. Joyce's mother died when he was twenty-one and must have gone through the experience of losing a parent rather early in life,so he is able to create characters with this experience: and her [Joyce's mother] death when James Joyce was only twenty-one.
“Eveline” has a base theme of security and love. Eveline had to pick from two extremes, what she was comfortable and familiar with and something that was a mystery to her.Eveline decided to choose her family over someone she was not sure she loved, Frank. Growing up in Dublin, Joyce had experiences and feelings like Eveline's. Joyce is able to “combine both the dreams and desires of his characters with the aspect of Dublin life that socially limits their choices and options”.
Ⅲ. Conclusion
The author's life experience has great influence on his works. James Joyce's “Eveline” is a good example. He chose a city which was very similar to Dublin as the setting of the story. Everything in that city just tells us that was Dublin. He created a teenage girl named Eveline by his own feeling and experience. They had the similar family and early life,the poor families, the catholic family background, their early died mother. Even the characteristics, in some degree, were alike. For example, their strong sense of duty, and didn't want to be divided from familiar objects. Eveline's conflicts between security and love were also Joyce's. Eveline's remaining at home was the author's choice, too. Therefore, the author's life experience has greatly influenced his works.
References:
[1]Microsoft Bookshelf 1996-1997 Edition. CD-ROM. Microsoft Corporation. 1996.
[2]“James Joyce”From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
[3]Joyce, James. Eveline. Literature and the Writing Process. Eds. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan.X. Day, and Robert Funk. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 1996. 4-6.
[4]“Eveline, Dubliners and James Joyce.”2008,6.
[5]“Character Analysis of Eveline from James Joyce's Dubliners.”2008,6.