The Never Ending Battle

The Never Ending Battle

James Joyce utilizes tone  in his short story, “Eveline” to highlight the nature of Eveline’s thoughts and how those thoughts come to be. He does this by using his matter-of-fact tone to depict her life previous to what is happening in the story to show why Eveline never knows what to do with her decisions. His tone evolves as the story progresses to coincide with Eveline’s internal struggle with keeping the life she has or starting anew with her boyfriend. The author ultimately uses his different tones in the work to make an example of Eveline’s life. By doing this  he makes obvious his use of Eveline as a metaphor for everyone’s battle for happiness and how we should obtain it.

James Joyce uses a passive tone in the beginning of the text in order to make obvious the everyday struggle that is Eveline’s life during and before the story takes place. Joyce uses this to paint the picture of her conflict with happiness and all the obstacles in her way, specifically her father. This in turn makes the reader feel bad for Eveline and it shows the reader how Eveline may react to certain situations. For example when Joyce writes, “Still they seemed to be rather happy then. Her father was not so bad then; and besides, her mother was still alive. That was a long time ago; she and her brothers and sisters were all grown up; her mother was dead. Tizzie Dunn was dead, too, and the Walters had gone back to England.”  (Joyce 20) The passage is narrated passively, showing that she, in turn, is a passive person. The narrator goes on to talk about how Eveline has one of her friends be lookout for when her father would “often come to hunt them in out of the field with his blackthorn stick” (Joyce 20) which further proves that she is a passive person, even as a child, because she lets someone else guard her fate; rather than looking for her father herself, she had her friend stand watch, thus letting herself not take action until it was necessary, in that case, running from her father when her friend called out. Had she taken action and not been passive, her battle for happiness could have been made easier.

             As Eveline’s life takes a major turn, breaking her routinely boring day with a boyfriend, Joyce’s tone also takes a turn, becoming a little more cheerful in order to illustrate Eveline’s feelings, or what she thinks her feelings are, and later becomes frantic as the story comes to a close. Joyce lightens the mood as he describes Eveline and her boyfriend, reflecting her happiness and sense of fun about the relationship. Joyce wrote, “People knew that they were courting and, when he sang about a lass who loves a sailor, she always felt pleasantly confused. He used to call her Poppens out of fun. First of all it had been an excitement for her to have a fellow, then she had begun to like him. He had tales of distant countries.” (Joyce 22) The author uses this light and cheerful tone to describe Eveline’s mood and to bring forth her struggle for happiness once again. When the narrator says that she is pleasantly confused, it hints that Eveline is not sure of her feelings To the reader, it is evident that they are not true because she is confused about the song, and the fact that she is literally a lass who loves (or may not love) a sailor goes to show something about where that relationship stands.

This quote, as happy as it may be, foreshadows what comes later in the story, which is what I will call, the final battle for Eveline’s happiness. She is torn on whether or not she should go with her boyfriend and start a new life or stay with her father and keep the life she has. Joyce says, “All of the seas tumbled in her heart. He was drawing her into them; he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing… No! No! No! It was impossible. Her hands clutched the iron in frenzy. Amid the seas she sent a cry of anguish!” (Joyce 23)The author’s tone goes from cheerful to panicked in a matter of a page. However, this isn’t relevant, because it corresponds to Eveline’s emotions, which at this point in the story are frantic, because she is for once, forced to take action with her life. This example shows the correspondence with Eveline’s mood and the author’s tone again.

Throughout the entire work, the author uses matter-of-fact, cheerful, and panicked tones to highlight Eveline’s thoughts and feelings and to make an example of Eveline. He wants to make clear his use of Eveline as a metaphor for everyone’s battle for happiness and how we should obtain it. He does this through his tones in very specific ways, reacting to moments in the story as Eveline would, and did react. As a result of this, he gives the reader insight on how he think people should pursue happiness, using Eveline as an example of what not to do. In short, he is sending the message to seize the day, and act on what you feel is right.