EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH
Vol. II, Issue 5/ August 2014
Impact Factor: 3.1 (UIF)
ISSN 2286-4822 DRJI Value: 5.9 (B+)
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The Rebirth of Eveline in Her Motherland
HAZAL BURCU KISLAK
English Studies
Free University of Berlin
Germany
The omnipresence of paralysis throughout James Joyce’s
short story collection, Dubliners, is not only reflected in his
portrayal of Dublin as a city of decay, and the Dubliners as
suffering from psychological hemiplegia, but also manifested in
Joyce’s statements about his short story collection (Walzl 221):
“My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my
country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city
seemed to me the centre of paralysis” (Friedrich 421); “...I call
the series Dubliners to betray the soul of that hemiplegia or
paralysis, which may consider a city” (Walzl 221). My
interpretation of this paralysis that entirely suffuses Dubliners
will focus on the story of “Eveline”, a psychologically paralysed
young Irish woman, torn between her two choices, whether to
stay in Dublin forever or leave it for good (Walzl 224-225;
Werner 35-36). My approach will be based on the analysis of the
pervasive signs of paralysis through a Freudian psychoanalytic
perspective, in particular, the Freudian concept of “das
ozeanische Gefühl” (the oceanic feeling), which is a strong,
unbounded urge to reunite with a maternal womb-like security
(Freud 72). As Freud points out in his book Das Unbehagen in
der Kultur (Civilisation and Its Discontents), the oceanic feeling
is “a sensation of eternity, a feeling as of something limitless,
unbounded-as it were, ‘oceanic” (64) , and it “exists in many
people, and we are inclined to trace it back to an early phase of
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ego-feeling”(72). Considering Freud’s emphasis on the oceanic
feeling as “another way of disclaiming the danger, which the
ego recognizes as threatening it from the external world” (72), it
can be stated that having encountered the paralysing forces of
Dublin, Eveline, in an attempt to “disclaim the danger”,
retreats into the oceanic feeling, which is nothing more than, as
the critic Henke emphasized, “an infantile fantasy of pre-
Oedipal bliss” (63). In this sense, through the Freudian concept
of the oceanic feeling, as well as on the basis of Henke’s study of
“Through a Cracked Looking-Glass: Desire and Frustration in
Dubliners”, I will examine Eveline’s oceanic feeling, which
stems from her psychological hemiplegia, and connect it to a
self-created world of fantasy.
Ultimately, given the open-ended conclusion of
“Eveline”, I will examine the probable consequences of Eveline’s
experience of the oceanic feeling, which, in the end, make her
remain in the Motherland, Ireland, where she, as an Irish fetus,
has the possibility of a metaphorical rebirth as an alternative to
a metaphorical death. Indeed, I will, ultimately, go beyond
Henke’s emphasis on Eveline’s final metaphorical death by
losing herself in her oceanic feeling, and her passive childish
desire to retreat into a world of fantasy, thus becoming a victim
of the patriarchy by repeating her mother’s unpleasant fate (62-
64), and instead claim that Eveline has the possibility for
rebirth through breaking free from her infantile oceanic
fantasy, and realizing her potential to set free from the
nightmare of repeating her mother’s past life of servitude. In
this sense, this study provides a new psychoanalytical reading
of a canonical, much analysed literary work, “Eveline”, through
offering an exploration of Eveline’s future capability for
personal development.
The Dubliners is based on Joyce’s consideration of
Ireland, especially its capital city Dublin, as the centre of
corruption, paralysis and demoralisation, which suffuses the
story of “Eveline” (Walzl 221), just as “the odour of dusty
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cretonne” spreads throughout Eveline’s room (Joyce 37).
Indeed, Dublin’s paralysis is mainly caused by the patriarchal
discourse of Dublin, which, as we shall see, is also connected to
Eveline’s mental deterioration, her experience of the oceanic
feeling, along with its related consequences. The patriarchal
discourse in Dublin is apparent, firstly through the authority of
the patriarchal father figure (Henke 63), Eveline’s tyrannical
drunk father, who had reduced the life of Eveline’s deceased
mother to one of lifelong servitude (Gibbons 207-208). Her
mother’s fate foreshadows Eveline’s subconscious inclination to
be confined to the domestic sphere, a life of slavery as well
(Henke 62). Secondly, the patriarchal discourse is also implied
through the dogma of religion, the unquestionable power of the
Catholic Church, which is manifested through the authority of
the absent aged priest, “a fetishistic reminder of ecclesiastical
power” (Henke 63-64), and Eveline’s blind obedience to the
authority of religion, her inability to break the vow that she
made to God and her dying and irrational mother (Werner 37)
“to keep the home together as long as she could” (Joyce 41).
Thirdly, Dublin’s paralysis is also connected to the era of
modernisation and industrialisation in early twentieth century
Ireland (Peel 123-125), hinted in the depiction of the
construction of the “bright brick houses with shining roofs” on a
field (Joyce 37), where children used to play, revealing the
destructive nature of the urbanisation process on Dublin and
the Dubliners. Indeed, this modernisation process causes the
Dubliners to become dysfunctional, impersonal, materialistic
and self-centred (Peel 123-125), which is manifested not only in
the depiction of the materialistic thirst of Eveline’s father, and
his demands for her salary, but also in the emphasis that
Eveline is considered as nothing more than a commodity in her
work, and “her place could be filled up by advertisement”
instead (Joyce 38).Lastly, the paralysing nature of Dublin life is
interwoven with the identity of the city itself, which is hinted at
the motif of the ‘window’ in “Eveline”, which entraps and
confines Dubliners, reducing them to a life of passively
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observing the world outside without actively taking part in it
(Ruthmann 4-10). In a nutshell, Dublin, in the era of
modernisation, is dominated by patriarchal discourse, leading
to the corruption of the city itself, along with the
dehumanization of its society.
These paralysing forces and the dehumanization of
Dublin society are manifested in Eveline’s descent into a state
of psychological hemiplegia. Haunted by the memory of her
deceased mother’s life of misery, Eveline, a nineteen-year old
girl, longs to run away from the domestic violence of her
alcoholic father: “...she sometimes felt herself in danger of her
father’s violence. She knew it was that that had given her the
palpitations.” (Joyce 38-39). Eveline also wants to escape from
the weary monotony of her daily life (Gibbons 207-209):
“Home! She looked around the room, reviewing all its
familiar objects which she had dusted once a week for so many
years, wondering where on earth all the dust came from”
(Joyce, 37-38). She wants to sow the seeds of a new life by
leaving her home behind: “Now she was going to go away like
the others, to leave her home” (Joyce 37) with her gentle lover
Frank, who, she believes, could provide her with a life of
happiness that she has been longing for, in far-off Buenos Aires.
However, it is not an easy decision for her to make (French
451): “Was that wise? She tried to weigh each side of the
question.” (Joyce 38). Her hesitation causes her to become
psychologically torn between her choices of “a childhood pledge
of filial duty” at home and “an exotic fantasy of personal
happiness” in a far-off country (Henke 62). An experience of
epiphany, the fear of replicating her mother’s past “that life of
commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness” alerts her:
“Escape! She must escape! Frank would save her.” (Joyce 41),
but this experience remains short-lived (Walzl 446a). Indeed,
she is still under the strong impact of her domestic and moral
responsibilities, as well as haunted by her promise to her
mother to “keep the home together as long as she could” (Joyce
41), all of which prevent her from her desire to embark on a
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new phase in her life. Eveline’s past clings to her, just as she
clings to her letters she has written to her father and brother
(Joyce 40-41). She also becomes nostalgic about her past
memories, which begin to seem to her pleasant instead of
dreadful: “Her father was becoming old lately, she noticed; he
would miss her.
Sometimes he could be very nice.” (Joyce 41), “It was
hard work—a hard life—but now that she was about to leave it
she did not find it a wholly undesirable life” (Joyce 39).
Eveline’s mental state is clearly negatively affected by the
paralysing identity of Dublin, and she is torn between staying
in Dublin, and struggling with the merciless reality of life or
running away from Dublin, and, as we shall see, descending
into an oceanic feeling of a world of fantasy.
In order to examine Eveline’s unstable mental state
from a Freudian psychoanalytic perspective, the perspectives of
Freud, as one of the most significant psychoanalysts, on the
psychoanalytic theory should be accentuated: Freud claims that
the individuals’ behaviours are mostly shaped by their
subconscious motives. Thus he places the subconscious mind at
the centre of the psychoanalytic theory. Through his
“topographical division of the psyche”, he claims that the
subconscious mind belongs to one of the three mental stages
(“the conscious”, “the pre-conscious” and “the unconscious”).
Each stage being based on “different levels of awareness”. The
subconscious mind is “a repository for traumatic repressed
memories”, and “the source of anxiety-provoking drives, which
are socially or culturally unacceptable to the individual”. It can
also be in charge of most human behaviour. He connects this
“topographical division of the psyche” to “the structural theory
of the mind”; “the id”, “the ego”, and “the superego”, all of which
operate “in different levels of consciousness”. The id, based on
“the pleasure principle”, is “the unconscious reservoir of drives”,
hence it requires “immediate satisfaction of its urges,
regardless of undesirable effects”. The ego, based on “the reality
principle”, is the realist part and mostly active in both
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“conscious and preconscious levels”. It is also the mediator
between the id and superego. The superego is based on “the
individual’s ideals derived from the values of his family and
society, being the source of guilty feelings and fear of
punishment” (Rowell). Moreover, in his book Das Unbehagen in
der Kultur (Civilisation and Its Discontents), Freud accentuates
that “the pleasure principle” of the id is mostly dominant in the
early course of the infantile development. The relationship of
the fetus with its mother is mostly characterised by a feeling of
deep connection and bliss, as well as by the satisfaction of the
needs of the id. After the birth of the infant, the pleasure
principle of the id still dominates, and the infant feels
instinctually united with his mother, seeing her as an indistinct
identity (Lear 174-176; Freud 66-67). Indeed, this situation
continues until the mother ceases breastfeeding. The ego, on
the contrary, comes into existence when the breast is taken
away, and the infant develops a sense of self-consciousness
through the realisation that his mother is detached from him,
and there is an existence of the external world, which, unlike
his mother’s womb, is full of obstacles and dangers (Freud 66-
68). The superego is formed during the infant’s upbringing, and
shaped by cultural constraints (Freud 123-26). As it is also
emphasized, the individuals, at some point in their lives, can
experience a struggle between the id and the superego to gain
control in the personality. This struggle leads to severe anxiety,
which is followed by the feelings of guilt, embarrassment,
shame etc. (Ryckman 34-35). To prevent the ego from being
overwhelmed with this power struggle, and to cope with this
anxiety, the individuals can experience the oceanic feeling as a
defence mechanism of regression, which is a deep instinctual
urge to regress into the womb (Freud 74-85). As Freud notes,
the oceanic feeling is “another way of disclaiming the danger,
which the ego recognizes as threatening it from the external
world” (72). This defence mechanism of regression leads the ego
to enter into an earlier stage of development, since it is not able
to manage the anxiety maturely (Ryckman 35). Moreover, the
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excessive use of the defence mechanism leads to a separation
from reality, and the individual begins creating a world of
fantasy (Ryckman 86-87). This world of fantasy is infantile, and
accordingly, can be experienced unconsciously. Eveline’s
psychological paralysis, as we shall see, can be analysed from
these psychoanalytic points, mentioned.
Analysing Eveline’s psychological hemiplegia from the
Freudian psychoanalytical concept of the oceanic feeling, it can
be stated that Eveline’s behaviour is mainly controlled by her
subconscious mind, which is overwhelmed with her “traumatic
repressed memories” (Rowell) about her dead mother’s
unpleasant life, as well as by “anxiety provoking drives”
(Rowell); such as her urge to leave her family behind, and elope
with a man, whom she believes would provide her with
security, comfort, love etc. However, since such anxiety
provoking drives would be “socially or culturally unacceptable
to the individual” (Rowell), her mind is divided between “an
exotic fantasy of personal happiness”, which is dominated by
the pleasure principle of the id and “a childhood pledge of filial
duty”, which is dominated by the superego, in addition to the
values, and morals of Dublin society (Henke 62). In other
words, Eveline experiences a struggle between the id and
superego to gain control in herpersonality, which leads to
severe anxiety, along with feelings of guilt, embarrassment and
shame. Indeed, in an attempt to prevent the ego, being
overcome with this anxiety, Eveline unconsciously experiences
the oceanic feeling (Ryckman 34-35). Since this defence
mechanism leads to the ego being unable to cope with this
undesired situation maturely, and re-enters into an earlier
stage of development (Ryckman 35), her excessive use of the
defence mechanism causes her to lose her reality, and enter
into her childlike state of mind. In this sense, Eveline sees
Frank as a rescuer, whom she believes could save her both from
Dublin’s paralysis, and her psychological hemiplegia, as well as
provide her with a new world, a sense of the limitless watery
bliss of the womb, where Eveline believes she would be happy
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and feel secure: “But in her new home, in a distant unknown
country, it wouldn’t be like that. Then she would be married—
she, Eveline. People would treat her with respect then.” (Joyce,
38), “Frank would save her. He would give her life, perhaps
love, too...She had a right to happiness. Frank would take her
in his arms, fold her in his arms...” (42). It can be stated that
just like the fetus feels unified with the mother in the womb
(Lear 174-176), the relationship between Eveline and Frank is
shaped by a similar sense of attachment. Indeed, Eveline,
without a sense of awareness of her distinct identity, bluntly
depends on Frank: to nurture, comfort, and provide her with
security. Lastly, from a Freudian psychoanalytic perspective,
Eveline, as a psychologically paralysed Dubliner, experiences
the oceanic feeling, which would, as we shall see, either trap
her in her childhood illusion or connect her to a grown-up-
reality.
The probable outcomes of Eveline’s experience of the
oceanic feeling, in the end, lead her to remain in Ireland, the
Motherland, where she, as an Irish fetus has the possibility of
metaphorical rebirth as an alternative to death. On the basis of
Henke’s study, and taking into consideration the final depiction
of Eveline at the harbour: “All the seas of the world tumbled
about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would
drown her...No! No! No! It wasimpossible. Her hands clutched
the iron in frenzy...” (Joyce 42), I am in agreement with
Henke’s emphasis that “in a moment of Freudian terror, she
imagines replicating her mother’s story and drowning in the
‘seas of the world’, an oceanic symbol that provokes sudden
hysteria at the thought of physical defloration”, and “conflating
Frank with the father ‘who would drown her’...Eveline dimly
begins to perceive that elopement with Frank would mean, in
realistic terms, a commitment to an intimate physical union
that has never come within the purview of her disembodied
dreams. The wound of sexual penetration evinces the kind of
psychic violation she associates with marriage, servitude, and
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relentless domestic battering...sex threatens to impinge on a
tightly sealed world of romantic illusion” (63).
Nevertheless, my emphasis goes beyond the analysis of
the general critical consensus, which is in line with Henke’s
emphasis, that Eveline’s final depiction in the story, her
“catatonic silence” upon letting Frank leave Dublin without her
(Henke 63): “She set her white face to him, passive, like a
helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell
or recognition” (Joyce 43) implies her final metaphorical
demise, and instead, I claim that Eveline’s options remain open.
Indeed, I go on to argue against Henke’s emphasis of the
outcome of Eveline’s oceanic feeling as leading to her
metaphorical death: “...her desire for embryonic security and
connection to the body of the mother forces her back into the
arms of Mother Church and into lifelong servitude to an
unsolicitous male parent...”, and causing her to “repeat the
sadomasochistic patterns of her mother’s life” (63). Instead, I
state that Eveline still has the possibility of rebirth through
breaking free from her infantile oceanic fantasy, and realizing
her capability to set free from the nightmare of repeating her
mother’s past life of servitude. In this respect, from the
Freudian psychoanalytical perspective, regarding Eveline’s
final realisation that Frank “would drown her”, and cause her
to repeat her mother’s unpleasant past life of “marriage,
servitude, and relentless domestic battering”, I assert that
Eveline begins to awaken from her oceanic fantasy. In other
words, Eveline begins to end her“infantile fantasy of pre-
Oedipal bliss”, since she realizes that eloping with Frank would
mean that “sex threatens to impinge on a tightly sealed world
of romantic illusion” (Henke 63).
Upon the realisation of her self-created world of fantasy,
Eveline’s behaviour is no longer primarily governed by her
unconscious mind; hence her conscious mind begins to take the
control, which leads the ego, with its reality principle, to
triumph over the id and the superego by forcing her to remain
in Dublin. Consequently, the conflict between her “exotic
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fantasy of personal happiness”, governed by the influence of the
pleasure principle of the id, and “a childhood pledge of filial
duty”, governed by the influence of superego, begins to come to
an end (Henke 62). Thus, through the reality principle of the
evolving ego, Eveline begins to develop her self-awareness, and
form her detached identity, which is in unity with the
psychoanalytic theory that ego and self-awareness collaborate.
As emphasized, this collaboration, which enables the self to
distinguish right from wrong, as well as to make free choices for
the future (Ryckman 86), implies Eveline’s capability for future
self improvement.
To be put in another way, upon Eveline’s final
awareness that eloping with Frank would, in reality, cause her
to replicate her mother’s past life of servitude (Henke 63), she
breaks free from her oceanic fantasy of a blissful world in a far-
off country. As a result, this self-awareness provides her with
the opportunity for rebirth with full capability to face with the
realities of her life, which also implies that Eveline is conscious
enough to no longer be the victim of Dublin’s patriarchal
discourse, or at least have an awareness of her victimhood.
As my essay has shown, the theme of paralysis that
permeates Joyce’s Dubliners is strong in “Eveline”. My
examination of this paralysis has focused on the story’s
namesake Eveline, a psychologically paralysed young Irish
woman, torn between her two decisions, whether to stay in
Dublin forever or leave it indefinitely. I have demonstrated a
cause and effect relationship between Eveline’s psychological
hemiplegia, and Dublin’s paralysis, which is manifested by the
patriarchal nature of the city. Furthermore, I have examined
thishemiplegia from a Freudian psychoanalytic perspective, in
particular, the Freudian concept of the oceanic feeling. In this
regard, and to explain it in general terms, I have stated that in
an attempt to run away from undesirable forces of Dublin,
Eveline instinctively experiences the oceanic feeling, which is
entangled with her belief that Frank would be her salvation.
Ultimately, given the open-ended conclusion of the story, I have
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examined the consequences of Eveline’s experience of the
oceanic feeling, resulting with her staying in Dublin. Unlike
Henke’s assertation of Eveline’s final metaphorical demise
through her ultimate stagnation at the harbour, I have stated
that Eveline staying in Dublin was a conscious decision, which
is connected to her realisation that eloping with Frank would
not provide the world she has been dreaming of, but instead it
will entrap her in domestic burdens. Accordingly, upon her self-
awareness, Eveline breaks free from her oceanic feeling, which
implies her future capability to set free from becoming another
victim of patriarchal abuse in her Motherland, Ireland.
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