JOYCE

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FEMINIST WORK?:

Welcome Guidelines Listserv Discussion based on: "Dubliners" Read Eveline Discussion topics: Introduction Comments Feminist Work? Going to Buenos Ayres

Maureen asks: hi guys. both chandra and vidya mentioned the question of eveline as a feminist work, whether it is or isn't, in their posts today. i guess the question i am asking in judging this is, what is the author trying to demonstrate? what is his point? what issue is he trying to uncover, or possibly, keep veiled? some authors do try to keep issues veiled, such as authors who write 'pro- imperialist-establishment' novels, like _gone with the wind_, aeschylus' _oresteia trilogy_, or _kim_. so my question is, is joyce commenting positively on eveline's status? her predicament? what is he calling us to think, how does he want us to react to her dilemma, to the fact that she can't cross that bridge? one prominent scholar (i just happened to run across this some place) argued that frank (the *sailor*, always the guy we should be skeptical of, right? ;-) was going to sell eveline into prostitution in buenos aires. now, how he drew such a conclusion, "ya' got me!" :-) i suppose he looked at clues and somehow patched it together. i am not sure i agree with him at all, and, that kind of an argument would tilt the scales away from feminism and towards 'patriarchal (establishment) mindedness' (and it might even be a racist view?). in any case, it seems joyce wants us to 'feel her pain' as big bill has been known to say. :) i think often a feminist work does just what _eveline_ did to me when i read it -- it draws out and portrays issues so that readers are bothered by what happens in the story, so that we begin to think about the societal issues surrounding 'her pain' and maybe even get a little angry about them. what do the rest of you cats think? Chandra replies: The cats must be sitting in the warm April sun with closed eyes! What else can explain this deep silence? It is easier to answer your other question: " what is the author trying to demonstrate? what is his point? " I still think that he is trying to show how tenuous the bonds of tradition and family life are, and how difficult it is to break the chains particularly when one does not know for sure what awaits one. It is easy (easier) to go along the trodden path, even if there are occasional thorns there, simply because the path can be seen. To aspire for and enjoy "freedom from the known (do you know Jiddu Krishnamurthy's book of this title?) is not all that easy! That, Frank was planning to sell Eveline into prostitution, is an incredible reading of this story. Can't buy that reading! I was infact wondering whether the choice of the name, Frank, had any meaning. Was the sailor quite frank with Eveline? Was his name heralding the life which Eveline could have entered- as being a "clear and open" one? Still, she dared not take this step, because she had chained herself to her former life. Maureen sums up: good points on this fraulein. :-) there could be a correlation to Frank and St. Francis of Assisi. i don't know what it would be tho... i think anyway that eveline was much more attracted to the notion of 'a faraway land', the idea of 'otherness' in a positive sense, as in another world that would be unlike the one she knows. but your point about frank and frankness, good one. and that may be part of what the critic had considered.

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