The book “Literature and the Writing Process” by Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, Robert Funk helps the students study writing and literature at one and the same time. It is very instructive and gives an idea of how to study literature by means of writing as well as teaches to make literary analysis by giving all necessary tools for that. The short story by James Joyce, discussed in “Literature and the Writing Process” deserves special attention as the story by itself may cause different emotions and associations and different people may have different approaches while analyzing it. For instance, Earl G. Ingersoll in his article “The Stigma of Femininity in James Joyce’s “Eveline” and “The Boarding House” analyzes the image of Eveline from the point of view of feminity and oppression of women in those times when their rights were limited.
What the author of the articles wants to emphasize first of all is Eveline’s turning into an “imprisoned housekeeper”. Like most of women in those times she was forced to stay at home all the time and her occupations during the day were limited and monotonous. These included taking care of children, cooking and cleaning which Earl G. Ingersoll calls the “Hausfrau’s world”: “Eveline cleans and cleans, but still there is the inevitable dust that settles in those curtains of cretonne, representing her marginal effort at gentility.” (Earl G. Ingersoll, p. 501). Here the author of the article stresses that Eveline was not supposed to be sorry for leaving “home” like this.
Secondly, Earl G. Ingersoll observes the cases of metonymy and synecdoche and explains the role and meaning of some of stylistic devices found in the story: “In “Eveline” domesticity is clearly associated with details, with metonymy and synecdoche.” (Earl G. Ingersoll, 501). To these details the author refers everything connected with Eveline’s home, the so-called “familiar objects” which Eveline was made to see every day and which already bored her: “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” (James Joyce, Harry Levin, p. 47).
And finally, the author of the article emphasizes the fact that Eveline had such a miserable life not only because all women of those times were forced to be nothing but housewives but because her father treated her with disrespect only because she was a woman. Although despite this, as Earl G. Ingersoll states, she is still undecided whether she wants to leave her home and thinks over the “details from her life with her father, just as she has recalled similar ones from her new relationship with Frank.” (Earl G. Ingersoll, p. 501).
I agree with the article “The Stigma of Femininity in James Joyce’s “Eveline” and “The Boarding House” only to some extent. I keep to the point that speaking about the stigma of feminity in “Eveline” the author could have paid more attention to how unhappy Eveline was and how hard it was for her to cope with everything without a husband. It seems to me that the writer should have described the oppression of women at the beginning of the 20th century more vividly making Eveline’s story an example of such oppression. He also provided an insufficient argument for Eveline’s father treating her not in the right way. I believe more examples of the result of such treatment should have been given. Nevertheless, the article is valuable from the point of view of feminity presentation in “Eveline” by James Joyce.
Works Cited
- James Joyce, Harry Levin. The Portable James Joyce. Penguin Books, 1976.
- Earl G. Ingersoll. “The Stigma of Femininity in James Joyce’s “Eveline” and “The Boarding House.” Studies in Short Fiction 30.4 (1993): 501.