Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No.

( 44) 2007

A Stylistic Study of Joyce’s “Eveline”:

A Proposed Model

Professor Dr. Assist Lecturer.

Majeed Hameed Jasim Amin U’kaal Ghailan
University of Basrah
College of Education

Introduction :
Stylistics is essentially a mediation area between literary criticism
and linguistics and it has no autonomous domain of its own
(Widdowson, 1975: 3,4). Its purpose, then, is to link linguistics and
literary criticism. To achieve this aim, it is suggested that by
extending the linguist’s literary intuitions and the critic’s linguistic
observations alike and make their relation explicit, we may reach the
above-mentioned aim (Widdowson, 1975: 5-6; and Leech and Short,
1981: 13-14). A question usually asked: ‘At which end ought we to
start, the critical or the linguistic?’ In point of fact, there is a cyclic
motion between the two. The linguistic observation may stimulate or
modify literary insight; the literary insight stimulates further linguistic
observation and so on. This motion sometimes takes the form of a
cycle exactly like the cycle of theory formulation and theory testing.
But we shall take our starting point as with linguistics to stylistically
study Joyce’s ‘Eveline’.

Stone (stone et al, 1976: 285) explains that “after half a

century of controversy, during which he was thought by turns to be
obscene and obscure, James Joyce has achieved his place as one of the
( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

giants of the modern age…. He is unsurpassed in achievement,

perhaps unmatched in influence upon the development of present-day
fiction.” Joyce offered his readers a slice of language. His stories read
like documents for sociological study, bearing witness to the
conditions which produced them (Bolt, 1981: 49).
Walter Nash’s model (Nash, 1982) includes two parts. The
first is simply an analysis of a text according to its distinctive
linguistic features. In dealing with the items of language used to state
such features, the researcher will make clear the functions of deixis,
change of articles, placement of adjuncts, and types of some verbs to
be linguistically significant.
The second part of such model is mainly theoretical. In this
part, Nash establishes the particular procedures adopted for making a
stylistic analysis. He mentions three main elements: the researcher’s
intuition to the text, a search for textual patterning, and the
identification of the linguistic evidences which supports the intuitive
response and proves the patterning. It is worth mentioning that
identifying the structure is not necessarily to depend only on linguistic
procedures. Nash applies such model on a passage from Lawrence’s
Odour of Chrysanthemums. He shows how a frame can be provided
so as to make a specific focus for the analysis of the text. The
researcher will apply such a frame to the analysis of Joyce’s Eveline.
Intuition to such story suggests that its theme can be defined in the
word “conflict”. It is a story written by James Joyce of a young girl
who loves Frank and lives waiting for the time they live together. But
at the moment that she has to elope with him, she lives a severe inner
conflict between her love and her delegations to her sisters and father

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

after the death of her mother. What to choose? That is the question!
(Levin, 1946: 5).
The analysis of the text takes into account its general
patterning as narrative framework, the structure of its content, and the
relation of stylistic device with the structural intention. The
terminology (in this research) is based on Nash (1982). The text is that
of the Penguin (1946) edition of “The Portable James Joyce”.

Setting: Symmetry and Implication

A very important feature of Joyce’s Eveline is the symmetry of
its scenic arrangement, thereby; it starts and ends with the mention of
the same character. Eveline’s remembrance of her past life first
appears in the first phase, the problems of her present tiring life
following in II . Phase III is about her and Frank’s love affair. In phase
IV, Eveline discusses the problems of her family life and remembers
her mother. While at the end of the text, she and her lover reappear
together (phaseV). The inversion (family-lover/ family-lover) suggests
that the character of Eveline is the centre of interest; she has greater
importance than others. Her character is mentioned from beginning to
the end and has the continuous presence all over the story. Within this
text, other symmetries clearly appear in various places. Thus, in clause
7 the ‘field’ (in which they used to play every evening) while in 9, the
children of the avenue (used to play together in that field).
Another example of symmetry lies in clause 10 (he was too
grown up) and 17, they (she and her brothers and sisters were all
grown up). Furthermore, there are other examples in clause 18 (her
mother was dead) and in 19 (Tizzie Dunn was dead, too). All the
( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

stylistic repetitions of these clauses appear in phase I only. At the

beginning of phase II, there are clauses 23 (she looked round the
room, reviewing all its familiar objects) and 24 respectively (perhaps
she would never see again those familiar objects). Also, there are
symmetries, in 85 (He told her the names of the ships he had been
on….) and 87 (And he told her stories of the terrible patagonians).
And in 97 there is a symmetry as in (One was to Harry) and 98 (The
other was to her father). In 99 there is a symmetry as in (Ernest had
been her favourite) and 100 (But she liked Harry too).
In clauses (1, 2, and3), there is another striking example of
symmetry with clause (109) in which Eveline reappears (to sit by the
window, leaning her head against the window curtain, inhaling the
odour of dusty cretonne). These clauses (1, 2, 3, and109) occur at
almost corresponding points to the beginning and end of the text. By
clause 3 indeed the scene is set, and the story-teller returns to it after
the presentation of the characters. In clauses 107 and 118, Eveline
remembers what her father was doing during her mother’s life and
sickness. There is also a repetition in clauses (124 and 131). Again,
clauses (151 and 154) suggest the hesitation of Eveline in taking her
decision of escape.
The story plots a simple scheme of movement, from the window
to the field (where the central encounter between the children, Ernest
(her brother) and her father takes place), and from the field back to the
room (and its furniture) and the photograph. After that, she thinks of
the stores and her future life in Buenos Ayres (with Frank). With
phase IV, namely from clause 109 and so forth, Eveline returns to the
window and field scene. Finally, the story closes with the scene of

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

Eveline and Frank (her lover) are standing in the station. Throughout
the text, shifts in scenes (perspectives) are marked by the occurrence
of the character of Eveline. The position of these clauses in their
respective places is of imminent relevance to the structure of the text
as a whole. Each of which occurs in a certain place of the story. In
"Eveline", the heroine is prevented from making a bid for freedom
because she cannot conceive of living anywhere but at home. She has
been condemned to life imprisonment by her own point of view (Bolt,
1981: 45). Moreover, a further stylistic point lies in the effect of the
positioning to create a powerful impression on the scenes of the
clauses concerned. The scenes thus point to the sense of “loneliness”
which represents a source of feeling in that they motivate the readers’
responses to the text. The focus, in this text, is directed to the
characters’ depression, loneliness, and struggling rather than the
description that symbolizes this loneliness and struggle. The variation
in the positioning and semantic implications of the scenes is by no
means fictitious. It refers to a deliberate shift of emphasis from the
environment to the human response.
The writer at first establishes the setting of the story as a
psychic partner to the human world. The environment expresses a
sense of depressed and impotent existence similar to its occupants.
Also, a feeling of resignation is apparent in the clauses structures e.g.
in the material clause (She sat at the window watching the evening
invade the avenue) (1) and (Her head was leaned against the window
curtains) (2), and in the clause with ‘fronted’ place adjunct and
relational verb (In her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne) (3)
which shows ‘state’ rather than ‘event’. A good feature of the style

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

followed by the writer is the rhetorical expressions (The evening

invade the avenue), (The odour of dusty cretonne), (her time was
running out), and (a melancholy air of Italy). All these constructions
are mainly descriptive.
Another important point is that the symbolic ‘night’ is also
made to lurk in the general theme of the story. At a first encounter, the
‘evening’ is clearly no more than an atmosphere of melancholy and
monotony. There is a further stylistic focus upon the ‘evening’ in the
clause (95) (The evening deepened in the avenue). Another mention of
the night is accompanied by Eveline’s remembrance of her mother’s
illness in the clause (114) (She remembered the last night of her
mother’s illness). In these instances, the focus is powerfully
established by the inclusion in the verbs having connotations (invade,
deepened) which are really obvious reasons for this heavy stylistic
underlining. In employing the metaphor of the invading evening, the
literary word “odour”, and the precise distinction of clacking and
crunching,he(the writer)is using linguistic skills,and therefore offering
perceptions, beyond her (Eveline) competence (Bolt, 1981: 47). The
images of the ‘evening’ and ‘odour’ represent the beginning of the
description of the environment and the main character; from the outset
a note of melancholy and monotony is sounded. Thereby, the stylistic
emphasis has a relation with the general framework of the story. There
is an allusion to the point that Eveline lives a state of hostility to her
environment; to some extent it expresses her relationship with her
parents especially her father. We may stylistically note that there is an
intersection of the elements of the structure; ie, of the description of
the environment along the text, and the encounter of characters which

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

composes the central theme of the story. The initial reference of the
‘evening’ (invade the avenue….. deepened in the avenue) is not very
well underlined. The reference is not very strongly marked and the
strength of the allusion is delayed till the ‘evening’ is referred to
another time.

The Development of the Narrative: Phases and Modes

The narrative text mostly develops through passages of
description and little direct speech. They gradually intermix
constructing the pattern of relationships between the major character
(Eveline) and other characters of the story. The bulk of the writing,
however, is not dialogue but narrative, describing the setting and
relating the events. And it might seem that when he is writing
narrative an author, even if he adopts the point of view of his
characters, is obliged to put things in his own way, not in theirs (Bolt,
1981: 46). It is possible to discern the phases of description with some
certainty. The story seems to be constructed on the following
frame (see Table 1).
Out of these phases, I and II represent a deliberate descriptive
unity. Phase I describes Eveline’s happy past life; all this is drawn
from her look to the field in front of the house. This can be shown, by
the writer, through clause16 (That was along time ago). This happy
part of her life ends with her mother’s death. While phase II shifts to a
description of the problems of her present tiring life, which begins
with Eveline’s looking round the room. She can express her feeling of
dissatisfaction with this life through clause 58 (It was hard work- a
hard life) at the end of this phase. Phase III changes to a description of

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

the only happy thing in Eveline’s present life (her love with Frank)
and the circumstances of the development of such relation.

Table1. Phases of Eveline’s Story

Phase From /to

No.
From: She sat at the window watching the evening invade
the avenue.
I To: Now she was going to go away like the others, to leave
her home.
From: She looked round the room, reviewing all its familiar
objects which she had dusted once a week for so many
II
years.
To: She did not find it a wholly undesirable life.
From: She was about to explore another life with Frank.
III.
To: And after that she had to meet her lover secretly.
From: The evening deepened in the avenue.
IV To: She trembled as she heard again her mother’s voice
saying constantly with foolish insistence: - Derevaun
Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!
From: She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror.
V To: Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or
recognition.

Phase IV represents a return to the beginning of the story in

which Eveline lived a very happy life with her family before her
mother’s death. The description of the setting at the beginning of
phase I is the same as that in Phase IV. This is clear from the
symmetry of clauses (1, 2, and3) in phase I with clause (109) in Phase
( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

IV (as mentioned in the previous section). Moreover, phase IV is

completely well defined in its formal making and in content. We
cannot claim that phase IV is devoted to a single purpose (or
implication) e.g. describing Eveline’s background or past life and
changing from description to a direct speech. We cannot know such
ambiguity till finishing our reading of the story. Later, we’ll conclude
that such remembrance is the only reason beyond Eveline’s rejection
of escape with Frank. In this sense, phase IV is the vital centre of the
text, a pivot of narration rather than a descriptive scene. This becomes
very clear when we read clauses (112,113, and 114) from phase IV
which talk about Eveline’s promise to her mother to keep the home
together as long as she could. Phase V tells about the attempt of
escape. Eveline seems to be passive; she says nothing to Frank except
(No! it was impossible) (153). The failure of the attempt of escape can
be heavily attributed to Eveline’s promise to her mother. By shifting
from phase to another, the mode of narration changes in relation to the
content. A detailed account of these shifts of narration is presented in
the table below (see Table2). Some comments concerning this table
are highly demanded here. Phase 1 consists of 22 clauses. It is about
two separate passages of description (1-22).In the first passage, there
is a dynamic entry of the character of Eveline. And in the second,
there is a deliberate description of her past life and the changes
happened on it. Phase II (23-60), which represents a static pose
(description) of Eveline’s present life, consists of three descriptive
passages. In fact, It is through these descriptive passages, and not
through speech whether direct or indirect, that the character of Eveline
is presented. Her father speaks twice: one is about the yallowing

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

photograph on the wall 'direct speech’ and the other (clause 53) is
about spending money and that Eveline will squander it aimlessly (as
he claims). From this, we can notice that Eveline, the major character,
is mainly described through some descriptive intrusions.

Table 2: Shifts of Narration in Eveline’s Story

Phase
Clause Mode content
No.
Description A woman placed in the
I 1-22 environment, her relation to it by
implication discordant.
II Description The woman is tired from the
23-60
environment she lives in.
Description, The woman tries to find a resort
III indirect speech (in love) from her hard life.
61-94 and one brief
intrusion of
direct speech
Description, The woman is thinking of the
IV
95-121 two brief direct problem of her life for the last
speech clauses. time.
Description, The woman is trying to escape
V 122- with three brief with her lover but finally she
160 intrusions of cannot.
direct speech.

Phase III (61-94) is merely a long paragraph about Eveline

and Frank love affair. It is important to mention that the writer tells
( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

nothing about such love affair till phase III. Their secret sexual
longings of adolescence constitute the hinges on which the story
actions turn (Brown, 1985: 127). He only gives hints about this
relation in phase II (in clauses 33, 39, and 59). Another thing to be
remembered is that phase III is empty of any speech except in three
places (clauses 85and 87) by Frank’s indirect speech and (92) by her
father’s direct speech.
Phase IV consists of three passages; it shifts the narration back to
Eveline’s life before her mother’s death. This shift to the past has a
stylistic importance to the overall framework of the story. It will have
an importance to the final episode of the story. All of this phase is a
description of a remembrance of Eveline’s past life with two direct
speeches; one by the father and another by the mother.
Phase V represents a final determining part in the story. All of
this phase is a description of Eveline’s attempt of escape. It goes in a
fast pace of narration. All the main concern of the writer is to show
Eveline’s reaction to the episode of escape. She has an internal refusal
to such action due to her promise to her mother. This phase includes
only 3 clauses of direct speech; two were said by Frank (147 and 152)
and the third is an answer by Eveline (153).
The salient feature of this development is the involvement of the
characters with each other and with their environment. The most
important of these characters are Eveline, Frank, and her parents. Her
brothers and others are neutralized figures; i.e., they have no influence
over the problem of Eveline in the story. Eveline’s responses to the
surroundings whether the death of her mother, the problems of her
present life, or the attempt of escape with Frank have a sense of

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

antagonism and a great rejection. She looks as a victim of an anxious

parental concern from her father that expresses itself with some
punitive maltreatment. The family atmosphere was clouded by
anxieties about rents, loans, mortgages, sales and repayments, chilled
by poverty; and poisoned by the moody temper of the father whose
awareness of his family responsibilities led him to resent them rather
than fulfill them (Bolt, 1981: 6). The circumstances of her life
indirectly threaten her. She seems to be engaged in a struggle to
accomplish an individual will against the conditions that overwhelm
her.

The Characters: Identity and Relations

The relationships of the characters, whether major or minor,
are carefully reflected in the grammatical and lexical framework of the
phases of the story. By some shifts in syntax and grammar, the
characters are brought closer to each other and also to the reader. The
characters are established as figures that have identities and
personalities not fully complete. They revolve around one character,
namely Eveline, and can be considered as textual acquaintances of
double relations such as Eveline and Frank, Eveline and her mother,
and Eveline and her father in the story.
Eveline first appears as a disembodied figure of the pronoun
(she) in clauses (1,4,6,17, and 22…. etc) (see Table 3), and then as
‘Eveline’ in (39). In clauses (40 and 46), Eveline is described as
searching for respect and protection. She would not be treated as her
mother had been in clause 41. This designation changes to an antonym
in 57 (she had hard work to keep the house together). The description

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

of this character as changing from one idea or decision to another

opposite one confirms the general pattern of thinking from one
situation to another. Thus, she had nobody to protect her (in 46) and
she was about to explore another life with Frank (in 61). Eveline’s
role is specified as a daughter, a sister, and a beloved through which a
further change of description is shown (Leech and Short, 1981: 346).
The tactics of establishment are noticeably consistent.
Determiners such as: she, her, his, and he lead the unmarked
preliminary identification. Also, there is the finer base of an anaphoric
reference (e.g. Eveline, Frank) and further there is an endophoric
allusion that leads to a more textual connection between the characters
of the story (e.g. her father, her mother). Furthermore, some
synonymic and hyponymic variants (wife, boy, lover, father, and
mother) are of important presence in familiarizing the characters. We
can frequently notice some expanded descriptions of the characters
e.g. (very kind, manly, open-hearted) in (62), (his hair tumbled
forward over a face of bronze) in (69), etc, and some nouns denoting
sex and age: his wife (63), boy (84), and her lover (94).
Something to be added to the relationships and identities, in the
text, is the further relationship introduced in the clauses 112 (strange
that it should come that very night to remind her of the promise to her
mother), 113 (her promise to keep the home together as long as she
could), and 119 (as she mused the pitiful vision of her mother’s life
laid its spell on the very quick of her being). These clauses make a
point of intersection between the nature of the environment and the
relations of the characters to one another. We can say that phase IV
completely intrudes upon the final phase V. These clauses also

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

establish a point of connection with the next and final episode (the
attempt of escape) in which Frank and Eveline are shown in a
situation of escape or confrontation with each other. Eveline’s promise
to her mother is the determining point in her final retreat from the
attempt of escape. We can draw samples of the processes of
characterization in the following table:-

Table 3. Samples of the Processes of Characterization

in Eveline's story

A. Eveline
Clause Designation
No.
1. She sat at the window watching the evening invade the
avenue.
4. She was tired.
6. She heard his footsteps clacking along the concrete
pavement.
17. She and her brothers and sisters were all grown up.
22. Now, she was going to go away like the others, to leave
her home.
23. She looked round the room, reviewing all its familiar
objects which she had dusted once a week for so many
years.
24. Perhaps she would never see again those familiar objects
from which she had never dreamed of being divided.
39. Then she would be married- she, Eveline.

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

40. People would treat her with respect then.

41. She would not be treated as her mother had been.
46. And now she had nobody to protect her.
53. He said she used to squander the money.
54. In the end he would give her the money and ask her had
she any intention of buying Sunday’s dinner.
57. She had hard work to keep the house together.
61. She was about to explore another life with Frank.
74. And she felt elated as she sat in an unaccustomed part of
the theatre with him.
79. She always felt pleasantly confused.
94. And after that she had to meet her lover secretly.
112. Strange that it should come that very night to remind her
of the promise to her mother.
113. Her promise to keep the home together as long as she
could.
114. She remembered the last night of her mother’s illness.
119. As she mused the pitiful vision of her mother’s life laid
its spell on the very quick of her being.
146. A bell clanged upon her heart.
151. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing.
154. Her hands clutched the iron in frenzy.
159. She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless
animal.
160. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or
recognition.
B. Frank

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

Clause Designation
No.
62. Frank was very kind, manly, open-hearted.
63. She was to go away with him by the night-boat to be his
wife and to live with him in Buenos Ayres.
65. He was lodging in a house on the main road where she
used to visit.
67. He was standing at the gate.
69. And his hair tumbled forward over a face of bronze.
71. He used to meet her outside the stores every evening.
73. He took her to see (The Bohemian Girl).
75. He was awfully fond of music.
80. He used to call her Poppens out of fun.
83. He had tales of distant countries.
84. He had started as a deck boy at a pound a month on a
ship of the Allan Line going out to Canada.
85. He told her the names of the ships he had been on and the
names of the different services.
86. He had sailed through the straits of Magellan.
87. And he told her stories of the terrible Patagonians.
88. He had fallen on his feet in Buenos Ayres.
124. Frank would save her.
125. He would give her life, perhaps love, too.
129. Frank would take her in his arms.
131. He would save her.
133. He held her hard.
149. He was drawing her into them.
( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

150. He would drown her.

156. He rushed beyond the barrier and called to her to follow.
157. He was shouted at to go on.
158. But he still called to her.

The Characters: A. Eveline.

In addition to the characterization of the character of Eveline,
the text supplies some effective indices to her character. It is
conspicuous that there is some alternation of modifiers and adjuncts as
very evaluative descriptives: tired, fool, married, undesirable,
elated, silent, confused, unhappy, pale, cold, passive, helpless,
quickly, regularly, pleasantly, secretly, and constantly.
The modifiers and adjuncts are important since they relate to
three various aspects of the character of Eveline: physical appearance,
activity, and manner of speech. Therefore, the adjunct pleasantly in
(she always felt pleasantly confused) (79) qualifies an activity. And
also the adjunct (secretly) in (she had to meet her love secretly) (94)
describes an activity. The modifier (elated) in (she felt elated) (74)
describes her physical appearance. Also, in the clause (she felt her
cheek pale and cold) (138), the modifiers pale and cold represent a
psychological situation. And the modifier silent in the clause (she kept
moving her lips in silent fervent prayer) (145) modifies her speech
style. Physical appearance, activity, and manner of speech are the
three ways by which the nature of the character of Eveline is intimated
to the reader. What is distinctive about Joyce’s handling of characters
is not instantly obvious, and we can perhaps grasp a little of it by
discussing (mere) characters (Adams, 1977: 54). Most of Eveline’s
( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

activities, along the story, generally provide a point of stylistic

importance. There is a sort of contrast of transitive and intransitive
patterns; furthermore, there is a difference of operative and static
processes. Eveline is an actor in most of the material clauses devoted
to her character whether having transitive or intransitive verbs. Out of
(28) intransitive clauses, she is an actor in all of them. While she is an
actor in (35) transitive clauses and a goal in (8) clauses only (40, 44,
45, 49, 53, 54, 80, and 146). Eveline’s actions have some operative
and volitional power. Most of these actions are done on the people and
the things around her (her father, brothers, mother, and Frank, the
room, the money, a street organ, the iron railing, etc). Also, there is a
contrast of operative and static processes related to this character. At
the end of the story, the operative activity of the character of Eveline
withers. These activities such as (She gripped with both hands at the
iron railing) (151), (She set her white face to him) (159), and (Her
eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition) (160) denote
a sense of rejection or refusal more positive than speaking. The
decrease of operativeness is shown by a sequence of physical
appearance and activity. The actor in most of these clauses is merely a
noun denoting a part of the body (face, hands, eyes, etc) as in the
clause (154) (her hands clutched the iron in frenzy) and (160)
(mentioned before). The clauses at the end of the text express the
intention to goal-directed activities. They are characterized by a fine
stylistic touch, especially in phase V, where instead of ‘she clutched’;
we read ‘Her hands clutched the iron in frenzy’ (154). This has a
shift of agency from the whole body (person) to the part (the hands) as
if they had an independent will which somewhat shows Eveline’s

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

behaviour against herself and her reluctance to accept any feeling of

tenderness about her escape. For Joyce, style is a means of presenting
the reader with a problem: why is the text written in this particular
way? ..... It was to cater for such a reader - the reader who pores over
a text - that Joyce loaded his sentences with meaning, to the point of
burying it (Bolt, 1981: 49-50).

The Characters: B. Frank :

The character of ‘Frank’ is not so heavily described.
Nevertheless, the presentation of this character is carefully made.
There is a clear difference between his introduction into the text and
that of the character of Eveline. Concerning Eveline, she is introduced
as (She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue)
(Phase I). After that, in immediate continuation, (Her head was leaned
against the window curtains), (In her nostrils was the odour of dusty
cretonne), and (She was tired) (clauses 2-4). At the other side, it is
stated that (Frank was very kind, manly, open-hearted) (62) and (He
was lodging in a house on the main road where she used to visit) (65).
Here are clear differences between the constructions (She sat at the
window), (Frank was very kind, manly, open-hearted). Another
subtler narrative difference lies in the writer’s introduction to the
character of Eveline in the very beginning of the story, and his delay
of the presentation of Frank till phase III. Each of them, in its own
subtle way, presents a specific character: Eveline is passive and led by
circumstances, and Frank is active and determined.
Frank is presented through alternations of pose, activity, and
speech-style. The activity starts as a mere existence to the character of

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

Frank (He had a home waiting for her) (63), (He was lodging in a
house) (65), (He was standing at the gate) (67). In clause (69) (His
hair tumbled forward over a face of bronze) (pose), the writer
describes the physical appearance of the character of ‘Frank’.
Afterwards, there is a return to the activities of Frank to develop his
relation with Eveline. So, he used to meet her (71) and took her to see
(The Bohemian Girl) (73). Several clauses describe his speech-style
with Eveline like (He used to call her Poppens out of fun) (80), (He
had tales of distant countries) (83), (He told her the names of the
ships) (85), and (He told her stories) (87). Interferring with these
clauses, we have others describing his activities as a sailor such as (He
had started as a deck boy) (84), (He had sailed through the Straits of
Magellan) (86), (He had fallen on his feet in Buenos Ayres) (88).
Thus, the character of ‘Frank’ gradually emerges as an active,
ambitious, and hopeful man. Such development makes a sort of
counterpoise to the character of Eveline which results in the final
attempt of escape. All the remaining clauses (including pose, activity,
and speech-style) describe the attempt of escape and his determination
of it despite the recession of Eveline from doing so. The clauses (124,
125,131, 133, 134,149,150,156,157, and 158) represent the end of the
story with Frank and Eveline only. The character of Frank has a good
presence in the story (especially in phases III and V). All of his doings
are directed to Eveline. Thereby, we find that she is the goal (object)
to all of his transitive verbs. Frank has an influential role in the life of
Eveline and she tries to change the mode of her boring life through
escaping with him. She believes that he will save her and endow her
happy and successful life. All this is destroyed with her retreat from

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

the attempt of escape. What is special about Joyce’s dealing with

characters is not exactly his social vision, but the fact that huge and
alien systems can be seen through them. Not only alien, but
contradictory identifications implied within the surface of a
“character” (Adams, 1977: 55).

Conclusion
The model assumes three indispensable elements of procedure:
an intuitive response to the text, a search for textual pattern, and an
identification of the stylistic features that support intuition and
demonstrate the patterning. The assumption may be commonplace and
applicable to any stylistic analysis.
One of the concerns is the importance of ‘structure’. In case of
prose, the structural interpretation has a preliminary importance to
further observations on the text. The affair is not simply determining
the structure which supplies a framework to later stylistic analysis.
The matter is that some linguistic prompts suggest a structural scheme
which has some stylistic features; such features then confirm the
system.
It is essential to mention that the researcher’s familiarity with the
patterning of a text can be guided by clues other than linguistic since
any literary text has a full semiotic or aesthetic power with some
linguistic aspects. The result of the study of Joyce’s Eveline produces
two important planes of analysis. The first is the structure of the text
which is dealt with in this paper under the heading of ‘setting:
symmetry and implication’. For describing this, it is useful to
establish the basis on which noticeable stylistic features are made. The

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

second level is that of ‘information’ involving the exploitation of

elements such as characters, symbols, and so on. This analysis is
represented in this paper by the section on “the characters”. It is
better to understand the structure before a person responds to the
proposed pattern. Also, a person needs some awareness to the pattern
of character and symbols before perceiving the linguistic device. The
reading of the text of Eveline is really a process of intermingling. We
first start with an intuition with some predisposition to find patterns of
meaning. Other additional promptings may be known with the
observation of linguistic and stylistic features which are perhaps
marked by pairings, contrasts, gradations, and etc (Nash, 1982:113).
Unlike any English novelist, he (Joyce) worked himself into the
texture of specific words by listing them on separate sheets of paper as
they suggested one another in long association - strings, then built
them one at a time into his fiction. However subtle the lines of
connection, he trusted them to make themselves felt subliminally
(Adams, 1977: 61). Thereby, intuition is enforced or modified, to
define the structural planes in the text. With the finding out of any
plane, we perceive the other one and thus the detection of linguistic
features continues, supplying or qualifying the structural interpretation
and leading the intuition to further discoveries. The figure below
describes the process of interlinking discoveries and impulses.
The outline is very simple to be as a hypothesis accounting for
what happens when we attempt close reading of a piece of prose
fiction. It refers to important elements in the text and attracts the
attention to the fact that stylistic analysis (in some cases) is a mixture
of linguistic and extra-linguistic references.

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

Intuition

Perception of linguistic /stylistic devices

Structural Structural
Awareness Response
level 1 level 2
of non- to aesthetic
literary patterns in
sign art
systems, generally
etc.

The process of interlinking discoveries and impulses

After Nash (1982).

( )
Journal of the College of Arts. University of Basrah No. ( 44) 2007

References

Adams, R. M. (1977). After Joyce. New York: Oxford University

Press.
Bolt, S. (1981). A preface to James Joyce. London: Longman.
Brown, R. (1985). James Joyce and Sexuality. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Joyce, J. (1946). ‘Eveline’ in The Portable James Joyce. Middlesex:
Penguin Books.
Leech, G., N. and Michael, H. S. (1981). Style in Fiction: A
Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose.
London: Longman Group Limited.
Levin, H. (1946). ‘Editor’s Introduction’ in The Portable James
Joyce. Middlesex: Penguin Books.
Nash, W. (1982). “On A Passage from Lawrence’s Odour of
Chrysanthemums”, in Ronald Carter (ed.) Language and
Literature: An Introductory Reader in Stylistics. London:
George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Stone, W., etal. (1976). The Short Story: An Introduction. New
York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Widdowson, H.G. (1975). Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature.
London: Longman.

( )