La duda

EVELYN

Joyce's short story "Evelyn" was the advent between adolescence and maturity. Written in 1914, which preceded the women's suffrage in Ireland by four years, the story's protagonist andtitle character, Evelyn, is largely affected by the feminist issues of the time period. These feminist ideas are illustrated through Evelyn’s relationships with her family and boyfriend, as well thesocietal expectations, and her duties and obligations.

Evelyn is much like many young women in early twentieth century Ireland. With her mother having passed, she is expected to take care of herchildhood home. Joyce writes that Evelyn struggled to keep "her promise to keep the home together as long as she could," a promise she made to her mother while on her deathbed.

Taking care of her home isone example of Evelyn’s oppression by the lack of women's liberation in 1914.

"She had hard work to keep the house together and to see that the two young children who had been left to her chargewent to school regularly and got their meals regularly," Joyce writes. "It was hard work-a hard life." It is never clear whom Evelyn is taking care of, but it is clearly illustrated that she is unhappyin her assumed position of a housewife without a husband.

Evelyn’s relationship with her father is one of the most telling examples when looking at the text from a feminist viewpoint. Joyceoutright acknowledges that Evelyn’s father treats her differently and with disrespect because she's female.

Originally appearing in Dubliners, a compilation of vignettes by James Joyce, his short storyEvelyn is the tale of
such an unfortunate individual.   Anxious, timid, scared, perhaps even terrified
-- all these describe Evelyn.   She is a frightened, indecisive young woman
poised between herpast and her future.

    Evelyn loves her father but is fearful of him.   She tries to hold onto
good memories of her father, thinking "sometimes he could be very nice,” but has seen what her...