Eveline\" Written by James Joyce

¶ … Eveline" written by James Joyce and "A Clean Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemmingway.

James Joyce's "Eveline"

Eveline is one of the short stories from James Joyce's short stories compilation, "The Dubliner." The story has been written in the year 1914. Eveline is the main character of the story who suffers a lot during the time of heightened feminist issues in Ireland. The short story is an excellent refection of the issues faced by Eveline during these times. Most of the reflection of these issues is seen in the relationships of Eveline with her family and boyfriend, the expectations that the society and the community has with Eveline, and obligations and duties that she has towards herself and her family (O'Halloran 230).

Eveline is the character who represents many teenage girls living in the situations mentioned in Ireland. She is responsible to look after and take care of her home after the demise of her mother. The story highlights that taking care of her childhood home is important for Eveline as she made a promise to her dying mother on her deathbed that she would look after the house as much as she can. This is one of the most important examples of the lack of freedom in Irish women in 1914s as they were bound to all house bound chores and responsibilities. No doors of liberation were open to these women.

Along with the house, Eveline has two younger siblings to take care of, two younger brothers, Harry and Ernest. Eveline needs to make sure that she works hard to look after the house as well as two of her younger siblings so they can go to school, get education in a proper manner, and get their meals on the proper time. Although Joyce has shown that Eveline was working hard to get all her responsibilities fulfilled but there was a great gap (de Voogd 40). Life for Eveline was getting tougher. As the children were growing up, the responsibilities were increasing. An important gap that has been shown by Joyce to be felt by Eveline was an absence of a husband who could help Eveline more by taking some of her responsibilities.

One of the most important facts of the story comes in the obvious if the story is read with a feminist point-of-view. Eveline, being a woman of the house takes care of the house in a more responsible manner. Nevertheless, Eveline's father treats Eveline in a differential manner based on the fact that she is a female. Violence of the father on his daughter is evident in the story. The fear of a teen daughter, Eveline, grows as she grows older and out of her teens. The kind of care that was received by Harry and Ernest from their father was never received by Eveline because she was a girl (Ingersoll 1993).

Joyce has mentioned that those were the times when women were considered lesser than men in all aspects. Women were considered worthless of holding powerful position. Eveline's father despised her because she being a woman could not do much for her household. The weaknesses of Eveline being a woman seemed to multiply when she was asked to give up on her wages at work. When she needed money at the times she was broke, she had to ask her brothers for help. Thereby the dependency of Eveline on men was increased.

She was looked down upon by her co-worker women at the stores for being single. Having a boyfriend, Frank made Eveline think that if she marries him, he could help in sharing some of her responsibilities or she can even run away with him and travel around the world. However, the story ends with the fact that Eveline is bound by the responsibilities that she has back home as she had promised her mother. She gives up on her love. Being bound by all household responsibilities is the main feminist issue raised in the story that made Irish women of 18th century given up on their freedom (Attridge 45).

Ernest Hemmingway's "A Clean Well-Lighted Place"

"A Clean well-lighted place" is one of the most well-acclaimed short stories of Hemmingway. The main fact that makes the story more important is the presence of many existentialist themes. The meaning behind existentialist themes is that there is no purpose to life and there is no higher being including religion or God who can repair the nothingness in life. The story by Hemmingway highlights the loneliness of an old man, a rich drunkard who thinks that there is nothing to life, religion is nothing, and that the man has no importance. The story revolves around the aura of the cafe where the rich old drunkard gets drunk overnight on a regular basis being noticed by a pair of waiters who serve the old man as he gets drunk till 3 a.M. how the old man tries to commit suicide out of loneliness surrounded by the nothingness in his life is one of the most important facts of the story (Garrigues 60). Hemmingway has tried to highlight the fact that there is no meaning to life. The old man is rich but still his life has no meaning and the kind of happiness required by the old man cannot be provided by the money. Hemmingway has mentioned that the old drunkard was not afraid of anything but the nothingness that was consuming him. Many ways have been tried by the old man to deal with the level of loneliness and despair but nothing seems to work. In the end, he chooses a cafe where he can sit and get drink for hours. The light and spaces of the cafe attract the old man and seem to calm his nothingness and loneliness. Other than the old man, an old waiter and a younger waiter have been mentioned. Younger waiter has a wife and a hone to go to. However, the older waiter has the feelings similar to those of the old man. He knows the meaning of nothingness and how emptiness and nothingness can consume a person. Being alone and fighting with the loneliness is an important theme of the story. The older waiter realizes how the old rich drunkard feels thereby he thinks that the help that the old man needs can be given with the help of properly lit and spacious cafe. Hemmingway has mentioned the importance of spaces and lights for reduction of despair and depression as faced by the old rich drunkard (Stoltzfus 220).

An important fact that needs to be highlighted here is that the cafe shown in the story is an important symbol of life, clarity, and orderliness. These are the opposites of nothingness as defined by the old man. Thereby the main aim of the presence of cafe in the story is that it serves to clear the minds of those who are aware of nothingness and need help being in despair. When cafes are cleaner and lit, there are chances that those who want to get rid of despair will be able to do so. The older waiter mentions that the life has increased nothingness and the light, cleanliness and orderliness is all that the nothingness in life wanted to be complete. At one place in the story, the old waiter mentions that he is afraid to close down the cafe as there may be someone who needs to get rid of his or her loneliness and despair by being in the light of the cafe (Bloom 54).