Eveline
Choose 10 questions to answer (pair work)
- Describe Eveline’s home life.
- How does she expect her new life to be different?
- Is Buenos Aires a symbol?
- List specific references to dust. What is the significance of the dust image?
- What is Eveline’s father like? Compare him to Mansfield’s late colonel or to O’Casey’s Capt. Boyle.
- What was her mother like? What happened to her? Does Eveline identify with her mother in any way?
- What do you think her mother meant by her repeating “the end of pleasure is pain”?
- What does her father mean when he tells her, “I know these sailor chaps”? What possible reasons would he have for trying to break up her romance with Frank?
- What type of person is Frank? What does she actually know about him?
- Has Eveline romanticized Frank in any way? Is her father’s objection of him perhaps justified?
- What is Eveline’s duty to her father? What promise did she make to her dying mother?
- What is her duty to herself? Does she really believe she has “a right to happiness”? Why or why not?
- How does Eveline feel about leaving her brother, Harry?
- In what ways is Eveline “like a helpless animal”? What is she afraid of?
- Why do you think her eyes give Frank “no sign of love or farewell or recognition”?
- Do you think Eveline made the right decision? Why or why not?
Writing: compare and contrast the protagonist of the story and the protagonist of the movie: “Brooklyn”