Back to Square one摘要乔伊斯的短篇小说《伊芙琳》描述了女人公伊芙琳沉闷乏味的生活经历以及在出走的最后一刻却退回原地，选择放弃的故事，结尾处的女主人公的决策使得小说晦涩难懂，本文以此为着眼点，展示了民众内心瘫痪的主题，揭示了女性意识的觉醒，以及梦想的幻灭导致的无助的退却。
关键词：伊芙琳; 瘫痪；女性意识觉醒；幻灭；退却AbstractEveline is a novel by James Joyce, which describes the protagonist’s stultifying life experiences and her giving up of leaving at the last minute. At the end of the story, her final decision was obscure and confusing. Thus, I take it as a key point to demonstrate the public psychic paralysis which is the theme of this novel, then further display the awakening of female consciousness and the helpless retreat brought about by the disillusion of dream.Key Words: Eveline; paralysis;awakening of female consciousness; disillusion；shrink back I. IntroductionFor a long time, James Joyce has always been considered as one of the most influential modernist novelist of the early 20th century. He was born in an Irish Catholic family in Dublin. Though most of his adult life was spent overseas, Joyce's fictional universe does not extend beyond Dublin where seemed to be the center of paralysis[l]. His masterpiece Dubliners is a powerful illustration, which was completed in 1905, composed of 15 short stories[2].Eveline, as the fourth story in this collection, reflects the paralytic life of the young in Dublin in a most direct and vivid way. The protagonist, a girl at the age of 19, had suffered an oppressive life ever since her beloved people died. She was ordered about at the store, and she lived an impoverished life with an abusive father who refused to let her have a life of her own. In order to seek for a brand new life with her boyfriend Frank, she decided to run away to Buenos Aires. Howerver, just before boarding the ship, she had a change of mind and shrunk back to her depressing life. Many people hold the view that this ending simply showsa dilemma between family and love. Eveline choosed to stay beacause her sense of obligation to her family outweighed her desire for a whole new life. However, in my opinoin, it is not totally so. Actually, such a process of decision making happens to reveal the theme of Dubliners—the psychic paralysis.The paralysis of Dublin life hinders the awakening of woman consciousness and causes the disillusion of dream. This gives me the aspiration of writing this paper.II.The paralysis of Dublin lifeIn this short story, through the depicting of the depressive surrounding, the paralysis of Dublin life was presented vividly. At the very beginning of this story, Eveline sat at the window, leaned against the window curtains, surging thoughts and emotions about stay or leave, and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne. Clearly, the word dusty symbolized the dry, uninteresting life in Dublin. Even Eveline wondered where on earth all the dust came from, though she had been cleaning it out for so many years[2].Obviously the thick dust suggested the degree of Dublin's paralysis. This foreshadowed the destiny of women in Eveline’s period. Some of them are fully apathetic; others might have ever tried to escape from the dull li fe only to find that the “dust” cover on the heart and soul is too thick.While reading this story, the unhappy experiences of Eveline were unfolded little by little. Since her mother died, Eveline began to lived in a state of endless uncertainty. She had to shoulder the responsibility of supporting her family.She felt no longer protected because of the heavy burden of family and her father’s threatening. She, in fact, played a double role in her family, a mother for the young, a wife for her father. Under the mounting stress from different aspects, she tried to fight against this “paralysis”. She was about to explore another life in another world. However, before boarding the ship, she was totally at a loss about whether to go or not, and at last fail to go. This reveals Eveline’s puzzlement and the spiritual dilemma on the one hand; On the other hand, it shows the lingering repression and paralysis of Dublin.III. the awakening of woman consciousnessIn such a male-dominant society, women had a hard life even when they were still young. Through the presentation of Eveline’s and her mother’s life, it shows that women atthat time should devote to the family whole-heartily, while they didn’t have the right to determine things independently, even their own life, marriage and fate; they have to accept their unbearable miseries in life passively and obediently. Thus it exposed the irrationality of traditional feminine role. What’s more, fro m the story we get to know that a sailor called Frank rushed into the her life like a sea breeze. Evenline met him secretly and experienced many brand new things together. She inevitably generated the idea of elopement.“To be or not to be, that is a question,”such a famous saying well interprets the dilemma of Eveline. Once she hesitated and was haunted by the past memories and promise she kept. Then at the second thought of the whole life miseries of her mother, she was frightened and again determined in running away with her boyfriend. Eveline’s awareness of her mother’s miseries and her desire to start a new life reveals the awakening of her female consciousness. Although at last Eveline did not manage to leave, she was not the girl who used to be after the torturous baptism.III.Disillusion of dreamNo one can forcast what might happen to her future, but the ending of this story does give us infinite space reverie. The reason that Eveline stopped pursuing for her dream seemed very obscure to us. Maybe in such a dull society, the only way for Eveline to escape from unhappy situations is marriage. However, marriage is not always reliable as she thought. With one step forword to the dock, there was freedom and hope of a new life, but also danger, death or uncertainty.Besides, in the traditional ideas of westerners, sailor usually refers to people who tend to spread intimacy over too many places and who are unwilling to build a ture partnership. We can not rule out the possibility that Frank was an exception. But with the brief time getting to know each other, Eveline was spellbound by the crazy love and generated the idea of elopement in a brash way. No wonder her father would said with objection, ”I know these sailor chaps,” and quarrelled with Frank.At the end of the story, unexpectedly, she refused to go with this young man who brought her hope, her face registered no emotion at all, no sign of love or farewell or recognition. She didn’t express her ideas clearly to us, which leave us confused. But ac cording to her reactionof “gripping with both hands at the iron railing”, we learned that her desperate situation was cleared up for her at this very moment. This might originate from her inborn human nature—a sense of self-protection. She might realize that Frank would probably become another “father”, and finally she would follow her mother’s steps—a slave of housekeeping. She just jumped into another fiery pit and made no difference. The amazing marriage in her dream would turn out to be a replica of present dull life. Unable to struggle, swamp quagmire. After all, it is not so easy for her to get rid of such a society of paralysis.V. ConclusionDreams are better than reality. But someday people would suddenly wake up from their dreams and find no way out, get injured and feel more upset by comparing that dream with reality. Actually, Eveline is the very epitome of that time. Through the whole story, we know that Eveline’s feminist consciousness was awakened. However, she didn’t take the chance to seek a new life. With her dream shattered, Eveline was paralyzed in getting rid of such a dilemma. Since people’s dreams were shaped in the existing paralytic surroundings, their protest uaually went back to the square one, and their efforts often ended in bitter resignation or fruitless discontent. Watch can go back to the basics, but has not yesterday.By probing into this short story, I have not only gained a lot of knowledge about the works of James Joyce but also known something about the psychic world of his time as well. Apart from these, it also raises my interest to go deeper and further in other works of James Joyce.References[l] 侯纬锐. 现代英国小说史[M]. 上海：上海教育出版社[2] 詹姆斯乔伊斯. 都柏林人[M]. 孙梁，宗白，译.上海译文出版社。
