Before Eveline goes to meet Frank at the station, the story uses auditory imagery to describe the sound of a street organ that Eveline hears playing outside her window:
“Down far in the avenue she could hear a street organ playing. She knew the air. Strange that it should come that very night to remind her of the promise to her mother, her promise to keep the home together as long as she could. She remembered the last night of her mother’s illness; she was again in the close dark room at the other side of the hall and outside she heard a melancholy air of Italy.”
By describing the sound of the organ as “a melancholy air of Italy,” the story creates the sense that the music isn’t just white noise in the background—it contains deep sadness and even carries memories and a sense of place with it. Indeed, the music is so evocative that it makes Eveline remember hearing similar organ music on the night that her mother died. This sound is one of the many sensory elements in the story that evoke nostalgia for Eveline, and the vivid description in this passage immerses the reader in her memory as well. Beyond just sounding melancholic, the organ music reminds her of “the promise to keep the home together” that she made to her mother. In this way, the imagery in this passage keeps Eveline rooted in the past and contributes to her guilt and indecisiveness about leaving Dublin for a new life in Buenos Ayres with Frank.
Although Eveline desperately wants to escape her life in Dublin, fear takes over as she approaches the boat that will take her to Buenos Ayres to start a new life with Frank. The story uses visual and tactile imagery to describe Eveline’s perception of this moment:
“Through the wide doors of the sheds she caught a glimpse of the black mass of the boat, lying in beside the quay wall, with illuminated portholes. She answered nothing. She felt her cheek pale and cold and, out of a maze of distress, she prayed to God to direct her, to show her what was her duty. The boat blew a mournful whistle into the mist.”
The “black mass” of the boat emphasizes its unfamiliarity and size. Eveline describes it almost as if it were a black hole, something vast and unknown. Since the boat is Eveline’s transportation between Dublin and Buenos Ayres, the image of it as a dark void suggests that the new life it will carry her to seems similarly uncertain, foreboding, and overwhelming to her. Even though she longs for a change of scenery, then, both of the choices in front of her (staying in Dublin or going to Buenos Ayres) seem perilous.
Eveline’s fear builds in intensity as her face goes pale and feels “cold” and lifeless—almost like a dead body. This sensory detail is one of several instances when the story equates leaving Dublin to a kind of death for Eveline. It also foreshadows the final image of her, when she’s unable to bring herself to join Frank on the boat: “passive, like a helpless animal.” Eveline views her “distress” in this moment as an unfamiliar “maze” that she’s trying to make sense of and escape, and she seeks comfort in God, the familiar. The image of mist—again suggesting the unknown— further emphasizes that Eveline feels lost and apprehensive, and the “mournful whistle” again hints that leaving Dublin seems to her like the death of who she is, even though staying also feels deadening. All in all, the imagery in this passage helps the reader see and feel what Eveline is seeing and feeling, giving them a window into the depths of her fear and conveying the sense that she will be trapped, lifeless, and unfulfilled no matter what she chooses to do.
