In the following essay, Beck focuses on Eveline's "death of the heart" as being symbolic of the greater theme of Ireland's paralysis and "deadening influence" in Dubliners.

In the story "Eveline" a far journey is projected, but the timid protagonist, paralyzed by ambivalence at the moment of embarking from Dublin's North Wall, never sets out. In the three preceding stories lesser journeys have been proposed, from their adjacent locales in one region of North Dublin, and all with a crossing of the river Liffey to the south. ("The Sisters" locates the priest's house in Great Britain Street, now Parnell Street; "Araby" has its base in North Richmond Street; presumably the boys of "An Encounter" live in the same area, since they meet at the Canal Bridge, proceed to the North Wall, and then cross the river.) Father Flynn had "had his mind set on" a drive down...