In James Joyce's "Eveline," the title character notices the dust in her home. This dust is one of the major symbolic elements of this story. Throughout the opening pages of the story, including the opening paragraph, the narrator mentions dust several times. As Eveline looked out from her window "in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne." Later on, she again ponders about the dust by looking at the "familiar objects which she had dusted once a week for so many years, wondering where on earth all the dust came from."
The dust symbolizes Eveline's life, which has become stuffy and stale and suffocating. Her life has become suffocating because of the responsibilities placed upon her. She must make money for her father, take care of children and live up to the promise she made to her dying mother.
Eveline notices the dust at this part of her life because she plans on leaving it, which means that the dust she so often cleans will no longer be cleaned. Instead, the dust will build as will the internal conflict within Eveline knowing that she is not fulfilling the promise she made to her mother.
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