an organ grinder that makes her remember a promise she made to her mother: the secondary implication of this is that Eveline's life will be exactly like her mother's: with no hope of advancement or escape.

"Eveline" was first written in 1904 and seems to be set contemporaneously with the time in which it was written.

In general, the setting of James Joyce's "Eveline" takes place in Dublin at either the end of the 1890s or the beginning of the 1900s. More specifically, the bulk of the story takes place by a window in Eveline's father's house in the evening. Like all of Joyce's stories in Dubliners, the story involves some representation of paralysis. The setting contributes to this theme of paralysis because, as Eveline sits in her father's home, we get the sense of someone who is trapped and unable to move forward in life. Even worse, when Eveline gets the chance to escape this situation, she decides to stay. Therefore, the setting becomes a claustrophobic place that ultimately seems to be closing in around Eveline and preventing her from progressing or growing as an individual. Joyce's decision to stage most of his story in a single location reinforces this notion.  

Most simply put, the setting of any story is the time and place in which a story unfolds. However, in a larger sense, setting also refers to a story's overall greater environment and establishes the mood of a story. Setting can include "social conditions, historical time, geographical locations weather, immediate surroundings, and timing" (Literary Devices, "Setting").

In James Joyce's short story "Eveline," the story opens with the title character and protagonist, Eveline, sitting at a window in her father's home, at dusk, watching dusk turn to evening. Therefore, the window, the home, and the approaching evening all count as aspects of the setting.  

As we continue to read, due to the narrator's reference to Belfast and the list of Irish names, we learn that the story is more specifically set in a small, unnamed village in Ireland. The narrator's description of change in the village is also part of the setting; more specifically, the narrator reflects on how Eveline used to play in an open field with the other village children, but the field has since been covered with new houses by a "man from Belfast."

Further aspects of the setting include several factors that help identify the culture and society in which she lives: (1) She works as a shop girl for very low wages; (2) her father is a drunkard; (3) her mother is deceased, and she must work very hard to take care of both the household and her youngest siblings; (4) she is afraid to run off with a man to escape her living conditions because she is afraid of ruining her reputation; and (5) most everyone she grew up with has emigrated out of the country.

Due to these cultural references, we know the story is also most likely set around the time that Joyce wrote the story, which was 1914, the same year that World War I started. The hardships the character endures reflects Joyce's own experiences living in Ireland.

There is a certain aura of stagnation, death, defeat, and paralysis in the setting of "Eveline."

Eveline Hill sits listlessly at the window with the funereal smell of "dusty cretonne" as she stares down a lonely avenue where there was once a field in which children played. Now, however, the field is gone, because an intruder, a Protestant man from Belfast, purchased this lot and had houses built upon it.

At the port where the ship rests that can take her away with her lover, the adult world of desire disturbs the waters around the ship, but causes "distress and nausea"--what Joyce calls paralysis--in Eveline.

Much like the setting, Eveline suffers a paralysis of spirit under the looming influence of the dead and the stagnation of her life:

• The man from Belfast who had houses built on the field has silenced the laughter of children and ruined the happy memories.
• Eveline's mother is deceased, and the hanging print of the promises of Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque is a reminder of Eveline's promise made to her mother to keep the family together.
• Eveline perceives herself to be in danger of her father's violence, and feels helpless as there is no older brother any more who will protect her.
• Her life is "hard" as she suffers through squabbles about money.
• Eveline continues to sit at the window and inhales the "odour of dusty cretonne" as her dream of leaving with Frank fades because she is again reminded of her promise to her mother.
• She is further reminded of her mother's words that the end of pleasure is pain--"Derevaun Seraun!"
• When Eveline finally goes to the port, she sees the "black mass of the boat" that blows a "mournful whistle into the mist" and she halts, emotionally paralyzed.
• "A bell clanged upon her heart": Her duty evoked by the Blessed Margaret Mary paralyzes Eveline and she cannot board the ship.
• Eveline surrenders to the circumstances that she cannot control: "She set her white face to him [Frank], passive, like a helpless animal." 
• Much as she has sat listlessly at the window, Eveline has an insufficiency of will, and she cannot board the ship.