Student Question
What is Harry's occupation in "Eveline"?
Quick answer:
Harry's occupation in "Eveline" is in the church decorating business. He travels frequently for his job and is seldom in Dublin, leaving Eveline feeling alone and unprotected from their increasingly threatening father. Although he is a minor character who never appears in person, his absence significantly impacts Eveline's sense of security.
Harry is one of Eveline's two brothers. He's a very minor character in the story, and we never actually encounter him at any time. We only know about him through the narrator's description of Eveline's memories. For instance, we discover that, when he was younger, Harry was regularly subjected to violence by his father, as indeed was Ernest, Eveline's other brother, now departed.
Harry has also left the family home, but not quite in the same way. He works in the church decorating business, and often travels up and down the country as part of his job. His absence from the family home makes Eveline feel alone, that she's not adequately protected from her father. Indeed, her father is becoming increasingly threatening towards her. Yet, despite this, and her constant toiling away as a skivvy at home, she describes her life as not "wholly undesirable." This somewhat ambiguous attitude...
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foreshadows the most important event in the story—the sudden decision that Eveline will make concerning her future as she stands on the quayside.
In James Joyce's short story "Eveline", Eveline's brother Harry, a minor character who never appears in person, is described as being "in the church decorating business". He travels up and down the country and is seldom in Dublin. We know little about Harry and have to rely on Eveline's memories for information about him. It seems that, like all the siblings, he was abused by his father when a child.
"The church decorating business" is an odd phrase and it is not entirely clear what it means (something we should expect from Joyce, even in his early work). Churches are typically decorated from week to week and for special festivals by their congregations. For such events as weddings they are decorated by florists and other specialists employed, usually, by the parents of the bride. Perhaps Harry is a painter and decorator who specializes in churches and the rather quaint, curious description is intended to make his job sound rather more grandiose than it really is. In any case, the slightly suspicious sound of the job, as though the description is hiding something else, fits the atmosphere of the story.