Consider:
1. Joyce sets the thematic mood in the opening line: the pressure of mounting darkness and the "odor of dusty cretonne" (curtain fabric). Both images are repeated; dust is especially significant because Eveline is leaving for Buenos Aires—"good air" in Spanish.

2. The photo of the priest on the wall is yellowed with age; no one seems to remember his name. Will Eveline be forgotten, as well?.

3.The first inkling of Eveline's ambivalence comes early in the story: "was that wise," she wonders to leave home? Yet her life is one of dreary routine, little affection, even violent threats from her drunken father.

4. Her mother's dying words, "Derevaun Seraun," are Gaelic for "pleasure ends in pain." Does this play into Eveline's final decision?

5. Eveline's promise to her dying mother can function in two ways: 1) as a plot device, a reason to hold Eveline back; 2) as a metaphor for Joyce's belief that the Irish are imprisoned by their past

6. Eveline's refusal to go with Frank is ambiguous: there seems to be no one reason but rather a combination: obligation to her mother, perhaps her lack of love for Frank, a fear of losing her identity (drowning)? Whatever it is—and readers argue endlessly about the whys and the shoulds or should-nots—her refusal represents Joyce's concept of "paralysis," a theme that permeates every story in The Dubliners.