Reading James Joyce’s “Eveline” through Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent

This paper argues that James Joyce’s “Eveline” might be a writing material for Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent. If Joyce used The Secret Agent for Ulysses, Conrad might use “Eveline” for The Secret Agent. In the stories, Winnie’s mother leaves Verloc’s home, forcing Winnie to sacrifice to be Stevie’s mother. Likewise, on her deathbed, Eveline’s mother asks Eveline to care for her two younger brothers. In doing so, Eveline, much like Winnie, becomes a symbolic mother to the brothers. However, when Winnie and Eveline are about to achieve their freedom, they are abandoned by Ossipon and Frank, respectively. In despair, at the end of the story, Winnie drowns herself, and Eveline fears being drowned. Although Conrad and Joyce did not interact with each other when they were alive, they might have used their works as writing materials to express their views of the peril of women at the turn of the century.