Eveline

“Perhaps she would never see again those familiar objects from which she had never dreamed of being divided.”

Joyce’s word choice immediately juxtaposes the familiarity of Eveline’s home with the fact that she is abandoning that familiarity. Combining the two thoughts in one relatively short sentence mirrors the way Eveline’s thoughts vacillate between her options. She wants to go, but the familiarity of her current home competes with a fear of the unknown, making Eveline question her decision.

“She had consented to go away, to leave her home. Was that wise?”

Although Joyce retains the grammatical use of active voice, his phrasing in this moment indicates Eveline’s passivity. Instead of finding and choosing her own path to escape her present unhappiness, Eveline simply agreed to another’s plan. Instead of making things happen, things happen to her, revealing her tendency to follow rather than to lead. This hints at her future passivity when she stays paralyzed on the dock.

“But in her new home, in a distant unknown country, it would not be like that. Then she would be married—she, Eveline. People would treat her with respect then. She would not be treated as her mother had been.”

Both here and during Eveline’s memory of her mother’s death, Eveline’s thoughts reveal a contemptuousness for the path her mother’s life took. Underneath this is a fear that she could be treated the same way if she does nothing to change her own path. To do so, she has agreed to leave her country and marry in an attempt to secure protection and, perhaps, love from the seemingly kind Frank.

“And now she had nobody to protect her.”

With this short, simple sentence, Joyce reveals the crux of Eveline’s fears and inner debate. She fears a future in an unknown country, but she also fears for her safety and future at home in Ireland. With her father threatening to hurt her, she turns to Frank for protection.

“She had hard work to keep the house together and to see that the two young children who had been left to her charge went to school regularly and got their meals regularly. It was hard work—a hard life—but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life.”

This passage reveals, yet again, Eveline’s uncertainty over her decision through the proximity of two different perspectives. In one sentence, she emphasizes the difficulty and exhaustion of her current life, while in the next, she admits that it may not be as bad as she thought in the face of an unknown and distant future.

“She was about to explore another life with Frank. Frank was very kind, manly, open-hearted. She was to go away with him by the night-boat to be his wife and to live with him in Buenos Ayres where he had a home waiting for her.”

Eveline, having grown up seeing and fearing her father’s abuse, values kindness above all else. Notably, she emphasizes Frank’s manliness, which she perceives as the ability to protect her. Since her mother and one brother died and her other brother is usually in the country, Eveline longs for protection. She finds it in this sailor, who courted and wooed her with stories of his worldly adventures.

“People knew that they were courting and, when he sang about the lass that loves a sailor, she always felt pleasantly confused. He used to call her Poppens out of fun. First of all it had been an excitement for her to have a fellow and then she had begun to like him.”

In dreaming of safety, Eveline is particularly willing to seek protection rather than waiting to know for certain if she loves Frank. She was excited to be courted, and then she began to like him, but she does not admit to loving the man she has chosen to marry. Eveline illustrates the common phenomenon, particularly at the time, of women marrying for security or to escape their childhood homes.

“Her father was becoming old lately, she noticed; he would miss her. Sometimes he could be very nice. Not long before, when she had been laid up for a day, he had read her out a ghost story and made toast for her at the fire.”

As the moment of her departure draws nearer, Eveline continues to question her decision. In doing so, she finds memories to justify staying, recalling the times her father was kind or light-hearted. These memories also illustrate the complex nature of many abusive relationships: Despite the mistreatment, abusers often show moments of kindness, as well. Here, Eveline parallels Ireland, whose citizens both endure the abuses of imperialism and love their country.

“Down far in the avenue she could hear a street organ playing. She knew the air. Strange that it should come that very night to remind her of the promise to her mother, her promise to keep the home together as long as she could.”

The “melancholy Italian air” (22) that plays in this scene serves as a reminder and symbol of Eveline’s mother, recalling for Eveline her deathbed promise. This moment establishes one more reason for Eveline to stay—perhaps one of her more compelling reasons. At the same time, as the memory unfolds, Eveline recalls her mother’s final, frenzied words, which drive her to seek freedom.

“As she mused the pitiful vision of her mother’s life laid its spell on the very quick of her being—that life of commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness. She trembled as she heard again her mother’s voice saying constantly with foolish insistence:

‘Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!’

She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror. ‘Escape! She must escape! Frank would save her. He would give her life, perhaps love, too. But she wanted to live. Why should she be unhappy? She had a right to happiness. Frank would take her in his arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her.”

This passage is a moment of climax and epiphany, pushing Eveline away from the house and toward the dock. The image of her mother dying, crying out with what Eveline perceives as nonsense, cuts to the core of Eveline’s fear of unhappiness. Like her mother, Eveline’s life in Ireland is already on the path of “commonplace sacrifices.” Her only option is Frank, whom she believes will protect her from this fate, and so she runs to the dock where he awaits.

“She felt her cheek pale and cold and, out of a maze of distress, she prayed to God to direct her, to show her what was her duty[…]Could she still draw back after all he had done for her?”

On the dock, Eveline faces the final moment of conflict, where all her fears coincide and leave her frozen with distress. This is the moment when she turns to her religion, and Joyce illustrates the tight hold Roman Catholicism’s duties and strictures have on Ireland. Eveline, a symbol for Ireland, tries to rely on her God to show her the way, but hearing nothing, she is unable to make the decision herself.

“All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing.”

On one level, Eveline fears that to go with Frank would be to drown in the seas of an uncertain and unfamiliar future. On another level, Eveline’s fear is actually a fear of choosing her fate. Frank attempts to pull her to the boat and force her to a decision, but autonomy can be frightening to those unfamiliar with it. Eveline fears making the decision now that she must step onto the boat.

“No! No! No! It was impossible. Her hands clutched the iron in frenzy. Amid the seas she sent a cry of anguish!”

Eveline meets the moment when it is too late to take a step toward a different fate. Frank is forced to rush onto the boat, calling for her to follow, but she is too frozen to make the decision and run to meet him. The reader knows from her earlier thoughts that she is afraid to stay, but boarding the boat to Buenos Aires causes her terror, as well. Eveline is left anguished, feeling that the new path she wants is impossible for her to grasp.