Eveline

Joyce’s short story, “Eveline”, depicts the classic story of a teenage girl determined to run away with her lover in order to escape her current oppressive life, although with a more realistic ending. She has met this wonderful man, Frank, who would be able to take her to places across the world that she longs to see. Her life at home is demanding and her father is overbearing; like most eldest daughters, she has taken on the duties and position of her mother after her mother died. Throughout the story, she is contemplating the meaning and worth of her life at home, and what it would be like if she left with Frank. As most young women with plans to escape would do, she argues back and forth with herself, trying to decide the best thing to do for her and her family whom she has an obligation to take care of. She experiences a sudden epiphany while she is reliving her mother’s death. “Escape! She must escape! Frank would save her. He would give her life, perhaps love, too…She has a right to happiness. Frank would take her in his arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her” (40). Eveline’s epiphany is that she wants to be happy and escape with Frank, to start a new life and new adventure with someone she loves. Her epiphany, however, is not carried though as paralysis grips Eveline and stops her from carrying out her dream. She is overwhelmed with family ties, her promise to her mother to keep their home together, and her duty at home. She ends up doing what her mother did—something she firmly resolved she wasn’t going to do. Instead of escaping she clings to the familiar and the safe, destined to live her continuously repetitive life in Dublin safe in non-changing circumstances and mindless chores.