Eveline One of the Major

Eveline

One of the major differences that occur when young men and women truly become adults is that they are ready to face the responsibilities that come along with this rite of passage. Many times, what one is expected to do in this new role of adulthood is completely the opposite of what is desired by them and never in the long-range plans as they were growing up. In this case, the person needs to make the difficult decision of "duty" versus personal desire. This is a dilemma that young people are challenged with today just as Eveline's generation was in 1914, nearly a century ago.

In this story, the 19-year-old Eveline is getting ready to run away and marry the sailor, Frank. The boat will be leaving any minute for "Buenos Ayres." Leaving with Frank will allow Eveline to "Escape!" from her father's abusive and violent demands and from a life like her mother's of servitude. Only by leaving Ireland and going to another country as a wife will people "treat her with respect," for she refuses to "be treated as her mother had been."

Yet, Eveline's leaving is a major decision that cannot be made lightly because of the ramifications. She will have to renege on "her promise to keep the home together as long as she could." She makes her final decision, a surprise to both her and Frank, but it appears that she will find a third alternative. She will not escape, but nor will she bow down to her father's demands like her mother. "When they were growing up he had never gone for her like he used to go for Harry and Ernest, because she was a girl but latter he had begun to threaten her and say what he would do to her only for her dead mother's sake. She will escape such tirades and possible harm by becoming her own person and reject her mother's life, "that life of commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness."

This short story by Joyce revolves around the internal conflict that Eveline has regarding her future. In this case, conflict is essential to the plot because it adds depth to Eveline's character and the story, as well as suspense. The conflict also reflects back on human nature, where people are continually conflicted about decisions that have to be made. The readers can empathize with Eveline, because they also have had such difficult choices to make in their lives. Within a short story, there may be only one central conflict, or there may be one dominant one with many minor ones. For Eveline, it is the one major decision of familial duty vs. personal dreams and independence. Further, it is Eveline's conflict not only with the situation as it is presented to her, but also with society as a whole. She has specific duties that are dictated by the times and what is expected of her to assume her mother's role.

In the final moments before the boat goes, Eveline recognizes the sacrifice she must make and ironically lets freedom move away into the ocean and turns back again to the same duties of society and family that produced her mother's complaining mantra "Derevaun Seraun!" that means in Gaelic -- "The end of pleasure is pain." Thus, if Eveline goes for pleasure with Frank, the end will only bring her pain, because she is too conflicted.

Throughout the short story, Joyce uses symbolism to show this conflict. The window, for example, represents Eveline's future and escape away from Ireland. However, the smell attached to the window and the material, itself, "social fabric," was the pull back home: "She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne" at the beginning, and once again at the end, "Her time was running out but she continued to sit by the window, leaning her head against the window curtain, inhaling the odour of dusty cretonne."

In contrast to the freedom of the boat, Joyce juxtaposes the inside of the house with the dust that is mounting up, the familiar objects and the yellowing photograph. Although her brothers are not there physically with her, the letter to Harry says he is near to her heart. Similarly, he uses water as a means of rejuvenation, as well as a threat of drowning her and letting her see what she loses through her fear and lack of courage. By not plunging into those "seas of the world that tumble[d] about her heart" Eveline gives up escape, renewed life and possible love for the past, duty, and a stale life.

The whole concept of duty to her family and to God is contained in this brief story, as well. She in fact prays to God and he responds to her with a mournful sound: "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 as her duty. The boat blew a long mournful whistle into the mist."

Joyce also compares time and location. Eveline moves back and forth from childhood to adulthood and from Buenos Ares to Ireland: Playing in the field with friends, living away in her new home, sitting and listening to the music of the Bohemian Girl as she and Frank sat together in the theatre. On the other hand, is the store, the confines of her room, the close, dark room where her mother died and asked her to take care of the household. Here is the escape to large fields and open theatres and huge seas compared to the closed-in rooms and store.

But more than anything, it is the duty, love and attachment that finally win out at the end. Eveline has to let go of Frank's hand and grab hold of the rail and pull herself back to her home, where she will grab the hand, although partly reluctantly, of those in her home, store and town. Eveline has to reject the love and being alive emotionally and spiritually as represented by "the seas of the world."