This essay analyzes James Joyce's short story "Eveline," focusing on the protagonist's inability to escape her difficult life in Ireland despite having clear reasons to leave with her sailor companion for South America. The paper argues that Eveline's violent father created a psychological condition of faint-heartedness — manifested physically as heart palpitations — that causes her to react to fear rather than act from will. Through close reading of key passages, the essay traces how this character flaw drives Eveline's contradictory impulses: first propelling her toward escape when she imagines her mother's fate, then paralyzing her completely at the moment of departure.
The principal conflict within James Joyce's "Eveline" is whether the protagonist should run away with her lover to South America or remain with her family in Europe. The most compelling aspect of this conflict is that the author provides a number of extremely tangible reasons why it would be in Eveline's best interest to leave. Yet, abruptly, she decides to stay — despite the fact that she is walking hand in hand with her lover aboard the ship, her passage already paid for. A close examination of Eveline's character reveals that the harshness of her life in Europe has made her faint-hearted, and it is this character flaw that prevents her from fully embracing her life because she is too afraid to act.
Eveline is faint of heart both literally and figuratively — a fact Joyce communicates fairly early in the text. Moreover, the author suggests that this condition was induced by the harshness of the life she has led. She was forced to care for her father and two children who are not her own because of a promise she made to her mother on her deathbed. In addition to surrendering all the money she earned at a thankless job to her father, the man himself was cantankerous at best and dangerous far too often. It is because of her father's presence, and the arduous nature of Eveline's daily existence, that she initially became faint-hearted. The following passage emphasizes this point:
"She would not be treated as her mother had been. Even now, though she was over nineteen, she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father's violence. She knew it was that that had given her the palpitations" (Joyce).
This passage strongly implies that Eveline's father was violent toward both her mother and toward Eveline herself. Furthermore, it suggests that her father's nature was responsible for a physical condition she developed — "the palpitations" — in which one's heart beats irregularly, particularly in times of stress and indecision. This condition is closely synonymous with faint-heartedness, and it comes to define Eveline as a character who is flighty, unsure, and prone to fear, especially when it comes to making major decisions in her life.
Once the reader understands this aspect of Eveline's character, her impulsiveness and inability to make decisions clearly explains why she remains in Europe despite the difficult life she is certain to continue there. Her ultimate decision is galvanized by fright. Interestingly, it is this same fright that initially led her to decide she wanted to board the ship with her sailor companion on the day she was supposed to leave. Eveline recollects the memory of her mother on her deathbed and sees her own future reflected in that image — a fact supported by the following passage:
"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" (Joyce).
The young woman realizes that her fate will mirror her mother's if she remains in Europe, and she becomes positively terrified of that prospect, as the subsequent quotation makes clear: "She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror. Escape! She must escape!" (Joyce). The abruptness of this moment, and its transient quality, is readily apparent. Eveline is not so much acting as reacting to this memory and the terror it brings her. She cannot act; she can only react. It is this same inability to act due to fear — initially induced by her father — that drives both her emotions and her behavior. James Joyce consistently uses this psychological pattern throughout the story to reveal her paralysis.
"Fear freezes Eveline at the ship's gangway"
A careful analysis of the diction Joyce uses to describe the young woman in these fleeting moments — as she fails to accompany her companion onto the ship — indicates that the same terror grips her here as gripped her while she thought of her mother on her deathbed. The following passage proves this point:
"She felt her cheek pale and cold and, out of a maze of distress she prayed… She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition" (Joyce).
This passage demonstrates that Eveline is "cold" with trepidation — a trepidation that whitens her face and ultimately paralyzes her so completely that she cannot act. The situation is analogous to the theme of paralysis that runs throughout Joyce's Dubliners: in both instances described in this essay, Eveline cannot act but only react, and in this final moment that reaction keeps her exactly where she is. She does not consciously desire this outcome. She has become numb to all perception except her overpowering, faint-hearted fear, which is why her face shows nothing but a manifestation of that fear. This fear prevents the young woman from pursuing a life of happiness outside her native land.
Eveline is unable to escape the life she has led in Europe because of the difficulties she endured there. Those difficulties included the corrupting influence of her violent father, who instilled in her a condition of faint-heartedness. This condition causes the young woman to be overcome by fear that supersedes her ability to think and act deliberately. Instead, she can only react. It is this visceral reaction — driven by her palpitating fear — that keeps her from boarding the ship to South America with her companion and, ultimately, from the possibility of a freer life.
Joyce, James. "Eveline." Online-Literature Network. 1914. Web.
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