preview

Literary Analysis Of Eveline

Decent Essays

James Joyce’s “Eveline” is a short story about a nineteen-year-old Eveline, who contemplates abandoning a life she is accustomed to and moving to a distant land with a man she hardly knows. In one hand she holds the weight of uncertain happiness, in the other, inevitable misery. Eveline needs to make a choice between two contrasting lives; one in which she is a servant to her father, in other, a respected wife. Following her mother’s death, Eveline assumes the role of a parent and inherits all the chores accompanying it. She works hard at home and “the Stores” (Joyce 74), but for all her troubles, Eveline gets little respect in return. Now with one brother dead and other away on business, she is left alone to keep the family together and …show more content…

Being at the bottom of the hierarchy, Eveline’s only means of escape is a man who will take her hand in marriage.
Eveline's father is the second most important character in the story, yet Joyce chooses not to reveal his name. That is because he is only a father in a biological sense, falling short at every other fatherly duty. Mr.Hill is a failed provider who takes his offspring’s earnings only to hand it back, allowing him to feel like a “man of the house”. He is abusive and flaunts his dominance by “threaten[ing]” (Joyce 73) Eveline well into her adulthood. The threats seem unprovoked and random, indicating father's attempts to instill fear rather than curb or abolish an offending behavior. Compensating for his failures, the father uses aggression and control to get what he wants. “Her father was becoming old lately, she noticed; he would miss her” (Joyce 75), the narrator draws our attention to the aging of the father and impending helplessness following it. Though Joyce does not clarify how the father will miss Eveline, judging by his past conducts, it is safe to assume that he would miss Eveline’s help around the house and money the most. Still, as she contemplates leaving, Eveline sees good in him and “tries to balance her father's increasing capacity for violence by remembering three random acts of kindness”(Trudell) that seemingly undue all the wrong he has done in the past. No matter

Get Access