Eveline

Eveline, as a child, was joyful. She along with her brothers and sisters use to play with the neighborhood children in a big field, which was now full of “[b]right brick houses with shining roofs” (3). During that time her mother was living and her father less harsh. Although her father had always been stern still “they seem to have been rather happy then” (3). But that was in the past, “[s]he and her brothers and sisters were all grown up; her mother dead” (3). Her life had become dull and boring. Since her mother was deceased now, she took on many of the womanly duties of the house. Joyce reveals it by stating “. . . she had dusted once a week for so many years. . .” and “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. . .” (3- 4). Her father became abusive, “. . . he had begun to threaten her and say what he would do to her only for her dead mother’s sake” (4). Work was one place where she had got some type of attention. Though her job was not that delightful she “would not cry many tears at leaving the stores” (3). Frank was her only real outlet. He gave her excitement and a sense of love. She had wanted a new life with him so “people would treat her with respect” (3). Eveline does not flee her unhappy home because of the vow made to her dying mother; she’s trapped by an abusive father and her Catholic faith.

As she stared out the window, she reminisced on her past. Her mind brought her back to the night of her mother’s death. Her mom was ill and on the verge of insanity when she promised her that “she would keep the home together as long as she could” (5). At the time women did not have much voice in their home, work, or commun...

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...Her family was proudly Catholic. She had religious duty to uphold. She was catholic and running with a man whom she did not quite know would be a sin. “What would they say of her in the stores when they found out that she had run away with a fellow?” (3). She could not keep wavering on what to choose. She had to make a choice.

Eveline could not leave her home because of the promise she made her mom. The guilt would have made Eveline even more mentally beaten. Though Frank had promised her a “home in Buenos Ayres” she did not know enough about him to let go of her insecurities and trust him (5). Raised a Catholic she knew it is wrong to leave her family alone to search for personal happiness. Because of all the characteristics Eveline obtained growing up into a young woman, she decides to stay with her family of whom “she had never dreamed of being departed” (3).