James Joyce's Eveline

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Recommended: A stylistic analysis of the short story Eveline by James Joyce

James Joyce's "Eveline" tells the story of a teenage girl who has had a bad life and was given the chance to leave with someone who was seemingly the man of her dreams. He was nice to her, took her places, and treated her like a queen. He was a true gentleman; she was never treated so nicely ever before. Her upbringing was from a strict Roman Catholic Irish family whose mother had passed away in her childhood. She made a promise to her mother while on her deathbed that she felt was a duty, and that duty was to take care of her family. Eveline was a young lady living in Ireland from the late 1800's through the early 1900's. She was raised in a strict Catholic, Irish family. Her duty in life was to take care of the family from now on and go to work at the same time, only to come home to a very sad and angry father who was not so nice any more ever since her mother's death. She was tired, tired of all that she was going through at such a young age, all the responsibility that she has taken. Taking care of her father, along with her brothers and keeping up with household chores like dusting and cooking their meals was tiring her now. Maybe Frank would save her was what she believed, but then she realized that she didn't know Frank very much and she couldn't trust him. Frank did say that they will get married in Buenos Aires where he had a home waiting for her and they will both take a boat trip there but then she recalls the promise....the duty to her mother. The promise was one of the reasons why she can't go with Frank. She can't leave her family for a man, a man that even she doesn't know enough to go away to another world far from home, a world that she wouldn't understand. Another country frightened Eveline very much. Her father being a strict Catholic Irishmen was the type of person to take Eveline's salary from her on Saturday, using her hard earned money at the town bars and pubs to indulge in his alcoholic festivities. Then again he was also the type of father who will give some of the money back to her on Sunday's so Eveline can go out and buy the family their Sunday dinner and cook it for them.

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