Research Paper On Eveline

The Feminist’s Eveline

In the first wave of the feminist movement, women were greatly disadvantaged in terms of power and opportunity. Likewise, in the story Eveline, the protagonist exhibits the powerlessness and lack of opportunity commonly seen during the same period. The protagonist is unable to make her own decisions and relies on male influence to determine her fate despite her individual goals. Her lover, Frank, was the only form of freedom she knew; however false it might have been. Meanwhile, her father held her back and her mother’s last wishes only reinforced her enslavement. This is a story that lives somewhere in the foundation of feminism. In the beginning of the story, Eveline looks out at her fairly bleak environment. She sees that everything is changing around her, from the field she played in as a child to the friends who grew up with her. However, she did not change, but it was her time to move on. Enter Prince Charming, in the form of Frank, who was to be her ticket to new world where “people would treat her with respect” and “she would not be treated as her mother had been”. Therefore, implying she would share the same fate as her mother if she stayed. Even more so,

Maybe Frank is Eveline’s Prince Charming, but only sometimes. If Eveline’s love interest shares any qualities with her father than it is understandable why she would be hesitant to run away with him. These qualities include verbal abuse, financial tyranny, and possessive behavior. As mentioned earlier, Eveline implied that staying with her father would lead to her being treated like her mother, who was not respected. This is confirmed with this quote “latterly he had begun to threaten her--the trouble was to get any money from her father--her father had found out the affair and had forbidden her to have anything to say to him.” The possibility of leaving might have brought up an