"Eveline"

"Eveline" by James Joyce is a story about a young woman torn between two worlds: the world she knows, and the world she longs to know. She lives to escape her near-abusive father and the monotony and routine of her everyday life. Or does she? Eveline is haunted by the thoughts of re-living the life that her mother lived, and yet, thoughts of her mother's life and death are what drives her back into her daily routines. The men in her life promise her two completely different things: Eveline's fiance Frank promises journey and a new, exotic life to Eveline. He assures the life that Eveline so desperately wants, and is ready and willing to provide it to her. The only thing that Eveline's father assures her is the exact life she's always been living. Just as Frank really is leading Eveline to a new life, a new beginning, she freezes. She stays motionless on the dock as Frank calls for her to board the ship with him. She will not move. Perhaps it is indecision, or perhaps it is just Eveline's fear of leaving behind what she knows. Will she be a disappointment to her mother's life if she leaves? Or if she stays? Her indecisive nature plagues Eveline for the majority of the story and clearly will effect the rest of the character's entire life. She does not wish to spend the remainder of her life where she is, but she is stuck.