"Eveline"

In the short story, "Eveline" by James Joyce, the narrator, Eveline, debates whether or not she wants to run away with her lover, Frank, to live in Buenos Ayres. When he tells her to come along onto the boat she realizes that, "All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing." This statement shows how the author uses irony to demonstrate Eveline's internal struggles. In the beginning of the story, the mood was dark and depressed and the narrator described her family life to be like a prison. As she spoke about Frank, he became the one hope for Eveline and the only escape route from having the same fate as her mother, death. Now that Eveline is staring at her final decision to have a new life, she realizes that it would be a mistake to go with him and her guilt overwhelms her heart. Earlier in the passage, she states her realization that her father would miss her, despite his cruelty and her fear of his violence; she would feel bad leaving him. This is ironic considering up till now all Eveline was thinking about was her new journey with Frank and how adventurous and amazing it was going to be.

It is interesting that the author writes that the seas “would drown her” and Frank would be “drawing her into them,” this diction exposes Eveline’s fears of the future with Frank as being similar to her father’s past actions. Just before Eveline makes this connection Frank says to her to “come” as if she were an animal. Frank’s shift in his tone changes the reader’s attitude towards Frank to be skeptical; this was Joyce’s way to trigger Eveline’s epiphany. The imagery Joyce uses to describe how Eveline was holding the railing symbolizes her clenching onto her last strands of dignity. She did not want to go with him because she did not want to leave to get herself into the same situation; which was exactly what the author wanted the reader to predict would happen. The quote makes a large contribution to the story as a whole since it is used as a turning point in the plot and contradicts most of the reader’s insights.