James Joyce Dubliners Evenline Essay

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One of the Dubliners stories, “Eveline” is a devastating tale about a woman’s resistance to change. The title character acts as if she is trapped in the past, even though she has a tremendous and promising opportunity to embrace a new life filled with freedom and excitement. Eveline grapples with the question of whether to stay in Dublin or leave with her lover, and her indecision results in the decision being made for her—Eveline remains powerless. A feminist criticism approach to “Eveline” shows how the title character responds ambivalently to patriarchal social structures and gender norms.

Eveline is a young woman, whose mother has died, and whose father has since become violent; “she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father's violence,” (Joyce 2). Although Eveline claims her father “was not so bad” when her mother was still alive (1), she contradicts herself later, saying, “she would not be treated as her mother had been,” (Joyce 2). Eveline is about to perpetuate the cycle of domestic violence by refusing to go on the boat with Frank.

The entire short story is a snapshot of Eveline’s interior world, her vacillations between fulfilling her social role as an Irish woman versus her desire for change. Eveline even seems to blame her mother, using a promise she had made as an excuse to remain in Ireland.

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Yet the promise Eveline made was simply “to keep the home together as long as she could,” (Joyce 5). Her mother never asked her to sacrifice her happiness for no reason. Eveline does know this on some level, as she suddenly states, “Why should she be unhappy? She had a right to happiness,” (Joyce 5). Her momentary bout of illumination quickly fades, though, as Eveline falls pray to the patriarchal norms that govern her culture. Eveline has so completely internalized those patriarchal norms that she cannot envision a better life for herself.

Moreover, Eveline’s inability to make a decision epitomizes her lack of political power. As a female, she has no power in the community. She needs to marry, to have a man to rescue or “save her,” as she puts it (Joyce 5). It is not as if Eveline can create her own life. Even if Frank is someone who she describes as being “very kind, manly, open-hearted,” he is still a man and she sees herself in the role as wife, as….....

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