Analysis of Eveline

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Analysis of Eveline

James Joyce's "Eveline", one of the short stories in "The Dubliners" , is a tale based upon the friction which can exist between familial and romantic love , the conflicts between the opposite choices of perpetuating the status quo versus initiating irreversible change , and the agonies that are experienced when pivotal decisions have to be made and powerful but divergent emotions inevitably collide.

The plot is not complex. The story opens - we see a young woman who is agonising over a vital life choice. She is bored and overworked , victimised and threatened by her aggressive and occasionally drunken father yet she has been offered the chance of salvation from these circumstances by a potential lover who would transport her far away perhaps never to return. Her decision as to whether to take this chance causes her much distress as she wrestles with the arguments for both staying and going. In the end she decides to stay , perhaps no less anguished , perhaps in the future to regret what might have been ; we are not told - the story closes.

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