EVELINE'S ANALYSIS

Right from the start the reader can understand that Eveline would like to go away from her home. She would like to escape in order to live a better life. She seems to plan her future with Frank, her boyfriend. She would like to go with him to Buenos Ayres. In the short story James Joyce describes Eveline's projects with Frank.

Staying at home she would feel safe in her every-day life, her routine. Leaving she would maybe reach a better life, above all better than her mother's, but she is unable to take this decision. She is paralyzed by her shabby world, by her home, by her familiar objects, even though they are covered with dust. She weights the possibility to leave and to get married, to escape and find happiness. But she can't. She is not able to give Frank the chance to save her.

Eveline is a problematic adolescent. To feel safer she always refers to the past even when she tries to plan her future. Her father is violent and selfish, her work is unsatisfying, but she fears a different world. She definitely wants to remain still among what she knows.