Crucial Decisions in James Joyce's

            
             In James Joyce's literary classic "Eveline,"" the reader is introduced to a young woman faced with a crucial decision of either to stay in Dublin or escape with her lover to a new life in Buenos Ayres. To better comprehend Eveline's final decision to stay in Dublin, one must take a closer look at her reasoning as she sits by the window and personally contemplates her choices. In a broad sense, one comes to the realization that her past plays an important factor in her resolution to stay. Not only does her low self-esteem caused by drive her to the choice she makes, but eventually the author creates a symbolic that Eveline's attachment to her father, her home and the unfamiliarity of her lover Frank are also major factors which help her to decide the outcome. .
             The first of many determining factors for Eveline's choice to stay is the implication that she does not have the inner-will to leave. Eveline reveals to the reader that "she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father's violence."" However, sentences later she tries desperately to persuade herself into thinking that her life is not "wholly undesirable."" Eveline seems to put more significance to the fact that he had made her laugh and had taken care of her while she was sick than the fact that he had been abusing her and treating her poorly. Her way of thinking is not surprising after the reader finds out that her mother died at an early age. On the other hand, Eveline's siblings were considerably older than her and her father would customarily be a menace in their life during their childhood by either drinking uncontrollably, being violent or chasing them out of the field that they played in with his "blackthorn stick."" These issues from her past eventually have a profound impact on her and are now leading her to believe that living her life with her distant, drunken father is acceptable. Nevertheless, Eveline is still blinded by this and continues to ask herself if it is wise to leave him because "her father was becoming old lately, she noticed; he would [eventually] miss her.