James Joyce's short story, "Eveline," concentrates on a young woman trying to escape the hard life she has. Eveline lives at home with her father and does everything for him. She dislikes being the slave of the house, so she tries to get out of the house every chance she gets. On one of her explorations out of the house, she meets a man named Frank whom she adores. Eveline sees him as an escape route and plans "to explore another life with Frank" (405) in Buenos Aires, but at the last minute, Eveline decides not to leave the familiar life she has been living for approximately 19 years. A big change like this will place fear into anyone's mind no matter how strong they are. As displayed in this story, a change in one's life is not good if one is not ready for it. .
Eveline has been living in Dublin her whole life. Joyce writes, "Tizzie Dunn was dead, too, and the Waters had gone back to England. Everything changes. Now she was going to go away like the others, to leave her home" (404-405). This shows that people have come and gone, but Eveline has stayed throughout everything. Her life is unacquainted with change. Eveline knows nothing other than her life at home. Eveline has "never dreamed of being divided" (405) from the objects in her house that she has been cleaning for many years. Due to her living there so long, Eveline molds into her environment and is unable to change. This sheltering life causes her to make the last minute decision of staying home instead of running away to Buenos Aires with Frank. There is some fear in Eveline, but most of the reason why she is staying is because .
Shiozuki 2.
she just cannot change. Eveline's environment will never be different. If she stays at home, she too will never be different. .
Once Eveline is at the docks, she really starts to think about her decision. The sea represents the new life that she was about to embark on.
