James Joyce’s short story “Eveline” (1914) explores a heart-wrenching decision a young Dubliner, Eveline, must make. Namely, she must choose between absconding with her lover Frank to Buenos Ayres, or staying with her family to focus on the care of her father. 

Eveline evaluates the choice of going with Frank or staying with her father, as we see via third-person limited perspective, which reveals her thinking. Initially, she seems to be leaning towards staying at home and doubts her decision to leave with Frank: 

“She had consented to go away, to leave her home. Was that wise? She tried to weight that side of the question. In her home anyway she had shelter and food; she had those whom she had known all her life about her.” (163)

When contemplating a new leap in life, it is easy to fall back on one’s present state of affairs and wonder whether it wouldn’t be better just to leave things as they are. In fact, this is not necessarily just a matter of being sentimental and fearing change. Maybe Eveline really would have been better off staying home. There’s simply no “right” answer– which is why it causes her such anguish and why such decisions are so exasperating. 

But just as comforting as the thought of staying home might be, Eveline also considers how her situation might improve if she leaves with Frank. She thinks about how she feels disrespected at her job at the Stores: 

“But in her new home, in a distant country, it would not be like that. Then she would be married–she, Eveline. People would treat her with respect then” (163). 

However, it is dubious as to how passionate Eveline really is about Frank: 

“First of all it had been an excitement for her to have a fellow and then she had begun to like him” (164). 

Is this one of those relationships that are based on more a desire for a relationship rather than genuine passion? Eveline’s ultimate decision, her gut instinct, is to stay in Ireland. Perhaps her rather lukewarm feelings for Frank are behind this. Such a relationship is a matter of going through the motions, so it probably wouldn’t have lasted anyway. Or at least it would not have provided lasting satisfaction. 

One could say that Eveline has fond feelings for Frank, that he has afforded her some experiences different than her every day routine. It’s very well for a boyfriend, but is this the stuff of love, enough to leave one’s home country? At least, one could see why it was a difficult decision for her. Even when for the moment Eveline seems to have resolved to go away with Frank, she thinks to herself, “He would give her life, perhaps love, too.” The idea that this is love, then, or that love would be given, was more theoretical at this point than anything certain. 

As “Eveline” proceeds, the third person narrator gives us more reason to believe that Eveline is considering reasons to stay rather than to go; or at least that she feels highly conflicted about leaving. She recalls fond memories of her father and her promise to her late-mother to keep the home together. Now her eldest brother Ernest has passed and her other brother Henry is frequently on the road.  But she considers that her father would miss her. It is a poignant remembrance of a family that is not perfect, but nonetheless has strings to her heart.  

When Eveline is at the dock, she wonders to herself if she even has the right to change her mind now, after all Frank has done for her, including making the arrangements for the trip itself. Yet she has to make her decision nonetheless, as sometimes our needs and wants inevitably conflict with others’. Such is Eveline’s state of crisis that even the boat’s whistle takes on a “mournful” tone. 

As Frank leaves for the ship, confused by her change of heart, and presumably heart-broken too, Eveline gives him a look with “no sign of love or farewell or recognition” (165). Yet this need not mean that Eveline is cruel. Rather, she has had to harden her heart to resolve herself to not leaving with Frank. It doesn’t mean she is hard-hearted; rather, it simply means she has finally made a decision, albeit at the last possible moment. 

Interpretation 

Here are some questions for students in an AP textbook, Advanced Language & Literature, which are the definition of “leading questions”: 

5. Is Eveline a victim of her time and place–when opportunities for women were limited primarily to the domestic realm–or is she a victim of her own indecisive character? Or is she a combination of both? 

Here the students are supposed to complain about sexism, which along with complaining about racism, comprises a shockingly large part of the study of literature in high school and college. 

6. Critics of “Eveline” disagree on their interpretation of the ending. Many conclude that Eveline’s inability to strike out with Frank is essentially accepting a life sentence as a housekeeper, even a servant, to her family. Others argue that in choosing to stay with her father, she defies Frank and thus shows at least the promise of becoming an independent woman. Which interpretation do you find most plausible? 

In this question, students are coaxed to view “Eveline” through a feminist lens regardless; the question is only which angle of patriarchy they would like to dissect in the story. Whether Eveline leaves or doesn’t leave with Frank can be viewed as good or bad depending on how it might be interpreted as striking out against the patriarchy. 

Leaving with Frank might have been good because that would have spited her father. Staying with her father might have been good too because that would have been to spite Frank. As long as a man is being disappointed, the textbook editors will be content. What the short story speaks to, the pain of Eveline’s dying mother, who said, “The end of pleasure is pain,” and Eveline’s humble devotion to her mother’s memory: What would feminist academics know about that? Their lot is just to complain and pick apart good art until it is no longer good nor is it any longer art. 

This is of course a gross politicization (by the left) of a story which should stand as a testament to great literature and individual psychological torment of one individual; namely, Eveline. 

Works Cited 

Joyce, James. “Eveline.” Advanced Language & Literature. For Honors and Pre-AP English Courses. NY: Bedford, freeman & worth, 2016, pp. 162-166. 

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