Exploring The Concept Of Being Cemented In Time In Eveline By James Joyce

Eveline
In the short story, “Eveline,” by James Joyce the protagonist, Eveline, demonstrates the concept of being cemented in time when having to make a life-changing decision. Eveline is frozen in a never-ending cycle of constantly working every day and taking care of her abusive father. Then, she is offered the chance to sail away and start all over. As a young girl she is drawn to the desire for adventure, on the contrary, she is thoroughly attached to her past. Eveline’s choices and relationships throughout the story contribute to her emerging as a character and illuminate the concept of being submerged into the past when trying to move forward.
Since Eveline’s mother’s death, she has been enslaved to the duty of constant work. Every day she works, cleans, and cooks to provide for her father and two young children, who have been left to her charge. As, “she looked around the room, reviewing all its familiar objects which she had dusted once a week for so many years, “ it dawns on her how she has been a prisoner of routine for so long (Joyce 720). Even though she is living her life for others she refutes all

She recalls how he never contributed in keeping the house together making her life unreasonably difficult, however, she used to go along with his mistreatment since, “she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father’s violence,” due to his history of abusing her late mother (Joyce 720). She justified their relationship with flashbacks rather than their current derisive relationship. To illustrate she reminisces an incident, “when she had been laid up for a day, he had read her out a ghost story and made toast for her,” undermining all of the other times he had disrespected her (Joyce 721). Eveline puts the better memories from her past over her father’s present mistreatment in her decision of whether or not to leave