Vying for Ownership: Eveline

             In Women In Joyce, Suzette Henke and Elaine Unkeless note that "Joyce pits men against women in his tales, [and] it can be proved that drastic economic and social pressures actually forced Dubliners into such situations of frustration, deprivation, and hostility" (53.) In Joyce's "Eveline," father and lover are pitted simultaneously against Eveline, vying for ownership of her. Through her thoughts and memories Eveline realizes that she can chose neither Frank nor her father- both merely want to control her. This deprivation of self leads her to freeze in the final moments of her escape; she is stunned with the thought that trading one oppressor for another is not the answer to her problems.
             Oppression began for Eveline in childhood. "There used to be a field there in which they used to play" (Joyce, 36.) Even this memory of playing in a field is smothered by control of men. First, "her father used to hunt them down" (36) to end their playtime and, next on a more extreme level, "a man from Belfast bought the field" (36.) These ends to playtime set up Eveline to be controlled by men later in the story.
             Joyce notes that Eveline herself "weigh[s] each side of the question" to try to figure out which man to stay with, her father or her lover. Eveline thinks that by becoming Frank's "people would treat her with respect" (37.) She thinks that within the boundaries of marriage lie the happiness and respect that is absent from the control her father exerts over her. This frustration that is voiced indirectly by Eveline highlights a key point in Henke and Unkeless' argument: Eveline gives into the social pressure of marriage because she believes it is the lesser evil when compared to slaving away for her father's behalf. "She always gave her entire wages" (38) to support his drinking habit, she also had to beg money out of him fo...

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Vying for Ownership: Eveline. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 19:35, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/73728.html