When comparing and contrasting the protagonists of the two short stories, "Eveline" by James Joyce and "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" by D.H. Lawrence, one sees that the two protagonists of these stories are desperate to find true love and genuine. The protagonist in the self-titled short story, Eveline, is the daughter of a man that has lost both his wife and his son. Eveline was close to her mother and her brother before they passed away. The protagonist of the short story "The Horse Dealer's Daughter", Mabel, is the daughter of a questionably successful Horse Dealer. Mabel's mother has also passed away; although, she has 3 brothers and a sister, she is still an outsider to the family.
             In many cases, one can assume that the bond between a mother and daughter can play an essential role to the success of a girl becoming an independent woman. In the case of Eveline and Mabel this was a precise assumption. Eveline and Mabel were alike in the noticeable attachment that they had to their mothers. Eveline had pleasant thoughts of the days when her mother was alive and "... they seemed to be happy... Her father was not so bad then [he now had an alcohol problem]; and besides, her mother was [still] alive...". Eveline long desired those days because she associated her mother's presence with the unity of the family. Mabel also had a yearning for the company of her mother, "she lived in the memory of her mother...whom she had loved." Although, Mabel was her father's main caretaker after her mother's death, once her remarried, "she had set hard against him." Because of the bond that they had with their mother's, both Eveline and Mabel were affected greatly by the deaths of their mothers. And unfortunately neither of them had others in their family to assist with them in grieving with their loss.
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