Fear of Being Insecure in James Joyce's "Eveline"
             "Eveline" is a short story written by James Joyce about a young lady who lives her life wondering. She wondered whether or not she should leave her family and take her chance of starting over or stay and keep her promise to her mother. Eveline introduces us to a life of duty and desire, the known and the unknown. Eveline decided to take the unknown and run away with Frank; a man who loved her and would give her the life she always dreamed of. Eveline could be free of her abusive father, free to do whatever she wanted to do. But her mother's wish kept running through her mind, to take care of the family. Eveline chose to stay but did she stay only because she was insecure about new surroundings, timid to be without boundaries, or confused.
             Eveline was insecure to leave her family and move away. "She had consented to go away, to leave her home. Was it wise? She tired to weigh each side of the question." (4) She knew if she stayed she would have to work hard at home and at work. She often wondered, "What they would say of her in the stores when they found out that she had run away with a fellow (4). Would she still be respected and loved? Eveline did not want to be disrespected like her mother. She wanted to feel like a real person. Eveline lacked the self-confidence to even make a decision on her own much less try to escape. She was torn between her mother's wish and a new life of insecurity.
             Eveline was very timid. "Even now, though she was over nineteen, she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father's violence. When they were growing up he had never gone for her, like he used to go for Harry and Ernest, because she was a girl; but latterly he had begun to threaten her and say what he would do to her only for her
             dead mother's sake (4). Eveline knew she had no one there to protec
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