Essay on Eveline's Decision in James Joyce's Dubliners

bravely leaves the safety of her surroundings to be with the love of her life, and she becomes far

Frank needs something to protect. Cee, his dearly loved sister, take up this role for most of the novel. Concurrently, Frank satisfies his troubled need to care for someone and loves his sister. Willingly, Frank admits, “I’ve had only two regular women. I liked the small breakable thing inside each one. Wherever their personality, smarts, or looks, something soft lay in each…A little V…that I could break with a forefinger if I wanted to. But never did” (67-68), Frank expresses his obsession with weakness. Frank denotes this weakness as a small child to whom he is the parent. He handles it cautiously, cares for it, and provides a home for it. He needs it to feel needed, which happens to be a reoccurring theme throughout the novel. “When…I caught my reflection in a store window, I thought it was somebody else. Some dirty pitiful-looking guy…Right then, I decided to clean up” (69). In this moment, Frank’s search of his relationship with Lily begins from a forceful self-hatred that has presented itself since his deployment to Korea. After his relationship with Lily fades and

knows that she is starving for true love and exploits that weakness to achieve his goal.

I can’t help but wonder why she ends up feeling so guilty to leave her father for happiness with Frank. Eveline deserves to be happy and live a happy life with out being isolated and lonely.

Frank morphs his personality into whatever someone wants him to be. To others he has the perfect family; however, he has a secret. When he is with Kenny he is rude to Tub. But when he is with Tub he seems to be himself. His affair with the babysitter is killing this supposed family man. He doesn't want to leave his wife simply because she's been good to him. The obvious reason of love isn't even mentioned in relation to his wife. When Frank tells Tub about true love it's as if he is a fifteen-year-old girl himself. The way he describes it one could easily imagine the same conversation happening in the girls' bathroom of a high school after a first kiss. "`Tub, have you ever been really in love?' `Well-' `I mean really in love.' He squeezed Tub's wrist. `With your whole being.' `I don't know. When you put it like that, I don't know.' `You haven't then. Nothing against you, but you'd know it if you had.' Frank let go of Tub's arm. `This isn't just some bit of fluff I'm talking about'" (Wolff 88). Frank is extremely immature. His views on life and love make it evident that he would make a connection with a fifteen-year-old. He believes that a friend should be

member to her family. That tragedy struck in her life. She decided to step back from the Lady

suspicion and felt she judges him and that he does not have her forgiveness. Getting angry with her,

whatever danger lies before them. Furthermore, she gives him no optimistic view of the future, and,

said to her was true she would live with him and be his love. However

He is quiet and his face is full of numb shock. He does not seem to trust anyone now and is smothered with feelings of helplessness and inadequacy. When Cora and her lawyer join him, Frank is further alienated. Cora walks circles around Frank as she scolds him as a liar and a “so-called man.”

through his vanity is easily fooled into thinking it is he who she loves although

feminine feelings showed and thats what got her attached to the men she was having

It is obvious in the text that Frank has very deep feelings for Eveline, but could she accept that this man actually loves her? He took time out to do things with her to show her how he felt. "He took her to see The Bohemian Girl and she felt elated as she sat in an accustomed part of the theater." (Joyce 31) "He used to meet her outside of the Stores every evening and see her home." (Joyce 31) He treated her well, so why did she again repudiate his offer? She did not know how to accept this type of love that Frank had to offer. How could she ever measure up to what he deserved? Eveline never realized that love is unconditional and that she was being loved for who she was. She was always expected, by her family to do certain things to prove herself that she never knew how to accept love. "'Eveline! Evvy!' He rushed

interesting to see what she says to him, as it is clear that she would

“To be or not to be, that is the question.” Hamlet’s famous quotation implies only two solutions: to be, or to not be. However, there is another option that Shakespeare never explored: to remain paralyzed between the two states, unable to commit to either. James Joyce’s Dubliners is a collection of short stories first published in 1914, that follows the inhabitants of Ireland. Published nearly a half a century before the Republic of Ireland would be recognized as an independant country, many of Joyce’s short stories in Dubliners explore the theme of Irish paralysis, that Joyce found afflicted both the whole of Ireland and its individual citizens. Many