Suffering Under Colonialism In Eveline By James Joyce

Joyce's short story "Eveline" is set in Dublin during the turn of 20th century. Ireland in the early 1900's was suffering greatly because of the ongoing struggle against English occupation. An observation made about Dublin during this time frame is that “the Irish capital is paralysed by Catholicism, by the English imperialism, by grave poverty and social injustice” (Boyson). Ireland still had not yet recovered from the famine from fifty years earlier that had led to mass migration, starvation, and disease. Joyce incorporates this darkness, weariness, and resignation into his story about Eveline. In fact, Eveline's suffering under her abusive father into a metaphor for Ireland under colonialism, with the abusive Mr. Hill as a metaphor for the …show more content…
This fear is acknowledged when the narrator describes Eveline as someone who "felt herself in danger of her father's violence” (Joyce). An insightful observation of Eveline bleak existence and subservience to her father was by Florence Walzl, who called it “slavery for a drunken father"(224). Eveline has weekly confrontations with her father over money. Despite there being no evidence of Eveline being a spendthrift, her father berates her as though she saying “ he wasn’t going to give her his hard-earned money for her to throw about in the streets” (Joyce). Harry sends money when he can, and Eveline uses all her money to for household expenses. She is passive during her father’s verbal abuse, and doesn't try to stick up for herself. As soon as she gets a hold of the money her father has finally given her, Eveline frantically does her shopping. The narrator says “she had to rush out as quickly as she could and do her marketing,” with her black leather purse clutched, "tightly in her hand as she elbowed her way through the crowds" (Joyce).Which shows how intimidating her father is to Eveline. When Eveline meets Frank and they begin to date, her father demands she stops seeing Frank, with the only reason he gives for this is a flimsy “I know these sailor chaps” (Joyce). Mr. Hill then picks a fight with Frank. After her father and Frank argue, Eveline continues to still see Frank …show more content…
Instead of the making a decision, she freezes up. “On the dock she is paralyzed by fear" (Walzl,225) the night she was due to leave with Frank. She remembers the promise she had made to her Mother to “keep the home together as long as she could”(Joyce). Then Eveline starts begins to relive the last traumatic night of her Mother's life, Eveline “was again in the close dark room at the other side of the hall” (Joyce). When Eveline reaches the part of her Mother's nonsensical repeating of the words, "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!"(Joyce), Eveline has a full blown anxiety attack. Eveline starts looking for a way to escape both the present and the past. Her mind is racing and her body goes into fight, flight, or freezing mode. The freeze response wins, making Eveline unable to move. Because of preprogramming by her abuse, Eveline was unable to see the opportunity given to her by Frank, and only sees how frightening the choice to leave is for her. Lacking the ability to make a conscious decision, her mind make the decision unconsciously for her by freezing her physically. Reaching the decision, Eveline stays with her abuser and the life she's always known. For some people change is more frightening that familiarity. It was to Eveline. James Joyce "Eveline" shows the lasting damage abuse causes a person. In Eveline's case she is left a frightened, anxious person. One