What happens to a dream deferred? According to James Joyce, perhaps nothing. Illustrated in his short story Eveline, this Dublin-born author asks and answers the age-old question of comfort versus risk. In a time of upheaval across the continent, Eveline serves as an archetypal damsel in distress, accessible only to the man she loves, but conversely as the model of a person subservient to her own mind. Validated only by her male superiors, Eveline stumbles into the traps surrounding ideas about her own happiness, internally confronting her duty as a woman. Gripped by fear of the unknown but exhausted by the monotony of her daily life, Eveline represents both the internal struggle between mind and heart while reflecting religious events across Europe, and the resulting treatment of women. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The story revolves around Eveline, a nineteen-year-old girl from Dublin, who reflects on her time at home. He stares out the window, both mentally and physically in a prison he cannot escape. He considers his role in the family, the deaths of his brother and deranged mother, and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. She plans to escape to Buenos Aires with her clandestine lover, a sailor named Frank, who her father detests greatly. Although the difference between her secret life and an adventurous path is more than evident, the gulf between the present and the future is too foreign for Eveline to understand. This supposed freedom of choice is actually anything but: Eveline must succumb to her life of inadequacy and submission, or take a blind leap of faith. Yet she has no strong feelings about any of these ideas, her heart pulls her one direction and her mind pulls her the other. His obvious feelings of entrapment are evident from the first lines, when Joyce writes of the evening "invading" the avenue. Eveline looks around the room, at the familiar furniture, and wonders "where all the dust comes from," alluding to the obvious passage of time and the mundane quality of her daily life (407). As the night "goes into" the avenue, she oscillates between her love for Frank, her fear for her father, and the duty she promised her late mother to keep the house. When the time comes to board the ship, she is too paralyzed by terror to even move, suspended forever in purgatory between what she thinks and what she feels. Eveline embodies the typical housewife, providing her entire salary to her father, who believes that if he does not acquire his money, she will spend it frivolously. He even forbids his now adult daughter from seeing her only source of happiness, forever confined to the house to which she is tied, forever under the threat of her father's disapproval and violence. The first of her father's rare dialogues centers on a faded photograph of an old priest, with whom Eveline realizes she has never become familiar. In passing, his father would say: "He's in Melbourne now." This brief but significant exchange between his father and his faith casts a shadow over the home he maintains, shedding light on the fact that religion is hardly a part of his life. There, juxtaposed with the "yellowed" photograph, is a color print of the promises made to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque (407). The twelve promises concern the blessing of the homes in which it is displayed and the assurance of eternal life to the souls who receive Communion. The promises are dedicated to His Sacred Heart, an interesting juxtaposition with Eveline's "human heart" and her desires of the flesh rather than the spirit. It is important to understand the context.