Eveline- Home is Where the Heart Is

In Eveline, by James Joyce, readers are quickly introduced to the two huge life choices that Eveline has, and will soon make a decision on. She can remain home with her abusive father and practically absent brother or she can take on a new name and a new life with Frank- her boyfriend. Though the new life seems enticing and exciting, especially to a person living in an unhappy household, her heart still yearns for the "comfort" of home and familiarity. Frank offers her a chance to start over new in Buenos Aires- an exotic new place where she could get away from the difficulties of home. However, the whole time, while her mind is set on moving, her heart is nagging at her and telling her to stay. This is the internal conflict that Eveline is dealing with throughout the short story. One of the biggest factors in her gut-wrenching decision to stay at home is actually the absent, but significant character of Eveline's mother. This character, though she is dead has a huge impact on Eveline emotionally. Eveline struggles to leave home because of a promise she made to her mother while she was dying to "keep the home together as long as she could" (Joyce 220). By the end, she chooses home over love and familiar over new. As much as I was disappointed in her decision, I was not surprised- if she was set on going, she would not have been thinking that much about it