"Eveline" ~by James Joyce

(#2)
Many aspects of Eveline's present circumstances make it desirable for her to escape her home. Miss Gavan, Eveline's supervisor, would be glad to see Eveline leave. "She had always had an edge on her, especially whenever there were people listening" (page 219). Her father began to threaten her and say what he would do to her only for her dead mother's sake. Eveline's life was filled with people who did not treat her fairly or kindly. All of her family was dead or away from home. Her only remaining family was her father who treated her with violence. At work, her supervisor constantly criticized her work and treated her with disrespect and inferiority. All of these things support her decision to leave. However, she has a brief memory of the time before her mother died. She remembers the time her family went for a picnic and her father put on her mother's bonnet to make the children laugh. This memory makes her doubt her decision and reconsider the option of staying. "It was hard work - a hard life -but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life" (page 220). The memory makes her realize the good aspects of her life rather than just focusing on the bad like she had been doing.