Eveline's Conflict

James Joyce, in Dubliners, explores the internal conflict that paralyzes his female protagonist, Eveline, as she stands upon the event horizon of a new life, and a new set of possibilities. At this particular moment in her life, Eveline finds herself at a crossroads, considering whether or not she should leave her home and her abusive, alcoholic father in order to travel to a far away and exotic land to begin a new life, full of promise and hope. As the story progresses, Eveline appears ready to say 'yes!' To life when the story's narrator suggests that Eveline "wanted to live" (Joyce 38). A trip to Buenos Aires with her lover, Frank, would offer Eveline the opportunity to grow beyond the restrictive confines of her old life, that which she had been required to endure while living in Dublin. But as the boat for Buenos Aries is about...
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