Very few people in this universe can selflessly give their felicity and dream for the interest of people they love. In “ Eveline ” , James Joyce portrays a character of a immature 19 twelvemonth old miss. Eveline falls in love with Frank who was crewman. But when she was asked to go forth with Frank to populate her ain life, she altruistically gave up her dream and loves to carry through her responsibility towards her household. She is a good selfless miss who puts her household foremost. In order to demo Eveline is such a good miss, Joyce presents her determination in context of puting, societal outlook and household duty.

Joyce sets “ Eveline ” during 1914 which was a rough clip for adult female. The adult females were expected by the society to take duty of the place. Back so adult females were non given much power or place in the society. Due to this ground her male parent was ne’er proud of Eveline and had ever given more likes to his boy ‘s ( 533 ) . Ingersol in his article assert that “ even if she leaves her room at the terminal of the story-indeed particularly if she does not-she has passed a life sentence on herself as a “ house keeper ” , a retainer of inside informations ” ( 506 ) . Ingersol ‘s point here is that if she does non go forth with Frank that flushing so she would be in that house forever where she can non conceive of her life with person else and unrecorded with her household forever. Even though this was a really difficult determination to take she chooses to be a retainer for her household because she did non desire allow her household down.

The spiritual symbolism that Joyce uses in the narrative were the exposure of the priest, the broken organ ( 532 ) proves that she was a Catholic. Even her brother Harry worked in the church decorating concern which automatically proves that Eveline ‘s household was really spiritual. Similarly, even at the terminal when she was ready to go forth at the station with Frank she was still confused if she was doing the right determination and prayed to god to direct her and demo what was her responsibility ( 534 ) .So she bid her love good pass. Thus the spiritual symbolism that Joyce used became a powerful and positive usher for Eveline to do her determinations to be with her household.

Eveline, after her female parent decease, was forced to take up the exclusive duty of the family, brothers and drunken male parent maltreatments which make her unrecorded an unhappy life. Harmonizing to Ingersol all the dust she cleaned in the house every twenty-four hours, the broken organ and her Saturday darks wrangle with her male parent has made her homemaker before matrimony ( 504 ) . But when she got opportunity to populate a life with the love named Frank, she was lacerate between her conflicting desires-her desire to prosecute her felicity or remain loyal to her household. During this conflicting state of affairs she recalls all the memories of her childhood where she played with neighborhood kids and one minute where her male parent was “ really nice ” ( 533 ) .Ingersol asserts “ whether she stands on the quay being “ shouted at ” to come abroad or stands alternatively her room fantasizing her inability to travel frontward in reply to his call of desire is non of import eventually ” ( 505 ) . Ingersol point, here, that Eveline desire to travel abroad was non of import to her at all. This shows how she is devoted to her household and fulfills her responsibility that is expected by the society.

Joyce nowadayss Eveline as a good miss who has wholly devoted herself to taking attention of her household.when she was believing about go forthing place, she is taken into her yesteryear and retrieve that she had made promise to maintain place together every bit long as she could ( 534 ) . She besides thought about her male parent and he was besides going old and she would lose him if she merely left ( 533 ) .Murphy asserts that Eveline is holding conflicting state of affairs between different times. He talks about lost clip, now clip and future clip. He farther notes that “ Eveline ‘s remembrance of past events of lost clip and her decisive reinterpretation of these same event in now clip ” ( 116 ) . Murphy ‘s point here is that Eveline ‘s life has been go oning consequence on her past life. Due to this consequence she gives her precedence to her household and keeps her female parent ‘s promise which proves that she was a good miss.

Duty and felicity are portion of our life. Both go manus in manus to hold a normal life.but when we are made to take between one. The 1 who choose responsibility over felicity are proved to be the selfless being, merely like Eveline who sacrificed her felicity and fulfilled all household duties.

Work cited

Ingersoll, Earl G. “ The stigma of muliebrity in James Joyce ‘s `Eveline ‘ and `The Boarding House ‘ . ” Studies in Short Fiction 30.4 ( 1993 ) : 501-510.

Academic Search Complete.EBSCOhost. Prescott Memorial Library, Lousiana Tech University 18 Apr.2009 & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //ebscohost.com & gt ; .

Joyce, James. “ Eveline ” . The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th ed.Ed.Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford, St. Martin ‘s, 2008. 532-534.

Murphy, Terence Patrick. “ Interpreting pronounced order narrative: The instance of James Joyce ‘s “ Eveline ” . ” Journal of Literary Semantics 34. 2 ( 2005 ) : 107-124.

Academic Search Complete.EBSCOhost. Prescott Memorial Library, Lousiana Tech University 18 Apr.2009 & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //ebscohost.com & gt ; .