Plight of the Irish Woman - Essay Example

Plight of the Irish Woman Introduction The Dubliners is a collection of short stories which were written by James Joyce in 1905. Although the stories were good to begin with, delays in publishing caused Joyce to revise and add material to the stories until it could be published in 1914. As was the case with other publications made by Joyce, the stories created an uproar due to their sexual content and the issues raised in the pages. By today’s standards the stories are definitely mild but the sensitivities of the people at the start of the last century were quit high. For example, the story of Eveline shows the plight of the Irish women in those times as well as the psychological and emotional problems Eveline was going through. As compared to other works created by Joyce, Dubliners is very different since it represents the thoughts of the Artist when he himself was a young man. His later work gained much critical acclaim for its stream of consciousness approach and the experimental works therefore the controversy surrounding and the banning of Ulysses often takes precedence over the short story collection. That is the primary reason why Joyce is appreciated, respected and remembered more for his novels than his collection of short stories (Borey, 2006). Nevertheless, there is still a lot of material that has been created in terms of analysis of the Dubliners and the various individual stories contained within. Eveline is the shortest story contained in the collection and offers some very interesting insights towards both the writer and the times he lived in. There are a number of firsts associated with this particular piece since it is the first story in the Dubliners to be written in the third person, it experiments with stream of conscious writing and it was the first time Joyce wrote from the point of view of a woman (Voogd, 2000). Eveline The story begins with Eveline sitting at the window of her house where she can watch the avenue lined with houses. She remembers her family members and the neighbors she had as a child when she played on the field which is now covered with houses. Now that she is a young woman, her mother is dead and her siblings have grown up. She has had a life of hard work at her home as well as the store where she earns a living (Borey, 2006). The story clarifies that Eveline plans to leave Ireland for ever but it does not make any hints at the beginning of the story if she actually would go through would her plan or not. Given the situations she is placed in the reader could actually be wishing her to leave the hell she is in and seek out a new paradise. Supporting Paragraph 1 At the age of nineteen, leaving the house is an important decision for her and she knows that her father has grown old. Even though he does not beat her as he used to beat the boys, he can often be a cruel man and threatens her with beatings. Her father accuses her of being a spendthrift even though she gives all her salary to the family (Florio, 1993). Although he is not a nice man, Eveline still cares for him and knows that if she goes away there will be no one to take care of the family. Her elder brother Ernest is dead and Harry goes away on business for long periods of time. It is clear from the story that she loves her father and the family. She is also mindful of the promise she made to her dying mother that she would take care of the family and keep it together for her sake. Her mother lived a very rough life and sacrificed a lot to keep the family together as well but Eveline considers those sacrifices to be common amongst Irish women. Her mother eventually died and it is in the story that she had lost her mind towards the end of her life. It seems that this would be the end of Eveline herself if she does not take a way out of her misery which is provided by Frank (Borey, 2006). Frank is a sailor who is asking Eveline to leave Ireland and her family and come to live with him in Buenos Ayres. Frank respects Eveline and is very kind to her while delighting her with stories of his travels around the world. Eveline’s father does not life Frank and does not look kindly upon their relationship. Eveline is therefore torn between her love for Frank and her loyalty to the family. On one side she can have love, freedom and happiness with a man while on the other there is suffering and sacrifice. Clearly showing the plight of the women in Ireland at the time and the people of Ireland as well, Eveline chooses to remain with her family and does not leave the utterly miserable life she was bound to. With the boat ready to leave, she stands immovable and does not even pay attention when Frank calls out to her. Torn between love and duty, she picks duty and a life of self sacrifice just as her mother had sacrificed herself for the family. She does not refuse to go with Frank because she does not love him, she refuses to go because she loves her family a lot more. Themes and Meaning The central theme of the story is the plight of the Irish woman in the early part of the last century. The story also shows the growth of the characters appearing in Dubliners since the previous characters in the series of short stores were nothing more than children who have little control over their fate. Eveline is a young adult and can make the choices she thinks are best for her. At the same time, she has been matured by the experiences she has had which include supporting an entire family at a very young age (Florio, 1993). It must be understood that Dublin at the time Joyce wrote the stories was a dying city which can be compared to the depressed areas of the inner cities in modern times. Earlier in its history, Dublin was a great city rivaling London and Paris as one of the largest cities in Europe with beautiful architecture, good layout, excellent services and a commercially important port. With time, Belfast took the position as the primary city while Dublin was largely ignored making suburban life difficult and ruining the economy of the city (Borey, 2006). Supporting Paragraph 2 The situation was worsened for the middle and lower middle class who had townhouses which turned into slum areas with substandard living conditions. Poverty and escapists ideas therefore feature prominently in Dubliners and Eveline in particular since she is one of the characters who get a clear chance of escaping the vicious cycle she is put into. However, as the city is caught in stagnation and is paralyzed into being motionless, so is Eveline since she does not let go of her present to leap for a future. Clearly, the poverty and the money situation of the protagonist are not romanticized since she accepts that life is really difficult living with a father who threatens her and treats her poorly for the most part. However, Joyce does seem to show that poverty builds character since she has a strong sense of duty coming from the promise she made to her dying mother. Eveline’s character is constantly at war with itself as it tries to come to terms with death, misery and not having what she wants. The Irish Woman and the Family The place of the woman in the family as the anchor which keeps everything together is clearly demonstrated by Joyce but the other characters seem to think that the woman is a weak individual (Ingersoll, 1993). Eveline’s father particularly does not give her the respect she deserves as the breadwinner for the family and even Frank thinks of her more as a child than a mature woman. However, that treatment is far better than what is given to her by her other family members. This situation would give any rational person every reason to quit living in a slum house under the conditions she is exposed to and move to Buenos Ayres with the man of her dreams. She bears an enormous burden and responsibility of an old father and young siblings just like her mother did before she died. The father does not deserve any credit since he physically threatens her, takes all her money and accuses her of spending too much. He comes across as a dominating and unfair person who is living off the hard earned money of his daughter while treating her badly. Supporting Paragraph 3 Despite all these problems Eveline faced, she does not quit on the family or the city which itself can be seen as a metaphor for the family. Eveline’s father is the old and decrypt city of Dublin which has seen better days but now can not offer much to those that love it (Borey, 2006). While Eveline certainly has a better chance of having a good life with a loving man, she gives it up to remain in horrible conditions. The woman suffers for the family much more than the man since Eveline bears the responsibility of carrying the weight of the family. While her mother only had to carry the emotional weight, Eveline is burdened with both the emotional and the financial responsibility for the family. The family and the house which Eveline lives in are also emotional burdens for her which just won’t go away. In the story she cleans the house and cleans it again yet everything seems to remain dirty and dusty. Ingersoll (1993) suggests that this is a representation of her state of mind which she tries to clear again and again but the surroundings and the emotional barrage that she faces from her relatives who give her more pain than pleasure. A Woman living in poverty is not a situation that can be romanticized to a high degree and Joyce hides no aspect of her mentality from us. The inner struggle faced by Eveline is evident when she can not make the decision to escape from her situation. A rational person placed in the same situation might well have leapt for the boat but Eveline’s rationality and logic is tempered by her sense of duty as a woman and the promise she made to her mother (Ingersoll, 1993). For Eveline, as for many other Irish women represented in Dubliners, the family comes first before love or any other calling. At the same time, there are other critics who consider Eveline’s actions to be criminal since at some points she wishes to abandon her family and seek a new life with her husband to be (Latham, 2002). While there is some agreement on the condition of Eveline being deplorable it is not politically correct to think of her actions as a crime since any human being placed in the conditions she was under could have considered running away as an option. Considering that women like Eveline in those times could have hardly fought with their fathers or the injustice of society it does not seem like her actions were criminal. Latham (2002) goes on to say that it was her guilt over leaving her family in need that made her become paralyzed at the docks. Eveline is discounted to some extent since Latham concedes that she did not actually commit the crime which became her saving grace and that of all women in Ireland of which Eveline and her mother can be seen as representatives. Keeping in mind the abject conditions Eveline was exposed to and the hope she was given by running away from a dying city her actions are difficult to be seen in a negative light. Psychological Issues There is a continual sense of being trapped in the story and Joyce likens Eveline’s condition to that of an animal in a cage. She tries to break free when she decides to quit everything and leave for a different city to start a new life but like an animal who has become too dependent and loyal to its owner, she is unable to do so. This end of the story makes Eveline look like a weak character since she is unable to break free of the bonds which hold yet at the same time, she is strong enough to not give in to temptation when it comes knocking at her door (Latham, 2002). Frank becomes a central psychological fixation for Eveline since he offers the chance of going to a new house in a new city. The comparison between the new house and the old house as well as the old city and the new city is clearly a differentiation between two different mental states. Instead of being confined like an animal in the house or in the store she is being given an opportunity to sail the open sea and go to a new world. Ingersoll (1993) is clear when he says that her confusion at what Frank is saying is Eveline’s sexual arousal and it represents the conflict between her Id and Super Ego. Psychological paralysis is a central theme of both Dubliners and is the final character action that Eveline displays when the conflict reaches its highest point. In fact, paralysis can be taken as the central theme of the story as well because while everything in the story is alive, it is neither growing nor moving anywhere. The city is alive, breathing but it is not advancing in any. The family is still together but yet it has been shattered by the death of the mother and the brother despite Eveline’s best efforts to keep it together. Eveline herself is paralyzed mentally and physically when it dawns on her that she might actually be abandoning those who she loves most and breaking the promise she made to her mother on her death bed. It seems that fear is the main psychological problem for Eveline. Rather than go for a life which is uncertain yet holds a promise of some betterment, she remains in a place which is certain but will continue to give her misery and keep her in a downward spiral of depression. She makes a choice which she knows is not good for her but she made it anyways and will have to live with the consequences, whatever they may be. Conclusion When all is said and done I believe that the end of the story makes it extremely interesting and gives it the status which it has as classic literature. Had she jumped on to freedom with Frank, Eveline might have been nothing more than a boy meets girls happily ever after story that could be discarded without a glace. By making the sacrifice of her own happiness, the character shows signs of being real, since the real world does not necessarily mean that it will be all good for the hero and the heroine of a story. The story becomes more true, more believable and more tragic by the fact that what happened to Eveline could have happened to many other Irish women in her times. That is the true beauty of the story since it shows the plight of the Irish woman of the times as well as psychological and emotional problems faced by the central character. Works Cited Latham, S. “Hating Joyce Properly.” Journal of Modern Literature 26.1 (2002): 119-131. Voogd, P. “Imaging Eveline, Visualised Focalisations in James Joyces Dubliners.” European Journal of English Studies 4.1 (2000): 39-48. Ingersoll, E. “The stigma of femininity in James Joyce’s ‘Eveline’ and ‘The Boarding House’.” Studies in Short Fiction 30.4 (1993): 501-511. Florio, J. “Joyces Eveline.” Explicator 51.3 (1993): 181-186. Borey, E. 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