A safe Choice-but her only choice Essay Example for Free

A safe Choice-but her only choice Es scanJames Joyces condensed story Eveline get dresseds the stage for a time between adolescence and maturity. Written in 1914, which was four years curtly of the womens suffrage in Ireland, the storys protagonist, Eveline, is largely influenced by the feminist issues. Since she has little control allwhere her flavor, Eveline has grown habituated to a routine livelihood. She is paralyzed from the thought of leaping into a new path. Eveline faces two extremes a silly home life or a dramatic escape to an uncertain future. Both extremes she deals with involve a adult male controlling her life. Living in the early 1900s women did non find the opportunity to be independent.No matter which path she chooses, she would still answer to a man. She lives in a male-dominated world in which she is stark of choice and emotion. She is helpless against the way her life is heading. Considering this, one cannot blame her for choosing to stay home be cause it was not much of a choice, and she has never made an independent choice of her own. If she left with frank, her lover, and then there could be the mishap of danger. She felt him seize her hand (Joyce 7). Joyces choice of diction seize tells the audience that Evelines halt is up because she k todays how a man can be abusive.She saw this with her mother and father and wants to have a life different from her mother but cannot. Furthermore, psychologically, Eveline cannot move towards vocal because she was exposed to a life of house servant violence, which her mother and older brothers endured. She knows how violent a man who at times can be change surface kind, funny, and sweet. She remembered her father putting on her mothers bonnet to make the children laugh (Joyce 6). That same man turns into an aggressive, ruthless man who selfishly makes his daughter feel guilty almost herself. On the other hand, she has cognize him her entire life.Her older brothers used to take the beating and now that they are not there he had begun to threaten her and say what he would do to her for only her dead mothers sake (Joyce 4-5). If she has kaput(p) 19 years without a beating, then there would be a good chance of his threats as just talk. Since he says, he will not hit her for her dead mothers sake, then one would think he would honor his word for the respect of his deceased wife. All of Evelines life has revolved around her family. She runs her household domestically and works for a living in which all her lolly wind up with her father.In addition, she manages to care for her two younger siblings seeing them to school and preparing dinner. Since the death of her mother, she took over domestically and maternally with no choice. Her mother, on her deathbed, made Eveline promise to keep the home together as long as she could (Joyce 6). By doing so her mother has caused another obstacle Eveline must face in order to leave, that is the guilt of a broken promise. As any good daughter would, she stays to pull through her vow. This vow gives Eveline another excuse to stay home and carry out her routine life.In addition, Eveline knows the difficulties of her life but she still prefers it. Joyce explains Evelines view of her life a hard life but now that she was about to leave it she didnt find it a wholly undesirable life (5). Any modern day daughter with those responsibilities would find that a very undesirable life, but Eveline changing her mind about leaving shows the reader how she cannot bear to abandon her family and this life, which has been the only occasion, she has known her whole life. Because compared to an unbeknown(predicate) destiny, Eveline would much quite a stay home and be miserable because she would expect this.Being a woman with little say in her everyday life, the present opportunity is new to her, and she cannot make a major decision on her own because she has never had to. Eveline has been given an opportunity to flee home in hopes of happiness, but she could not endangerment a life of uncertainty. Frank, a sailor, offers a chance of happiness to her and she had begun to ilk him (Joyce 6). Eveline says that she like(s) him not loves. Can their like for one another be enough to survive in the New World? Joyce says that Eveline begun meaning she simply knew if she was interested in him not if she was ready for a lifetime commitment.Evelines upbringing influences her adult decisions because she has never known anything but Ireland. The fear of leaving home is essentially, why she doubts Frank. A future with him is not set in stone thus, it cannot be. As one might foreshadow, she chooses the hell she knows rather than the possible hell of the unknown (Rogers 172). Hell here symbolizes the men and she would much rather be with the well-known(prenominal) than the unfamiliar. She likes to play it safe because if Frank turns out to be the worst, then where will she go since going back home is not an option.As they are ready to begin this epic adventure in her life, Eveline believes that he would drown her. She gripped with twain transfer at the iron training (Joyce 7). The first part he would drown her meaning he would not save her from this wretched life. This is a change of setting from the window seal to the sea. The window was sturdy, whereas, the sea is eer moving. She is unable to adjust to this new path because she believes Frank cannot guarantee a life better than her home. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing symbolizes her paralysis.The iron railing signifies the home ground and she grips on the rail for dear life. Her actions tell the reader how fearful she is to leave her homeland. Eveline does not want to depart the only thing she has known. Evelines life is routine from the footsteps in front of her house to turning her wages to her father every week. But Eveline perceives any and every change as a loss she knows this with her head, her heart rejec ts it (Rogers 171- 172). Eveline cannot seem to fag the changes around her as a positive because deep inside her she knows where she must be, at home.Meeting Frank was a change to her and instead of embracing it she ultimately fears it. Even, if staying home will most likely conk to a miserable life one like her mothers, she would because she cannot accept change. Today, most young women have not had to endure a life of commonplace sacrifices (Joyce 6). Sadly, Eveline has no choice but to stick to the familiar and steer away from any fickle opportunities. If Joyce set the setting during a modern era, then Eveline would be more aware of the opportunities there are now. Furthermore, the world today has come along way and is not as male-dominated as before.