"Eveline" by James Joyce

Eveline is a character that has a mixture between a round character and a static character. She is a person that wishes for change but doesn't have the necessary will power to make it. Her lack of will is in part by the abusive behavior her father has portrayed over the years, and her relationship with her father is an example of how men used to treat women in the 1920’s. At that time women we’re still viewed as being inferior to men. Here unwillingness to go with Frank is most in due part by how women were viewed in that era, she stayed at her house and keep the family together not only because of the vow she made to her mother, but also because that was what it was expected of he. 

Eveline loved Frank but her love for Frank was somehow pushed, she wanted to love him. It was not something that came naturally but in fact in her eyes she wanted to see Frank as her escape from her miserable life. She is also very insecure and as such she feels that she does not fully know Frank to be swept away into a life that she fears will only repeat what her mother went through, even though by staying she is exactly doing what she fears the most. At the end of the story Joyce writes “She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal.” This tells us that Eveline is a allegory of the way men used to view women in the twentieth century and that that is how they were supposed to be, ever constantly a helpless animal that can only do housework and nothing more.