In James Joyce's short story "Eveline", the main character lives a miserable life with her father and her brothers. Her mother had died and that was when the family became in such a miserable state. She is so unhappy with her father's constant yelling and abuse along with the unappreciated effort she puts in keeping the household together. This causes her to want to run away with a boy named Frank. She plans to go with him to Buenos Ayres on sea and leave everything behind.
Before this journey could begin, Eveline slowly analyzes the pros and cons of this decision. This draws to her paralysis in the story. She flashes through memories of her mother where her mother had told her to try and keep the family together for as long as she could. Along with those memories, she remembers how nice her father could be and the happy days she had had with her family. These flow of flashbacks literally puts Eveline motionless right before Frank and the ship that could sail her to her new life. She is paralyzed as she has an epiphany that she cannot leave her family behind because she had promise her mother to fulfill that duty. This sudden realization forces her to leave her possibly happy life with Frank and sacrifice her love for the sake of her family.
In Joyce's "Araby", a boy falls in love with a girl and offers to buy her a gift from the bazaar in Araby since she could not go herself. Through frustrating patience with his uncle, the boy finally gets money for transportation to the bazaar and arrives seeing many stands closing. He goes into an open shop where this woman is flirting with two soldiers. At this point, the boy is paralyzed when he does not buy anything because it is then that his epiphany hits. He realizes that the girl he is about to buy something for may not even feel the same way he is. The sound of the flirting woman tells him that the girl of his dreams may just be playing around with him.
In both cases, the main characters are paralyzed and has an epiphany related to love. Eveline has to deal with the love for her family and mother as the boy in "Araby" realizes that love is what makes him a fool. Both of the protagonists were fooled. Eveline was convinced that her love for Frank can make her happy but her responsibilities come first. The boy in "Araby" thought that buying something for his crush will bring them closer to love but it is his rationality and logic that knocks him out of this state. Both of these characters cannot love what they want so they have to deal with reality.
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I agree with what you said about what you said for Eveline. However the boy in "Araby" thinks he loves the girl. His epiphany is that he does not even really know the girl and that is part of the reason why he does not buy anything. Also that does not want to buy her love with a cheap trinket from the bazaar because he does not want her to react like the woman at the Bazaar. He does not want her to use him like the woman is using the two gentlemen at the bazaar. His paralysis is that he does not have the courage to talk to her because he is too shy an naive. Good job, by the way.
ReplyDeleteYour analysis of Eveline is dead on. I agree with the way you showed how her epiphany led to her paralysis. She realizes that she cannot leave her abusive father. However in your analysis of Araby you suggest that the boy will give up on Mangan's sister. While it is true that the woman behind the booth at the bazaar discouraged him, he still seems to have a naive infatuation with her. In the end, his epiphany is that by buying Mangan's sister a gift, he is allowing himself to be used like the men with the woman at the booth.
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