Two short stories written in the early 20th century depict women trapped within the lifestyle of their families due to a dominating father. These stories are James Joyce’s Eveline and William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily.
Eveline is a short story in Joyce’s Dubliners about a girl named Eveline who has lived all her life in Dublin with her oppressively strict father. The story tells of the day when Eveline tried to elope with her fiancé Frank to escape the routine and suffocating life she was living with her father.
On the other hand, William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is about a woman who came from an old, rich southern family. After her father’s death, she lived the rest of her life in loneliness due mainly to his strict disciplinarian ways and snooty outlook on the community. The story relates Emily’s desperate measures to solve her problems.
Both Eveline and Emily had controlling fathers, which prevented them from creating a social network in their community. However, the motivations of their fathers differed. In Eveline’s case, her father became cruel and oppressive after her mother’s death. The loss seemed to have changed him so much that there was hardly any joy in their household afterward. On the other hand, Emily’s family belonged to old southern high society that no longer exists due to time and societal changes. As a result, her father treated everyone else in the community as beneath him and his daughter. He disallowed Emily from fraternizing with anyone in the community and turned down every suitor who visited.
Both Eveline and Emily were severely affected by their fathers’ control. However, the fate of Eveline and Emily, as well as their characters due to their situations, are completely different.
The story of Eveline begins with her hesitation to elope with Frank, while holding onto the letters she intended to leave for her family. As she ponders what she is about to do, memories of her mother flood back. She can only recall the good times with her father until she remembers her mother’s death. Her dying words were Derevaun Seraun,” which means “death in life.” Upon remembering this line, Eveline rashly decides to elope. However, at the pier, she becomes like a helpless animal and clings onto the change unable to move, speak or leave Dublin with Frank to start a new life in Buenos Aires.
Eveline’s desire to leave her house shows how tired she was of being controlled. Yet, when the opportunity presented itself, she forgot about the negative issues and only recalled happy times in Dublin. This demonstrates her unwillingness to leave her house and how she replaced oppression with positive thoughts. She also felt chained by her promise to keep the family together for her mother. However, upon hearing her mother’s words, fear consumed Eveline because she felt like a dying person under the control of her father. The end of the story is filled with symbolism that represents Eveline’s character. Her indecision shows that she still wasn’t fully convinced about leaving her family. Her act of praying symbolizes routine and an inability to take responsibility for actions. By leaving, Eveline breaks a promise to her mother but by praying for a sign, washes away any consequences and leaves it up to divine force instead. Holding onto the chain railing represents Eveline’s unwillingness to let go of current life while also symbolizing bondage to family and current life under father’s control.Finally, Joyce comparing Eveline to a helpless animal shows that like domesticated animals who know no other home than where they were trained, Eveline knows no other way than what she has been taught at home.In conclusion, although Eveline thought death in life was living with family; deciding whether or not leaving what one already knows is far worse than living death.
Eveline’s personality shows a weakness of character that is not present in Emily at all. Unlike Eveline, Emily from A Rose for Emily” is presented as having a strong and haughty character. Similar to Eveline, Emily had a controlling father who severed her from society and kept her away from suitors perceived to be inferior to her. However, unlike Eveline, Emily embraced this perception. Like her father, she behaved in a snooty and haughty way and treated her neighbors with superiority that they had no choice but to respect. She demanded respect and was able to thwart the city’s councilors with ease without breaking a sweat.
Emily’s strong character was further illustrated when she was able to get what she wanted by throwing her weight around – evidenced by avoiding paying taxes and purchasing arsenic without question. So unlike Eveline, Emily was neither helpless nor indecisive despite having an oppressive upbringing. Despite this upbringing, she adopted the ways of her father and remained resolute in what she wanted.
However, despite agreeing with her father about their superiority over everyone else, Emily eventually felt the loneliness of solitude. She realized that there was no one good enough for her. Unlike Eveline, Emily grabbed the opportunity the moment it presented itself. She made sure that the man she loved would stay with her forever without having to abandon the lifestyle and life she had known since birth. Emily killed the man she loved and slept beside him from then on.
As convoluted as it may seem, Emily had more than enough determination to be free of her loneliness. She was strong or maybe crazy enough to sleep beside a corpse every day. The act of killing shows ruthlessness in Emily that can only be traced back to her father.
Therefore, even in the end, it was Emily’s father and his ways that were most prominent. Nevertheless, even if sleeping with a dead body seems like utter madness, in Emily’s mind she was finally happy, free and definitely not alone.
In conclusion, Eveline’s character is the exact opposite of Emily’s. The former is weak, afraid, and indecisive while the latter is strong, bold, and resolute. However, their similar backgrounds have caused them both to become mentally ill. Due to the constancy of her father’s presence and Eveline’s fear of changing this, she stood on the pier in a state of catatonia – as if her soul had finally left her body and died. She neither went with Frank nor did she go back home.
Emily desired to uphold her father’s upbringing while satisfying her personal needs. As a result, she killed the one she loved and slept with his dead body for years – an absolute sign of madness.
Whether Emily thought herself free or whether Eveline found a way to get out, the end result remains the same – they ended up still trapped in their father’s power. This power was represented by Eveline’s inability to travel with Frank and Emily’s inability to leave her house causing her to kill Homer to assure companionship.
Reference:
Joyce, James (1914). Eveline.” Retrieved on February 22, 2008 from http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/bookid.345/sec./
Faulkner, William. (1970). A Rose for Emily.” In Ed. Thomas Inge, A Rose for Emily, pp. 9-16. Columbus, Ohio: A Bell & Howell Company.
