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Why is Eveline described as a "helpless animal" in James Joyce's work?
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Eveline is described as a "helpless animal" because she is controlled by family ties and unable to act independently. Despite her desire to escape an abusive and oppressive environment, Eveline's sense of duty and spiritual paralysis prevent her from leaving with her lover. Her inability to break free from her old life renders her passive and helpless, much like a domesticated animal.
Eveline is a "helpless animal" in that she's controlled by family ties and feels that she can't do anything about it. These ties—or rather, chains—exert a hold on her like a dog chain or a tether, holding her back, preventing her from gaining independence.
Despite leading a life of abuse and domestic drudgery, Eveline still can't bring herself to make that leap of faith and join her lover aboard ship as he sets sail for a new life in Argentina. This is largely because she's never been allowed to mature. Treated like a beast of burden, and controlled by her abusive father, Eveline has led the life of a domesticated animal whose natural instinct for freedom has been curbed by the onerous responsibilities of family life. As such, Eveline feels utterly helpless as she stands there on the quayside while her lover sails off to the other side of the...
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James Joyce, author of the short story "Eveline," uses the simile "like a helpless animal" in order to describe Eveline's spiritual paralysis.
Throughout the narrative of Joyce's story, the main character, Eveline, dreams of escaping her repressive environment, in which she is subjected to humiliation by her superior at work, Miss Gavan, who "had always had an edge on her," and by her oppressive father, whose violence she fears and to whom she "always gave her entire wages."
Despite her father's having forbidden her to see a sailor after learning of her involvement with this young man, Eveline plans to "explore another life with Frank." He has asked her to go away with him by the night-boat to Buenos Ayres, where he has a home. The sailor's tales of distant lands have enchanted Eveline, and she perceives life with Frank as offering her excitement and escape from Ireland and the spiritually and culturally impoverished life she has been living.
However, on the night that they are to leave Ireland, and Eveline is to escape her unhappy life, Eveline begins to feel distressed. She prays to God "to direct her, to show her what was her duty." It is then that she seems to hear "[A] bell clang in her heart," and she feels that Frank "would drown her" as he urges her to board the ship. In fear and spiritual paralysis Eveline clutches the iron railing:
She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.
Paralyzed by her sense of obligation to her mother's memory and by her duty to protect her little brother and obey her father, Eveline is rendered helpless to break from her old life and begin a new one.