Eveline

Eveline is torn between two worlds: her past and her family in Dublin and a happy, married future with Frank. The life that she currently lives is hard and uneventful. Her mother and one of her brothers died and her other brother moved away. With no one to protect her, she is in constant fear of her father hurting her. Although her life is hard, she calls it "not wholly undesirable." She has shelter and food and she has stability in her life. Eveline also knows that her father has a soft side that comes out once in awhile. She says she has "a right to happiness." Frank promises to take her away to Buenos Aires and marry her. She can leave behind her past and start anew in an unknown country. However, seeing Frank is against Eveline's father's wishes and if she were to suddenly leave her home town, she would be ridiculed by the people there. Her life in Dublin is not perfect, but it is not bad either. Eveline in paralyzed in a sense that she has no clue whether to throw away her current life for Frank or not.

Her epiphany comes when she hears the street organ playing down her avenue. The night her mother died, an Italian organ player was playing. That night Eveline promised her dying mother that she would "keep the home together as long as she could." And Eveline's mother screamed as she died, "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!" The memory haunted Eveline. Her reaction to escape was just reacting to terror. When she asks God on the docks what she should do, she has already made the decision to stay with her family. Eveline decided to keep true to her promise to her mother.

This is similar to the paralysis and epiphany in "Araby". The boy in "Araby" wishes for more than his going-nowhere life. He, too is paralyzed in the same spot. But his epiphany doesn't come by choice. When he realizes that the bazaar is some run-down place and that he can't afford anything there, he realizes that his life will remain paralyzed and he is forced to stay in the past.