The author uses a third person limited point of view to describe, in the best way possible, all the emotions Evelyn was going through in order for the reader to best understand her fears, frustration, and ultimately, the very reason she decided to not leave her home.
At the beginning of the story, Eveline is remembering her childhood days in her hometown. We can sense her nostalgia since the very first descriptions of Eveline´s thoughts, which foreshadows the result of the decision she had at hand. ¨Still, she was rather happy back then…¨(pg. 532, elements of literature) she said, dreamily recalling what it was like to play with her brothers and friends, all gay little children. The author uses visual imagery when she describes how Eveline viewed her home before trying to part from it; ¨Home! She looked around the room, reviewing all its familiar objects which she had dusted once a week for so many years, wondering where on earth all the dust came from.¨(pg. 532) Eveline is experiencing some attachment to her home and place she had been raised in. Her life had been hard, but could she really leave it? Often times humans don’t try to make their situations better because they are so used to the bad situation they have at hand, they wouldn’t know what to do if presented with the option of a better life. ¨It was hard work, a hard life-but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it wholly undesirable.¨(pg. 533) And what exactly was she leaving it for? Frank was her lover, he was a sailor, presumably from Buenos Aires, Argentina, but did she really, truly, whole heartedly love him? ¨First of all, it had been an excitement for her to have a fellow…¨(pg. 533) Excitement, it was, at the prospect of having ¨a new boyfriend¨, the novelty, the entertainment of the month, but never in the entire story does Eveline express a true, deep attachment to Frank, bordering on love; she does not even express a strong liking towards him. Would she really abandon her life, the environment she had been raised in, that had shaped her as a woman, as a human being, for a guy she wasn’t even in love with?
¨The evening deepened in the avenue. The white of the two letters in her lap grew indistinct.¨(pg. 533) The day darkens…the time to make a decision hastens. As the sun goes down, so does her mood…she becomes gloomy, emotional, and we see that her sentiments towards the prospect of a new beginning are not bright and joyful at all. In fact, she was trying to delay the time she would go away as much as she could…¨Her time was running out but she continued to sit by the window, leaning her head against the window curtain, inhaling the odor of dusty cretonne.¨(pg. 534) The fact that the author describes this so specifically enables the reader to experience the ambience in a very strong way; in such a way that the feeling of Eveline´s attachment to home being indirectly expressed through the olfactory imagery becomes a reality to the reader, being filled with nostalgia, wondering whether it is really possible to leave a place one is used to so and which one has lived in for all their life.
Towards the end of the story, Eveline remembers ¨her promise to her dead mother, her promise to keep the home together as long as she could.¨(pg. 534). That promise is the underlying reason that links Eveline to her home forever-making it impossible to ever abandon it, no matter how much misery it provides her.
That is why it’s no surprise when she could not leave with Frank to Buenos Aires, ¨All the seas of the world tumbled within her heart. He was drawing her into them, he would drown her.¨(pg. 534). This very vivid visual and tactile imagery clearly describes how unprepared Eveline was to charter ¨new waters¨, or to launch herself into the unknown future of a completely new life in a completely new scenario. Eveline felt ¨drowned¨, asphyxiated by her fears of leaving home. Frank, with his proposition of a new life and a liberation from her current misery, was drowning her. That is why, at the moment of truth, when they were at the port and ready to board the ship that would take them to Argentina, Eveline ran away from Frank. He chased after her, but was unable to catch up. As he looked at her, bewildered, confused, hurt, from far away, she looked back blankly, no signs of apology, sadness, or pain in her face. ¨Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.¨(pg. 534) And that was that, and that’s all there is to say about it.
