Eveline a Cultural Case Study

Beeline begins with a young woman gazing out the window to a Dublin street. Dublin has become a part of Beeline. The setting Is the only thing that gives Beeline a sense of security. She Is too afraid to leave this setting; she Is trapped.

In Ireland, “she had those whom she had known all her life about her (512). ” Most of her peers have moved on to a new life now, but Beeline is forced to remain in the life of which she is accustomed to. She is trapped in the familiarity of her setting.

The setting of the story greatly aids in the development of Beeline’s character. Without the setting to portray her dull and plain life one would not be able to fully understands Beeline.

Consequently, due to Beeline being trapped in the setting of the short story one is fully able to comprehend many things about her attitude and actions. Her name, Beeline, could be a reference to the title character of a nineteenth-century pornographic novel, or It could be a reference to a song by the Irish poet Thomas Moore; either way, the name is likely to connote a woman sexually active before marriage.

Smelling the dust from “cretonne” curtains, a heavy cotton material that Is usually brightly colored, Beeline reflects on her life, beginning with her childhood. Looking at the objects around her that she might never see again, Beeline notices a colored print of promises made to Margaret Mary Lacquer, a French nun cannonaded in 1920, whose image was connected with domestic security and was common in Irish Catholic homes. Beeline remembers that the priest whose photograph is next to the print is in Melbourne now, which sends her thinking about whether or not she should leave home.

She would not be sorry to leave her job; she works in the Stores,” a dry goods store in south Dublin, where her boss Miss Gavin is rude and embarrasses her.

So she plans for her departure with her lover Frank, a sailor fond of music who has taken her to an opera (about the fortunes of a “Bohemian girl” who Is abducted by gypsies) and told her of the “terrible Patagonians,” or Argentines, who represent decadent morality. Frank Is planning to take Beeline by night boat to Liverpool, England, and then across the sea to Buenos Aries, a city at the time associated with prostitution.

Mr.. Hill dislikes sailors, has quarreled with Frank, and, avian guessed about the affair, has forbidden Beeline from seeing him. The final scene of the story is on a crowded dock on the river Life, where boats leave for Liverpool.

Without understanding what Frank is saying to her, Beeline is pale, distressed, nauseous, and praying to God to reveal her “duty. ” The boat blows a long whistle. A bell clangs, and Frank tries to pull her on board, but Beeline clutches an iron railing on shore, feeling that he will drown her in “the seas of the world. She cries out and grasps the railing tighter while Frank calls to her, and she turns her lapses face to him without a glimpse of “love or farewell or recognition,” staying on shore as the boat pulls away. Tortured by the promise she made her mother to keep the home together as long as she could, and unsure of whether to leave her father, who will miss her, Beeline Is trying to decide whether to attempt to “live” and be happy with her lover.

She expresses some subtle doubts about Frank when she rennet’s Tanat seen Ana merely “Deign to Like ml” Ana Tanat en wall only “perhaps” glove her love, but this does not seem to be the major issue in her debate with herself. Beeline is principally concerned about her “duty” and her role within her family. Critics have long noted that one of the most important themes in Edibleness is the tendency for its characters “paralysis. ” As it is portrayed in the collection, Dublin suffers from harsh conditions, the lack of moral hope, and spiritual emptiness, which combine to erode the impetus to positive change in many of its characters.

The first symbol is overt, that of the print of Margaret Mary Lacquer.

This prominent Irish Catholic symbol represents domestic security and piety, and Beeline notices it Just as she is having her first doubts about leaving home. The print is beside a yellowing photograph of a priest who is Mr.. Hill’s friend and above a broken harmonium (a keyboard instrument with reeds), which may be meant to emphasize the disorder of the home or Beeline’s discordant spirituality. The fact that the priest has emigrated is a particularly interesting detail, possibly implying that problems in domestic piety will follow Beeline elsewhere.

Because of this religious context, and because Beeline is seeking spiritual regeneration in her Journey, the epiphany in the story can be read as a moment of divine clarity. Phrases like “sudden impulse” and “he would save her” lee the reader into the religious connotations of the moment. Since she fails to carry out a divine manifestation, Beeline could be said to be falling into spiritual decay when she is unable to follow the course revealed by a holy epiphany. Beeline is a classic example of a patient trying to escape from an attachment to her tyrannical father..

In her desire to stay with her father in her mother’s role, .

The fact that she considers Frank a protector and father figure who, she repeats, would “save her.. The first symbol is overt, that of the print of Margaret Mary Lacquer. This prominent Irish Catholic symbol represents domestic security and piety, and Beeline notices it just as she is having her first doubts about leaving home. The fact that the priest has emigrated is a particularly interesting detail, possibly implying that problems in domestic piety will follow Beeline elsewhere.

Beeline is unable to escape the paralyzed existence of the “duties” and inhibitions of home, living under her father’s abusive control. Her mother’s death, emblematic by the mysterious (but most likely morbid and fatalistic) Irish phrase “Derivate Serous,” inspires Beeline’s desperate and terrified desire to escape. But it also reminds her of her promises to stay at home, and Beeline’s chance to flee to the freedom and motion of a new life across the sea fails, leaving her locked into the paralyzed role of housewife to an abusive father, poised for a nervous breakdown of her own..