Eveline is torn between starting a new life in another country with a man she barely knows and honoring a promise made to her dying mother despite the unhappiness it causes her.In the end, she passively submits “like a helpless animal” (Joyce 4-7), keeping her vow to her mother; morally unable to break her promise. Eveline belongs to an Irish Catholic family; she has been taught that the church demands self sacrifice and obedience. The picture in Eveline's family living room of a priest, who went to school with her father, and “the coloured print of the promises made to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque” (Joyce 4-7) serve as a constant reminder of the religious principles that direct her life.Promises made to a person on their deathbed are looked upon as sacred, a pledge always to be fulfilled by the one vowing to carry out the deceased’s wishes. Eveline’s promise to her dying mother, “to keep the home together as long as she could” (Joyce 4-7), is one she feels that she cannot break, even though she is suffering.
With her mother having passed, characteristic of women in this era, Eveline is expected to take care of her childhood home. By conforming to this part of her life, she serves as housewife and mother without a husband.Joyce writes that Eveline struggled to keep her promise. Having been raised to be a dutiful daughter, obedient to the rule of her father, she believes herself obligated to stay at home and suffer through his mistreatment and drunkenness.
In addition to caring for her father who “was becoming old lately” (Joyce 4-7), there are “two young children who had been left to her charge” (Joyce 4-7). Perhaps if she leaves, the children will suffer abuse from her father or neglect. The comparison of Eveline to an animal is suggested throughout the story.Her father “used often to hunt them in out of the field” (Joyce 4-7); like a mule or horse, she would carry "her load of provisions" (Joyce 4-7) from the market; with the desperation similar to that of a caged animal she "clutched the iron in frenzy” (Joyce 4-7) when at the railing. Finally, like an animal, she is forced into an existence where her happiness in disregarded. Eveline was morally unable to break her mother's wish because of her religious beliefs, her strict, impoverished upbringing, and societies’ expectations for females of her time period.
Like the dust covering everything at home, Eveline’s promise to her mother pervades her life; and like the dust, she tries to rid herself of the promise, yet, despite all her efforts, she finds herself unable to do so and back in the position in which she started. Towards the end of the story, Eveline believes she has a right to happiness until she stands on the shore and confronts reality. Fear and guilt overcome her, fear of the unknown and guilt over breaking a promise and leaving her family, and “like a helpless animal” (Joyce 4-7), she is guided by emotion, unable to make a rational choice on her own.
