Irish Literature Paper
Olivia Barragree
Mr. Green
Irish Literature 3
17 February 2013
Irish Love In 20th Century Ireland, the practice of marriage remained very strict due to the religious standards of the time. The majority of the Irish population remained strictly Roman Catholic while a small population in the north remained Protestant. The Roman Catholic view on marriage remains to be that marriage should stay within the religion and be life-long, or until death due you part. With divorce removed as an option for the women of the time, and the expectation that a woman would get married earlier in life, it became no surprise that many women became unhappy with their love lives. James Joyce’s Dubliners, a collection of short stories, tells the sad love stories of man Irish women of the time. These stories prove that women, whose only goal becomes to get married like society told them to do so at the time, will end up ultimately stuck in a lifelong pursuit of happiness in religious love that drives them to desperation. One of the youngest love stories in the book presents itself in the story of “Eveline”. In this story Eveline, a teenage girl, finds herself struggling to make her next move in life. She longs for the love of Frank, her sailor, but feels conflicted about what her relationship with him entails. Eveline does not have an easy home life, which makes her decision to leave with her lover all the more difficult. Eveline lives and breathes the poverty stricken life of many Dubliners, and for her this remains familiar and tradition. Running away with a sailor to a faraway land would not be approved of by anyone in the town of Dublin. Her longing to get married and have a normal life drives her to make plans to leave the country and elope. At first she believes that it will be a good thing when she says, “Then she would be married---she, Eveline. People would treat her with respect then” (21). Eveline believes that getting married will be the answer to all of her problems
Mr. Green
Irish Literature 3
17 February 2013
Irish Love In 20th Century Ireland, the practice of marriage remained very strict due to the religious standards of the time. The majority of the Irish population remained strictly Roman Catholic while a small population in the north remained Protestant. The Roman Catholic view on marriage remains to be that marriage should stay within the religion and be life-long, or until death due you part. With divorce removed as an option for the women of the time, and the expectation that a woman would get married earlier in life, it became no surprise that many women became unhappy with their love lives. James Joyce’s Dubliners, a collection of short stories, tells the sad love stories of man Irish women of the time. These stories prove that women, whose only goal becomes to get married like society told them to do so at the time, will end up ultimately stuck in a lifelong pursuit of happiness in religious love that drives them to desperation. One of the youngest love stories in the book presents itself in the story of “Eveline”. In this story Eveline, a teenage girl, finds herself struggling to make her next move in life. She longs for the love of Frank, her sailor, but feels conflicted about what her relationship with him entails. Eveline does not have an easy home life, which makes her decision to leave with her lover all the more difficult. Eveline lives and breathes the poverty stricken life of many Dubliners, and for her this remains familiar and tradition. Running away with a sailor to a faraway land would not be approved of by anyone in the town of Dublin. Her longing to get married and have a normal life drives her to make plans to leave the country and elope. At first she believes that it will be a good thing when she says, “Then she would be married---she, Eveline. People would treat her with respect then” (21). Eveline believes that getting married will be the answer to all of her problems