Idleness leads to Revelations -- Who Knew?

When an individual idles, his/her thoughts wander and eventually lead to a realization that emerges. Thus, a paralysis, the inability to act, is often followed by an epiphany, a revelation. In Joyce's "Eveline," the protagonist, Eveline, experiences the effect of both a paralysis and epiphany twice to determine whether she should leave her home. Her first paralysis consists of a stream of consciousness that takes over the first four pages of the short story. Here, she sits at the window thinking aimlessly on whether or not she should leave with her lover, Frank. Joyce signals the beginning and end of this paralysis by providing the image of the Eveline sitting by the window and smelling "the odour of dusty cretonne" (36, 39). She is waiting for the time in which she can leave with Frank. Until that time comes, however, she is beginning to doubt whether she is making the correct decision. Joyce signals the epiphany that follows by illustrating how Eveline stands up with "a sudden impulse of terror. Escape! [...] Frank would take her in his arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her" (40). This "sudden" thought demonstrates the suddenness a revelation unfolds for an individual. The exclamation mark isolates the word escape, and emphasizes that the protagonist presently believes that she should leave her home. As a result of this paralysis and epiphany, Evelines realizes that by leaving with Frank, there is a possibility that she can begin a new life filled with both love and happiness. Her second experience occurs when she is about to board the ship but is incapable of speaking. As Frank speaks to her and holds her hand, leading her, "[s]he answered nothing" (40). She is unable to speak because her mind is wandering once again. In fact, she expresses that she enters "a maze of distress" because she is, once again, doubtful of her decision on whether she should leave her home (40). Once Frank yells, "Come!" however, she experiences her second epiphany and realizes that she does not want to leave after all (41). Now, instead of saving her, she feels as if "he [Frank] would drown her" (41). As he leaves, she only stares at him "passive[ly], like a helpless animal" (41). As a consequence to her second and most crucial epiphany, because of the time in which is occurs, she does not leave with Frank. This comes full circle to the beginning of the story, where Eveline reminisces about the past and how she is not very fond of change. Eloping with a lover and leaving her family, one that needs her dearly, behind proves to be too much of a drastic change for her to make. Thus, she stays. She does not look at her lover, however with "love or farewell or recognition" for at that moment he is no longer her lover but a man who gives her the opportunity to have a new life that she rejects(41). In addition, a crucial detail that foreshadows Eveline's decision is that she first isolates "Home!" before "Escape!" (37, 40). This demonstrates that her home and her family are placed first and foremost in her life, even above her lover and herself.

Arguably, perhaps the most crucial epiphany occurs when an individual is facing the reality of their decision in question. For example, in Joyce’s “Araby,” when the protagonist abruptly experience his epiphany, he realizes that he is “a creature driven and derided by vanity” for admiring a girl who he is not familiar with and only adores her for her beauty (35). Moreover, in attempts to woo and impress her by proving his worth, he throws a childish fit demanding to go to the bizarre at an hour in which most stalls are closed. Finally recognizing his foolishness, his “eyes burned with anguish and anger” as he leaves the bizarre because he does not see it earlier.