Bittersween Dreams

Bittersweet Dreams
Although Eveline dreams of freedom from her ordinary existence, she has not the physical or emotional strength to see her dreams to fruition. It is because of the ties that bind her to her Catholic-Dublinian existence and her weakened physical state, that when she attempts to journey beyond the limits of her primitive boundaries, that she suffers the ultimate consequence for her actions.
Dreams are what maidens are made of, and Eveline is no different that any other healthy young lady in that regard. However, Eveline lives in harsh times and under harsh conditions, so the intensity of her dreams are exacerbated by the dimness of her reality. When she needs to have her calgon moment, she dreams of her childhood, and the comfort and security that that represents, and of her new “excitement” (406), Frank, which represents her future comfort and security. She dreams of the opposite, of her now.
For Eveline, her childhood represents as perfect a pl...