What They Really Want is a Man Just Like Daddy...

Stockholm syndrome, generally inferred to apply only to kidnapping victims, is a psychological disorder in which the victim of the kidnapping bonds with and develops an emotional attachment to the kidnapper. This emotional bond, or emotional dependence, to a tormentor can develop in other abusive relationships as well; James Joyce clearly demonstrates the affliction in his short story “Eveline” in The Dubliners. Eveline’s father had consistently and continuously emotionally abused her, her brothers, and her mother. Her father had physically abused Eveline’s brothers and mother as well. Yet although Eveline claimed that “she would not be treated as her mother had been”, she still formed a distorted emotional attachment to her father. The strength of this attachment became ever more clear, both to Eveline and reader, as the reality of possible departure neared. Eveline began to focus on her positive memories of time spent with her father “Not long before…he had read her out a ghost story and made toast for her”. Eveline focused on the less unpleasant moments of her known life when forced to confront the possibility of the unknown. She could imagine what her life might resemble if she chose to leave with Frank, and she imagined a very positive future, but the lack of certainty frightened her. Eveline had been bound to her father by years of mistreatment; she identified with and drew close to her tormentor. This knowledge swirls through Eveline’s psyche until the moment Eveline set foot on the pier next to the boat; only then is the realization allowed to crash down upon her, rooting her to the dock. She prefers her known misery, after all her father had conditioned her to prefer known misery, to the possibility of an enjoyable life. After the epiphany occurred, it rooted her in place, leaving the reader to imagine her slow, miserable, return to her father’s house after the boat disappears over the horizon.