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“[Frank] was awfully fond of music and sang a little. People knew that they were courting and, when he sang about the lass that loves a sailor, she always felt pleasantly confused. He used to call her Poppens out of fun. First of all it had been an excitement for her to have a fellow and then she had begun to like him.”
Eveline reflects on her suitor, Frank. The way she describes him and their courtship suggests that while she appreciates his attention and his fun personality, she is not in love with him. She continues to consider her choice between home and Frank very rationally. She recognizes clearly, as someone in love probably would not, that she cannot truly know whether he will treat her well.
“He had tales of distant countries. He had started as a deck boy at a pound a month on a ship of the Allan Line going out to Canada. He told her the names of the ships he had been on and the names of the different services. He had sailed through the Straits of Magellan and he told her stories of the terrible Patagonians. He had fallen on his feet in Buenos Ayres, he said, and had come over to the old country just for a holiday. Of course, her father had found out the affair and had forbidden her to have anything to say to him.”
Frank is a sailor which means he has traveled to many different countries during his time at sea. Eveline is clearly intrigued by Frank’s worldliness. Through this passage, Joyce implies that Frank wooed Eveline by telling her stories of exotic lands and far-off places. The reader can infer that these tales were captivating to Eveline because she longs for a happier life outside of Dublin. This passage is also important because it informs the reader that Eveline’s father does not approve of Frank which, perhaps, is another draw.
