“It’s not the future that you’re afraid of. It’s repeating the past that makes you anxious.” -unknown

Eveline is a young girl ready to run off with her new sailor husband. She has consented to leave behind all she has known for a chance at her own life, and Frank can give her everything she’s ever needed: love, shelter, support.  Yet, Eveline can’t escape the nagging voice, maybe her mother’s voice,  in the back of her mind that calls her to escape.

A perfect little wife, “keeping the home together”, just as her mother said: that’s what Eveline thinks she wants, and she could find that by following her new husband. The drive to be perfect everyday, a never ending loop of blissful monotony, would keep her from the same fate as her mother. Never would she be a victim. “Why should she be unhappy?”

Coming from a  psychoanalytic perspective, though, Eveline would never truly be content with that eventual “life of commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness”. As believed by Sigmund Freud, the “conscious was influenced by childhood events… involving relationships with parents”, and our young protagonist was never truly able to release the animosity spewing from the wound that her mother’s absence had left. Eveline can never lead that same life that lead to her mother’s spiral into insanity, as much as she cares not to admit it. Her Superego drive for perfection, along with the realistic expectations of her Ego, had kept her steady. At least until she must jump headfirst into a life she truly doesn’t want, which at that point her subconscious (her basic impulse, her Id) screams for her to run. Despite all Frank had done for her, she truly could not stay, demonstrating how desperately she needed to be away from the situation.

In the end, “her eyes gave no him no sign of love or farewell or recognition” as her unconscious had already dominated. Her animal instinct had urged her to survive, and the only way she could survive was to escape. She would not become a stereotypical “wifey” archetype. “Humans are motivated… by desires… of which they are unaware”, and Eveline let her needs and fears drive her to where she could be happiest, even if she will never be able to admit it.