Water, specifically the sea, represents the unknown, and Joyce uses it to illustrate Eveline’s fear of the unknown. At the end of the story, when Eveline is filled with anguish and rendered immobile by the difficulty of her decision, she feels “all the seas of the world tumble[d] about her heart.” The fact that her heart comes back into the story is significant since she reveals that she has a health issue of palpitations. This image implies that the very thought of leaving Dublin and entering the unknown “seas” is causing her emotional distress, and perhaps heart palpitations as well. She feels that Frank is “drawing her into” the seas and that eventually “he would drown her.” She is not ready for the unknown, and she feels like Frank is pressuring her. The sea also represents freedom, which is one and the same as the unknown to Eveline. She is afraid of both freedom and the unknown.
The timeline below shows where the symbol Water appears in Eveline. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Egeland, Anna. "Eveline Symbols: Water." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 22 Feb 2017. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Egeland, Anna. "Eveline Symbols: Water." LitCharts LLC, February 22, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2019. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/eveline/symbols/water.