What do you think about Eveline's father?

When we read the
story, we are immediately
aware that 's father is not a good person. He is one of many reasons
why
Eveline wishes to escape from Ireland to Argentina with her lover Frank. Eveline says
she
fears her father would physically hurt her like he used to hurt Harry and
Ernest, her brothers.
He is the reason why Eveline has developed
palpitations:

Even now, though she was
over nineteen, she sometimes felt herself in danger of her
father's violence.
She knew it was that that had given her the palpitations. When they were

growing up he had never gone for her like he used to go for Harry and Ernest, because
she was a
girl but latterly he had begun to threaten her and say what he
would do to her only for her dead
mother's sake.

Although Eveline's father has never
physically
harmed her because she is a girl, Eveline fears that he might do it since he
has
started to threaten her. Her father is often verbally abusive, and
Eveline has a hard time
convincing him to give her his money so that she
could buy food or the necessary items for home.
He would rather squander his
money on drinks than help his daughter pay the bills. He'd also
accuse her of
spending his own money unreasonably, not intending "to give her his

hard-earned money to throw about the streets."

Eveline's father
makes
Eveline feel rather tired and frightened. She needs safety and comfort,
offered by her lover
Frank. This is why she wants to run away with him. She
desires to embrace a more fulfilling
life, which would not consist of
repeated arguments with her father.

Nevertheless, Eveline
also has some pleasant recollections of the time she spent with
her father
when she was younger. Back then, when her mother was alive, her father was

good-humored and gentle to her:

Sometimes he could
be very
nice...when their mother was alive, they had all gone for a picnic to
the Hill of Howth. She
remembered her father putting on her mothers bonnet to
make the children laugh.

All in all,
the past and the present clash in Eveline's mind,
leaving her confused,
restless and unable to change her life for the better.