James Joyce's Eveline and Thomas Hardy's The Son's Veto express the negative effects that service has on an individual's life. While Joyce uses an intimate obligation, a promise made to a dying mother, Hardy's story addresses a broader cultural restriction created by social class systems. This article will explore the disregard felt by both authors towards an individual's obligation to serve others. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Both stories contain a kind of paralysis. The Son's Veto focuses on a woman, Sophy, who, while dutifully serving the vicar, Mr. Twycott, injures her ankle and finds her mobility limited for life. “As she was forbidden to walk and move about, and indeed could not do so, it became her duty to leave” (616). His injury is not spoken of with compassion at first. It is his duty to leave. Hardy's language describes service to the home before considering social compassion such as seeking some form of workers' compensation. The novel's connection between service and its negative effects foreshadows the later paralysis of her ability to marry for joy due to her son's wishes. Even in her first marriage, Sophy is unable to express her free will due to her subservient position. "'No, Sophie; lame or not lame, I cannot let you go. You must never leave me again'" (616). It is not her choice to marry; alas, she gets married anyway. Not because marriage would improve her financial situation, but rather because “she had a respect for him that almost amounted to veneration” (Broadview, p. 616). Sophie's respect comes from her inferior position. As a service class it was crippled. Joyce constructs the character of Eveline in the same way as Hardy's Sophy. The collection in which it appears, Dubliners, emphasizes Joyce's conception of Dublin as a place of paralysis. Yet even in the story's introduction, Eveline appears as a girl whose decision-making ability is crippled. There was a time when she could play in the fields, but “then a man from Belfast bought the land and built houses on it” (20). Even when the field was still there, his father would interrupt the games by chasing them with his blackthorn stick. His inability to make decisions adds to the physical threat of his father in this scene where the service of the economy has trampled on the individual enjoyment of the land. Furthermore, Eveline's free will is limited by the needs of her family. His mother died and his father began drinking heavily. His behavior forces him to “always give his entire salary, seven shillings,” to feed the family (21). Even then, when Eveline has abandoned any possibility of using her money for her own promotion, she has to argue with her father and, only at the last minute, rush out on Saturday evening to do the shopping for the family. She is economically disabled, just like Sophy with her ankle. It's important to note that Sophy's ankle isn't the last of her problems. When her husband dies, her son refuses to let her marry an old acquaintance, Sam, because of the cultural stain it would impose on him as a "gentleman". He forces her to swear before God and asserts: “I owe this to my father” (621). Not only does he prevent her from marrying a man who takes care of her, but Randolph manages to become paralyzed himself. He, the priest, who by his position is supposed to be a beacon of light, appears "black as a.