James Joyce’s story “Eveline”

  In James Joyce’s story “Eveline” the main character ultimately decides not to leave, but before she makes that decision, we’re told, “All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her.” She wasn’t going to be literally drowned by Frank, but what is the significance of this water imagery? How does it help to suggest Eveline’s reasons for not leaving?