The Boarding House
Summary
- James Joyce
This is a story of love and adolescence. The central
character of the story is Mrs. Mooney. She is a strong, determined and a reserved
woman. She represents the awakening woman of 20th century who
crosses the boundaries made by the male dominating societies. She is a
representation of a new woman who never tolerates the domination and exploitation
of males. In the story, the writer focuses on her relationship with her
daughter. She is shown here as a confident and complete mother as she knows to
deal with different kinds of relationships.
Mrs. Mooney was a daughter of a butcher. Her husband worked
for her father. When he father died, her husband turned to be a drunkard. He misused
the money by drinking a lot and misbehaved with her in presence of customers because
of which her shop was about to collapse. One night, her husband entered with a
knife in a drunken frenzy to attack her and she had to sleep in her neighbor’s
house. Next morning, she went to church and got divorced from him. She began to
live separately. She was independent to think about her life and her children’s.
She was concerned about the future of her children. Thinking that her shop
wouldn’t help her sustain, she sold it and opened a boarding house. Her
daughter, Miss Polly began to work in an office but she couldn’t continue her
job due to the frequent disturbance from her father. Then Mrs. Mooney
intentionally made her work in her boarding house where Miss Polly fell in love
with Mr. Doran.
Many people in the house began to talk about their relationship
but Mrs. Mooney didn’t stop her daughter having the relationship with M. Doran.
She waited for the right time. When she saw little strange manners in her
daughter, she thought it was the right time to talk. She called Mr. Doran in her
house for dinner. She thought that no any compensation would pay for the
enjoyment he had with her relationship. Mrs. Polly was a 19 year old girl who
was beautiful and inexperienced whereas Mr. Doran was a middle aged man and
experienced as well. So Mrs. Mooney was not ready to excuse him at any cost
thinking that money wasn't enough. But Mr. Doran had a good excuse for not
accepting Miss Polly. He said his father wouldn’t accept their marriage and he
himself viewed that Miss Polly couldn’t speak English well, she was not highly
educated and her family background wasn’t good. But Mrs. Mooney didn’t let him
go without a payment. In the last of the story, she called her daughter saying
that Mr. Doran wanted to speak to Miss Polly.
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