The boarding house

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1 Introduction to the Author

● James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century ● Joyce's novel Ulysses (1922) is a landmark in which the episodes of Homer's Odyssey are

paralleled in a variety of literary styles, particularly stream of consciousness.

● "The Boarding House" is a short story that Joyce dearly loved and was first published in 1914 as an installment of the literary classic Dubliners (1914).

Historical Context (litchart)

When Joyce was writing Dubliners at the beginning of the 20th century, Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, ruled from London by the UK Parliament The Joyce family, particularly Joyce and his father, were supporters of Irish Home Rule, a campaign for Ireland to govern itself, as championed by the Irish political leader Charles Stewart Parnell Parnell’s disgrace in 1889 and death in 1891 were serious blows to the cause of Irish nationalism and to the Joyce family Over the decades that followed, Ireland became increasingly divided among Catholics and Protestants, Nationalists (who supported self-rule for Ireland) and Conservatives/Unionists (who wanted to stay in the United Kingdom) Dubliners is, among other things, a portrait of a city ruled by these increasingly rigid cultural and political classifications.

Key fact (litchart)

• Full Title: “The Boarding House” • When Written: May and June 1905 • Where Written: Trieste, Italy • When Published: 1914

• Literary Period: Modernist fiction

• Genre: Short Story, Naturalist Fiction, Modernist Fiction • Setting: A boarding house in Dublin, Ireland

• Climax: The cunning Mrs Mooney demands to talk to her lodger Mr Doran after observing his covert fling with her daughter Polly.

• Antagonist: The restrictive social, religious, and gender- based mores of Dublin society.

• Point of View: Third Person

"The Boarding House" Introduction

"The Boarding House" is a short story originally published in 1914 as a part of the literary classic, "Dubliners." It is considered one of James Joyce's favorite short stories.

The title page of the first edition in 1914 of Dubliners

Story Summary

After divorcing her alcoholic husband—a former butcher who had previously worked for her father—Mrs Mooney opens a boarding home Music hall musicians and tourists alike are welcomed into Mrs.Mooney's home The majority of her permanent renters are clerks She has several of them The guys in the house get along well with one another; they spend Sunday evenings in the drawing room doing musical performances and exchanging gossip and stories Polly, Mrs Mooney's daughter, sings occasionally

Mrs Mooney attempted to place Polly in an office as a typist, but Mr Mooney visited the workplace too frequently for Polly's comfort, therefore she is now employed as a boarding housemaid Mrs Mooney urges her to make friends with the men, but she soon discovers that Polly is more drawn to one man in particular While the other tenants begin conversing, Mrs Mooney stays silent Rather, she thoughtfully selects her time, on a Sunday morning in the early summer, following breakfast

Mrs Mooney has ascertained the current status of the relationship between her daughter and her tenant, Mr Doran, following a discussion with Polly regarding the man in

question Polly's reputation will be destroyed, and Mr Doran's job as a Catholic wine merchant could be lost if word gets out about the affair Knowing she is on the moral high ground, she demands "reparation." They can manage the harm if he consents to wed Polly

As he waits to meet with Mrs Mooney, Mr Doran is nervous He has been to confession, but he knows he must either marry Polly or run away He knows he will lose his job once the affair becomes public, but he also believes his family and friends will look down on Polly with her poor grammar, drunken father, and mother's boarding house Polly comes to Mr Doran's room, crying and threatening suicide As he comforts her, he remembers their time together but is interrupted when Mrs Mooney calls him downstairs While Mr Doran and Mrs Mooney meet, Polly remains in his room and calms herself She hears her mother call her downstairs, telling her Mr Doran wants to speak with her, and remembers "what she had been waiting for."

Mrs Mooney separates from Mr Mooney She establishes a boarding house and lives with her kids, Polly and Jack Mooney.

Rising Action

Polly becomes involved in an affair with Mr Doran Mrs Mooney does not act immediately because she makes a plan.

Mrs Mooney confronts Polly about the situation She later confronts Mr Doran and tells him he has to marry Polly.

“The Boarding House” is a story about the fallout from an affair between a young woman, Polly, and a man, Mr Doran, in early 20th-century Dublin Mr Doran is a lodger in the boarding house run by Polly’s formidable mother, Mrs Mooney.

Mrs Mooney was once married to a drinker who tried to attack her with a meat cleaver one night After that, Mrs Mooney got permission from the priest to separate from her husband (since divorce was still not legal in Ireland at the time) With the money she took from the marriage, Mrs Mooney set up a boarding house, where her lodgers are mostly clerks, as well as touring musical performers who inhabit the fringes of respectable society Her lodgers refer to her as “The Madam.”

Mrs Mooney’s two children also live at the boarding house: her son, Jack, a clerk who’s prone to fighting and betting, and her daughter, Polly, a pretty and flirtatious girl of 19 Mrs Mooney had sent Polly to work as a typist for a corn trader but brought her home again when her father kept bothering her at work At the boarding house, Mrs Mooney deliberately turns a blind eye on Polly’s flirtations with the lodgers, even when one flirtation seems to go farther, developing into a secret relationship.

When she’s sure that the relationship has progressed too far for the man to back out, Mrs Mooney decides to intervene, first by having a frank conversation with Polly to see how far things have gone The next morning, a sunny

Sunday, she sits alone in her breakfast room and contemplates the conversation she plans to have with Mr Doran She is determined to secure a marriage proposal for Polly, and she feels confident she’ll succeed She knows that Mr Doran has a good salary and some money put aside, and she feels satisfied with herself.

Meanwhile, Mr Doran is in his bedroom, very anxious at the prospect of this conversation He is shaking too much to shave, in agony every time he remembers confessing the affair to the priest the night before He isn’t sure whether he loves or even likes Polly, and he feels his family would look down on her, but he’s terrified by the prospect of losing his job or his reputation if word of the relationship gets out.

While Mr Doran agonizes, Polly comes to his bedroom door and tells him she has told her mother all about their affair She seems distraught, and he comforts her, and he remembers the temptations that led him to this point: her waiting up to serve him dinner and punch, and coming to his bedroom door late one night to relight her candle.

The servant, Mary, comes to fetch Mr Doran to speak to Mrs Mooney Mr Doran leaves Polly crying on the bed, and on the way down the stairs he imagines his disapproving employer again, while also passing Jack Mooney, and remembering how he’d threatened violence upon another lodger for a perceived sexual comment about Polly.

In the bedroom, Polly wipes away her tears and slips into happy daydreams, totally unperturbed Soon Mrs Mooney calls her downstairs, saying that Mr Doran would like to talk to her.

4 Point of View

● An omniscient narrator tells the story.

→ Allows the reader to know what is occurring within the character, which means the reader comes to know each of the three characters well.

● The narration is mobile, moving from outside the characters to inside the consciousness of Mrs Mooney, then from inside Mrs Mooney to inside two other characters.

● This mobile and omniscient approach keeps the interest of the reader Shifting the focus from character to character gives the reader the opportunity to enter the consciousnesses of the other two far more emotional and chaotic characters' consciousnesses.

5 Characters

Mrs Mooney

● She is the mother of Polly and Jack and the daughter of a butcher.

● She is the proprietor of the Boarding House and is divorced from her spouse ● When she learns of her daughter's affair, she demands marriage as payment for

the loss of her daughter's honor rather than money.

● She is a cunning woman She plays a bigger part than what is initially revealed ● She believes that males should be held accountable for their deeds by marriage,

hence she wants that men and women be treated equally.

● She is the daughter of a butcher and mother of Polly and Jack.

● She is separated from her husband and is the owner of the Boarding House ● When she finds out about her daughter's affair, she wants reparations, not in

the form of money but in marriage, for the loss of her daughter's honor ● She is a manipulative woman She has a greater role than what is shown on

the surface.

● She demands equal treatment for men and women as she feels that men should pay for their actions by marriage → She is a round character because we know a lot about her and are given insight into her thoughts → She also plays a central role in the story, by influencing the outcome.

● She is a formidable woman with a scheme to marry her

→ As a butcher’s daughter who separated from her alcoholic husband after he tried to attack her with a meat cleaver, Mrs Mooney has had to make her own way in life and be shrewd in order to survive as a single woman in 20th-century Ireland.

Polly Mooney

● She is Mrs Mooney's daughter, a slender nineteen-year-old ● She stays at home to assist her mother and take care of the house

● She develops an affair with Mr Doran, an older guy, and allows her mother to handle the rest, giving her little control over what may happen in the future ● She realizes throughout the narrative that there is nothing she can do to change

her current circumstances

● She discovers that her choices have repercussions and that she must wed Mr Doran.

● Polly forgets “what she had been waiting for,” is referring to Mr Doran asking her to marry him It has taken so long for Mr Doran to ask her to marry him she has lost sight of what the plan was in the first place.

● She contents herself with pleasant dreams of the future; as far as she is concerned, security is the key issue A trapped husband is a faithful husband Nor, for all her feigned innocence, does she really not know what to do The

last glimpse of Polly reveals a woman every bit as sneaky as her mother She

knows well that her mother will take care of things for her When she is

called downstairs to see Mr Doran, presumably to hear his marriage proposal, she is not in the least bit surprised.

● She is a slim girl of nineteen and the daughter of Mrs Mooney ● She stays at home to do housework and helps her mother out.

● She gets sexually involved with Mr Doran, an older man, and she has little say in what will happen in the future as she lets her mother take care of the rest.

● During the story she has an epiphany that she cannot do anything about the situation she is in.

● She learns that her actions have consequences and she is obliged to marry Mr Doran → She is a round and dynamic character as she is central to the conflict and she self-evolves.

● She seems to be the driving force behind her relationship with Mr Doran,

showing him little signs of care, then finally going to his room one night in her bathrobe, under the pretense of lighting her candle

● In Mr Doran’s company, Polly seems distraught that her mother has discovered the relationship, even threatening to kill herself, but as soon as she’s alone she escapes into cheerful hopes and visions of the future

● Joyce clearly positions the match between Polly and Mr Doran as an

ultimately joyless, loveless one based on the “delirium” of earlyinfatuation—“but delirium passes.”

Bob Doran

A man in his early thirties who was Polly Mooney's sweetheart

● Being an accomplished clerk, he worries that his relationship with Polly may damage his reputation

● He is concerned about what people would say about her and him, and if he truly is in love with Polly

● Then, regardless of his worries, he realizes that he must get married.

● A man in his thirties and the lover of Polly Mooney.

● He is a successful clerk, and fears that his reputation will be tarnish due to the affair he has with Polly.

● He worries about what people will think about him and her and whether he really loves Polly.

● He then comes to an epiphany that he has to get married

→ This makes him a dynamic character.

● In his mid-30s, Mr Doran has held a steady job for 13 years working for a

Despite “sowing his wild oats” (that is, having many sexual relationships) and flirting with atheist ideas as a young man, Mr Doran has led a respectable life for several years now

● He doesn’t have strong or passionate feelings for Polly—he’s not even sure he likes her—but he’s so terrified of what Mrs Mooney might do and of being exposed that by the story’s end, the strong implication is that he has agreed to marry Polly.

Jack Mooney

● Polly's tough brother, fond of drink and fighting.

● Jack is strong and belligerent, a drinker who likes getting into fights ● He is very touchy on the subject of his sister's honor.

● Mr Doran is afraid of him.

● Jack gives Mr Doran a dirty look as Mr Doran passes.

The reader can infer that Jack Mooney, Polly’s brother, also has some idea

what is going on Fear of Jack also plays a tiny part in Mr Doran’s final decision.

The end result is a marriage based on bullying and manipulation.

6 Figures of SpeechSimile

● She dealt with moral problems as a clever deals with meat.

● The belfry of George's Church sent out constant peals and worshippers.● His instinct urged him to remain free, not to marry.

● Her memories gradually giving place to hope and visions of the future.Metaphor

● The girl has to bear the brunt

● She had made a clean breast of it to her mother.Hyperbole

● Her house had a floating population made up of tourists.

Sarcasm (b sung thêm cái này nghĩa là gì?) {L i nói m a mai, mang ý n ngổờỉặh n irony, có ý làm t n thơổương người khác}

● He was a shabby stooped little drunkard with a white face and white

moustache white eyebrows, pencilled above his little eyes, which were veined and raw

7 Themes

The Boarding House" revolves around the idea of wanting to get away/ a desire toescape.

● Polly Mooney and Mr Doran both wish to avoid the fallout from their affair, but they are unwilling to go through with it.

● Mr Doran is perceived as being weak when he is manipulated into being married to Polly.

● Polly is likewise helpless because her mother control her life ● (Female Cunning & Female Innocence)

○ Mrs Mooney’s determination to see her daughter “married off” results from the pitiful options for young women at the time:

Unmarried women were either the subject of scandal (if theywere known to have had love affairs), or a burden to theirfamilies (since in early 20th-century Dublin, there were fewopportunities for women to make their own money).

○ “She thought of some mothers she knew who could not get

→ From here readers can deduce that women were under some

pressure to marry, whether they wanted to or not.

○ Mrs Mooney is well aware of how harshly unmarried young

women of the day can be judged for any sexual involvement: “It is

all very well for the man: he can go his ways as if nothing had

happened, having had his moment of pleasure, but the girl has to bear

the brunt.”

○ It seems that Polly must act the fool in order to get what she wants, and submit to being entirely underestimated by the man she will marry, though she is far wilier than him.

● While all three main characters dance with and around the rules of their society, Joyce demonstrates that each one is, in fact, paralyzed or impoverished by those very rules.

The view of what other people think, or social opinion.

● Having been an outraged mother, Mrs Mooney feels she has "all the weight of social opinion on her side."