The Boarding House

The Boarding House A Trap for Marriage This is a short story. Someone would be likely to say it is a simple story. Or others may treat it as a story about the love affair between a young couple. However, it is far more than that. The Boarding House, written by James Joyce, is one of the short stories selected from Dubliners. It is a well-designed, complicated trap. It is a carefully plotted marriage. The mother----- Mrs. Mooney, is more of a chief plotter than a conspiracy. In my view, the conflict between Mrs. Mooney and the young man----- Mr. Doran, is the highlight of the whole story. Why does Mrs. Mooney want to choose a young man for her daughter? Why does Mr. Doran to be the “lucky dog”? Why does Mr. Doran finally compromise to the mother in spite of his reluctance? I would like to, therefore, explain these questions in the following context. Mrs. Mooney is a pitiful but determined woman. After experiencing a frustrated marriage with her drunken, abusive husband, she gets separation from him and gives “him neither money nor food nor house-room”. Then, she sets up a boarding house to support herself and her two children----- Jack and Polly. She is also a big imposing woman and resourceful in business as she “governed the house cunningly and firmly”. She decides to take her daughter home to entertain her lodgers due to her ex-husband’s disturbance to her daughter. She is a shrew judge and pays no attention to Polly flirting with the young men as she knows that “ none of them meant business”. As an ordinary mother, it goes without saying that Mrs. Mooney is eager to seek a proper young man for Polly. At the same time, she also wants Polly to have a happy marriage so as to make up for her regret in her own marriage. The most important thing is that she must find someone reliable to support the family when she becomes old. Due to her subtlety and canniness, Mrs. Mooney do know the difficulties to find a respectable man to marry Polly. “First of all there was her disreputable father and then her mother’s boarding house was beginning to get a certain fame”, what’s more, she has a brother “who had the reputation of being a hard case”. Just at that time, she notices Mr. Doran.阿 Mr. Doran, the “lucky dog” or to be more exactly----- the “unfortunate prey”, is - 1 - an excellent young man to some extent so as to satisfy Mrs. Mooney’s standard and to be the “most suitable candidate”. First of all, when Mrs. Mooney notices him, there is something going on between the young couple. It turns out that Mr. Doran is interested in Polly or is somewhat attracted by her. So it is easy and normal for a young man to go further with an innocent girl. Even something do happen, the society will stand by their side, anyhow, the whole family is on the disadvantaged position. Then, “he was a serious young man, not rakish or loud-voice like the others” and he has his religious duties, so he is quite trustworthy. “He was thirty-four or thirty-five year of age, so that youth could not be pleaded as his excuse; nor could ignorance be his excuse since he was a man who seen something of the world.” In other words, there is no excuse for him to escape from his responsibility and must pay for what he had done. Surely, Mrs. Mooney can ask for the reparation. Besides, he has a noble job which he has worked for thirteen years and enjoys a reputation. Mrs. Doran fears that the affair would destroy his career totally and all his industry and diligence thrown away. He can never bear such a result, that is too much. Under the social expectations and constraints, there is no way for him to make up for the loss of the young girl except: marriage. Although he never think of terminating his identity as a celibate; he cares about her vulgar and her grammar; he even does not really love her to that extent. All his reluctance, struggle, fear, discomfiture turn to be nothing. The only thing waiting for him is the shackles of marriage. When passing Jack on the last flight of stairs, there is seemingly something important occurring to him, but it is just too late. Full of traits of an excellent hunter, be patient, be decided, shrewd and wise, Mrs. Mooney wins without any doubt and the prey----- Mr. Doran must to bear the result: the unwanted marriage. - 2 -