Group 2: The Boarding House, By: James Joyce
Title: The Boarding House (Dubliners, 1914)
Author: James Joyce
Setting:
The story takes place in Dublin. Where
Mrs. Mooney opened a boarding house to continue her life with her children
after her separation from her violent husband, the whole story takes place in the
Mrs. Mooney boarding house.
Characters:
*Mrs. Mooney:
The Mother of Polly and Jack. She is
separated from her husband and opened a boarding house to living. She is one of
the two protagonists of the story, playing an important role.
*Mr. Mooney:
The Mrs. Mooney violent husband.
*Polly Mooney:
She is the other protagonist of the
story. A nineteen years old girl daughter of Mrs. Mooney. She helps her mother
at the boarding house, during the story she has an affair with Mr. Doran.
*Jack Mooney:
Polly’s brother, he likes to drink
and fight.
*Mr. Doran:
A thirty years old man, he is a
successful clerk that prey for his reputation. He is the lover of Polly Mooney.
Plot Summary:
After her difficult marriage that
ended in separation, Mrs. Mooney left her house with her two children Jack and
Polly to open a boarding house in Dublin to living. Polly left her work in an
office requested by her mother to help her at the boarding house, cleaning the
tables and amuse the people that living there, surrounded by many young men,
Polly developed an affair with Mr. Doran, everybody there knew and they were
speaking about, then Mr Mooney had a conversation with her daughter about Mr.
Doran and arranged a meet to speak with him after knew what was happened between
them, She would try to defend the honor of her daughter.
Mr. Doran after receiving the
invitation to meet with Mrs. Mooney began to think about his life and career
and to feel anxious and disturbed without know what he will do (marry or run
away), during this time, Polly enters his room crying threatening to end her
life, Mr. Doran comforts Polly and then goes to the meeting.
Then Polly began to have a daydream
about how could to be her life in the future, her daydream is interrupted by
her Mother calling her saying that Mr. Doran wants to speak with her.
Symbols:
One of the symbols is that all the
people that living in the boarding house speak of Mrs. Mooney as “The Madam”,
its represents her power of influence and outcome, thus she is a strong character.
Doran sweating fogging his glasses on the way to the meeting meant he is
afraid, and the last symbol is the role of Catholic Church being a important
thing for those, directing the life of the ordinary people from Ireland,
we can point the fear of sin that Mr. Doran has as an example of its importance
in the story.
Epiphany:
The epiphany is that the Mooney’s
family is found in a strange situation; Mrs. Mooney has to take the control of
the place and takes care of her problematic children, principally Polly that
had an affair with Mr. Doran, and her mother “fight” to defend her honor and
the only way is through marriage, Mr. Doran is in the same situation wanting to
protect his reputation, also to him marriage is the only solution, they have no
escape. Another epiphany is the lack of maturity towards life of all characters.
The story is about a woman called Mrs. Mooney that had a difficult marriage being forced to leave her home with her two children to begin again her life as a single mother. She took all her economies and opened a boarding house to living, she thinking about Polly’s life (her daughter) that worked there surrounded by many young men, she knew that sooner or late Polly would begin a relationship with one of them, and to protect her daughter of a similar fate, she struggles to marry Polly with a successful clerk man called Mr. Doran.
ResponderExcluirMr. Doran has the same concerns about life, he wanted to maintain his reputation to continue to be seen favorably by society, and marriage could end it, both sides had the same hesitations about life.
We can see in "The Boarding House" a recurring drama to the present day, which is the importance of our image to society, and between the standards that society said to be the correct option is marriage, especially at that time in that have sex with someone, people were forced to marry before the judge society. With this, Mrs. Mooney wanting to protect her daughter to she did not have a marriage like her, which ended in separation, with this Mrs. Mooney makes a scheme to her daughter Polly marry Mr. Doran, Mrs. Mooney insists that Polly leave her office job and stay at the boarding house for entertain (probably with sex) the male lodgers, and then when she saw that Mr. Doran was in a relationship with her daughter, she forced him to marry claiming that the marriage was a social norm, and that It would be bad for his image deny it. The short-story ends without talking if Mr. Doran asked or not asked Polly in marriage, but in my opinion Polly knew of the plan, so she was talking with Mr. Doran before the decision, and the fact that he calmed her, showed that he would ask her to marry him.
ResponderExcluirI believe this story depicts marriage as a commercial transaction in veiled form, with one party being an unwilling participant. In other words, it offers us a glance at the shallow relationships people drift into ending with them being trapped. Both Mooney and Polly are shown to be selfish and manipulative. In fact, Mrs. Mooney’s fist priority is getting her daughter off her hands.
ResponderExcluirJoyce’s take on this is at its best when he describes the daughter’s confession and the mother’s response to it.
Mrs Mooney, one of the protagonist of the work if view in a difficult situation, where you invest all your money in a pension to support her and her children. The story is a real conflict-also common these days-imposed by society, that is, Mrs Mooney makes his daughter Polly, work at the boarding house maybe in order that she can get a "good catch" and discovers that his daughter's relationship with a successful man and forces the marriage between them, maybe for your daughter doesn't have the same experience she failed and have a better life.
ResponderExcluir“The Boarding House” is a short story by James Joyce that tell us a story of a woman Mrs. Mooney who had a difficult marriage with a drunken man. After the separation she opens a boarding house where she works with her children Jack
ResponderExcluirand Polly. Polly develops a relationship with one of the lodgers Mr. Doran. Mrs. Mooney tries to convince Mr. Doran to get marriage with her daughter. Although Mr. Doran being bewitched by Polly's beauty and kindness hé still wavers about his decision.
Its a story about marriage, the mother despite having lived a bad marriage, sees in her daughter's marriage to a rich man the possibility of a better life. But as Mr. Doran is marrying by the obligation imposed by society, this may be more a marriage doomed to fail.