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References to Alcohol and Drunkenness
“The Boarding House” includes many references to alcohol and drunkenness. For example, the story opens with a description of Mr. and Mrs. Mooney’s abusive marriage that ultimately ended because Mr. Mooney was an alcoholic. The narrator explains that Mr. Mooney’s propensity for alcohol ruined their family business and made him violent towards his wife. Alcohol is mentioned again a few paragraphs later when the reader learns that the fifteen shillings a week that Mrs. Mooney’s clients pay for board and lodgings excludes beer or stout at dinner. Alcohol is also mentioned one final time at the end of the text when Mr. Doran runs into Jack, who is holding two bottles of ale.
The above examples are connected to three different characters or groups of characters—Mr. Mooney, Jack Mooney, and Mrs. Mooney’s boarders. It is essential to note that all of the text's references to alcohol are linked to men, something that was likely an intentional choice on Joyce’s part. For many of the female characters in Dubliners, drunkenness darkens their lives from the outside, as they are forced to accommodate, care for, endure abuse from, and recover the pieces left by alcoholic husbands and male family members. This is certainly the case for the women in “The Boarding House”; all of the events in the story occur because Mr. Mooney drank and gambled away the Mooneys’ money before the events of the story began. By repeatedly linking alcohol to most of the story’s key male characters, Joyce comments on the impact that alcoholism has on women.
Moments of Paralysis
“The Boarding House” has two key moments of paralysis that occur almost back-to-back. The first instance occurs towards the middle of the text when Mr. Doran panics in his room as he waits to be called down to meet with Mrs. Mooney. The narrator explains that Mr. Doran is unable to physically do anything, from getting dressed to shaving his face, because he can’t decide if he should marry Polly or not. Mr. Doran’s physical paralysis mimics his mental paralysis, as he is unable to make up his mind. The second example occurs towards the end of the text as Polly sits motionless on Mr. Doran’s bed while Mr. Doran and Mrs. Mooney have their meeting. Polly’s physical paralysis represents her lack of control as Mr. Doran and her mother make such an important life decision without including her. In both of these examples, the paralysis motif is linked with moments of passivity.
Interestedly, out of the three key characters in “The Boarding House,” Mrs. Mooney is the only character who does not experience either a mental or physical paralysis. In fact, one could argue that Mrs. Mooney represents the very antithesis of paralysis because she is a proactive woman who consistently takes an active role in her own life and the lives of others. Her husband lost all their money, so she opened a boarding house. The boarders leave detritus behind after they finish breakfast, so she gathers the leftover bread for bread pudding. Her daughter is compromised by a successful man, so she strong-arms the pair into an advantageous match for her family. Perhaps Joyce did not include any moments of paralysis for Mrs. Mooney so as to emphasize that she is the character in the text with the most control.
