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“Mrs Mooney was a butcher’s daughter. She was a woman who was quite able to keep things to herself: a determined woman. She had married her father’s foreman and opened a butcher’s shop near Spring Gardens. But as soon as his father-in-law was dead Mr Mooney began to go to the devil. He drank, plundered the till, ran headlong into debt. It was no use making him take the pledge: he was sure to break out again a few days after. By fighting his wife in the presence of customers and by buying bad meat he ruined his business. One night he went for his wife with the cleaver and she had to sleep in a neighbour’s house.”
The above lines make up “The Boarding House”’s opening paragraph. The quote establishes Mrs. Mooney’s familial history and provides an explanation as to why she has to run the boarding house in the first place. It is a vital section for Mrs. Mooney’s characterization because readers can trace every decision that Mrs. Mooney makes as the story unfolds back to her abusive husband who squandered their money on alcohol and gambling. This passage also offers a pessimistic view of marriage that will continue for the rest of the short story.
“She counted all her cards again before sending Mary up to Mr Doran’s room to say that she wished to speak with him. She felt sure she would win.”
Mrs. Mooney is not one of the many passive Dubliners protagonists who waste opportunities and/or fail to act when the moment counts. Mrs. Mooney is clever, she is calculating, and she is highly manipulative. The story opens with her decision to demand that Mr. Doran marry her daughter and it ends with an implied proposal. Mrs. Mooney’s success at the end of the text is the culmination of the surety that Mrs. Mooney displays here. Her boast that she is sure of her impending “win” shows that she is confident in her ability to manipulate those around her into doing what she wants.
