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“What could he do now but marry her or run away? He could not brazen it out. The affair would be sure to be talked of and his employer would be certain to hear of it. Dublin is such a small city: everyone knows everyone else’s business.”
Here, Mr. Doran expresses a sentiment that is echoed by many of the characters throughout Dubliners: Dublin is too small and too insular of a community. He knows that he will be ruined if he does not marry Polly because everyone in the city will know that he compromised a young girl and refused to marry her afterwards. Mr. Doran feels trapped because he either has to marry a girl that he does not want to marry, or risk scandal. As a result, he fantasizes about running away so that his actions will no longer haunt him.
“Going down the stairs his glasses became so dimmed with moisture that he had to take them off and polish them. He longed to ascend through the roof and fly away to another country where he would never hear again of his trouble, and yet a force pushed him downstairs step by step.”
Mr. Doran is walking downstairs in order to have his dreaded meeting with Mrs. Mooney about Polly. This descent is Mr. Doran’s final moment to escape before the inevitable conclusion of events. His walk down the stairs is juxtaposed with his desire to fly away from the situation and escape the reality that he has found himself in. However, societal conventions “force” him down to Mrs. Mooney and every step he takes seals his fate.
