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Marriage as an Economic Institution
“The Boarding House” opens with an overview of Mr. and Mrs. Mooney’s abusive marriage and concludes with an implied marriage proposal from Mr. Doran to Polly. As a result, readers can determine that the institution of marriage is a crucial component of the text. However, “The Boarding House”’s discussion of marriage is not linked to sentiment and is, instead, connected to something much more practical—finances. Mrs. Mooney wants Mr. Doran to propose to Polly for two key reasons, one stated and one implied. Mrs. Mooney explicitly states throughout her portion of the short story that she intends to fight for Mr. Doran and Polly’s impending nuptials because she wants to save her daughter from ruin after Mr. Doran and Polly had sex outside of marriage. However, Mrs. Mooney has a second, less obvious reason to root for such a match—Mr. Doran’s money. Mr. Doran has worked for a wine merchant for the past thirteen years and has “money enough to settle down on.” The text implies that Mrs. Mooney tracked Mr. Doran and Polly’s relationship until it reached a point when Mr. Doran would have to propose to Polly out of social propriety. Essentially, she waited until the most profitable moment instead of intervening before her daughter’s reputation was compromised. Joyce solidifies that this was Mrs. Mooney’s plan all along towards the start of the text when Mrs. Mooney feels “satisfied” as she thinks about all the mothers that she knows who cannot find advantageous matches for their daughters. Through Mrs. Mooney and Polly, Joyce argues that marriage is an economic institution in which mothers essentially sell their daughters to make a profit.
The Desire for Escape
The desire for escape is a recurring theme throughout the stories in Dubliners. The characters in Dubliners may be citizens of the Irish capital, but many of them long for escape and adventure in other countries, though such longings are never actually realized by the stories’ protagonists. More often than not, many of the stories detail protagonists who wish to escape from smaller, more personal restraints. This is the case for Mr. Doran, who briefly contemplates running away from Dublin so that he does not get trapped in an unwanted marriage to Polly Mooney. Mr. Doran’s hypothetical escape is short-lived, however, because he knows deep down that he is going to relent to Mrs. Mooney’s demands. As a result, Mr. Doran becomes one more voice in a sea of characters who see emigration as the only way to escape from their personal issues.
Innocence vs. Manipulation
“The Boarding House” is a story of innocence and manipulation. Polly, with her doll-like features and her young age, represents innocence. Mr. Doran and Mrs. Mooney, with their advanced years and calculating personalities, represent manipulation. Polly’s innocence is repeatedly taken advantage of throughout “The Boarding House.” Most obviously, Mr. Doran takes advantage of Polly’s youth and innocence when he manipulates her into having sex with him despite the fact that they are unmarried. Mrs. Mooney’s manipulations are more subtle but are no less sinister. She first takes advantage of her daughter when she pulls her out of her typist job at a corn-factor’s office so that she can help around the boarding house and please the young men who live there because “young men like to feel that there is a young woman not very far away.” Mrs. Mooney also displays her manipulative side when she watches Polly flirt with the men until she finds one that “means business”; she then allowed the successful Mr. Doran to compromise Polly so that he would be forced to marry her. Through Polly, Joyce argues that innocence can be dangerous because Polly’s naiveté rendered her susceptible to Mr. Doran and Mrs. Mooney’s manipulations.
