Dubliners

Dubliners

Imagine yourself in Dublin in the early 1900’s. Marriage was a very big thing in those days. For some people it was a means of getting a better life and for others it just meant getting out of the house and living on their own. Author James Joyce gave his view of marriage in the stories “The Boarding House”, “A Little Cloud,” and “Counterparts”.

It seems at first that marriage is a necessity. If you weren’t married by a certain age then you weren’t getting married. After the death of her butcher husband, Mrs. Mooney opened a boarding house, where she now lives with her son and her nineteen-year-old daughter Polly. Mrs. Mooney runs a tight ship and keeps a close eye on the young men interacting with Polly. She hopes to marry her daughter to one of them one day. At last Mrs. Mooney notices that Polly seems to be having an affair with a young man named Mr. Doran, who works in a wine-merchant's office. Mrs. Mooney decides to try to force Mr. Doran to marry Polly. She sends a maid to summon him to speak with her. For his part, Mr. Doran is nervous and uncertain. He is terrified of the publicity that would fall upon him if the affair were made public--he would face disgrace and the loss of his job. And he is fond of Polly, even if she sometimes embarrasses him with her poor speech. He is mortified by the thought of speaking to Mrs. Mooney, so when Polly comes sobbing to his room for comfort, he is hardly able to concentrate on her. He remembers the beginning of their affair, and at last goes down to see Mrs. Mooney. Polly waits in Mr. Doran's room, thinking about the future. A short time later, Mrs. Mooney calls for Polly, saying, "Mr. Doran wants to speak to you." Marriage was being forced onto this man. Mr. Doran considered marriage a trap and wanted no part of it but he was very fond of Polly. Mrs. Mooney pulls all the strings: she wants to marry her daughter to a well-off boarder, and is determined to capitalize on Polly's affair with Mr. Doran to see that plan through. Mr. Doran has no choice but to marry Polly because he knows if anyone finds out of his premarital affair with her then he’d be in a lot of trouble.