The Books: “Dubliners” – ‘The Boarding House’ (James Joyce)

Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction:

Dubliners – by James Joyce – excerpt from the seventh story in the collection: “The Boarding House”. Another story that highlights the suffocation of Dublin, the rigid morality that Joyce found so oppressive, the gossip, the hypocrisy. A simple tale: Mrs. Mooney runs a boarding house in Dublin. She had been married to a guy who basically went to the dogs the minute Mrs. Mooney’s father died. He took to drink, and one night he got violent with her. So Mrs. Mooney left, got permission from her priest to get a separation – and custody of the kids -and set herself up in business. She’s a practical woman. Joyce describes her face as “florid” which has all kinds of connotations, none of them good. Being practical is fine – but in the context of this story it is not. She runs a boarding house – and you can tell it’s kind of a free and easy place, filled with bachelors and artists. She has two children – one of whom is a daughter, about 17 years of age. It’s not really an appropriate atmosphere for children – but somehow Joyce suggests that Mrs. Mooney doesn’t mind that, and she also – let’s just say this: Polly, her daughter, hangs out with the men who live there – and Mrs. Mooney looks the other way, thinking that maybe one of them will step up to the plate, and take Polly off her hands. So … morality is a relative concept to Mrs. Mooney. Her daughter begins an affair with Mr. Dolan, one of the men in the house. Everyone knows about it. Dublin is a small gossipy place, you can’t hide anything. Mrs. Mooney, who sees all, does not intervene. At least not at first. She is setting a trap for Mr. Dolan. Mrs. Mooney knows that Mr. Dolan has no intention of marrying her daughter (the Mooneys don’t have the best reputation – due to the drunkard of a father, etc.) – but she waits, waits … until she senses that the affair between the two has grown physical. She doesn’t intervene BEFORE then, with her teenaged daughter – as you might think she would … she waits until it has already happened. And THEN makes her move. Reparations must be made. Mr. Dolan must marry Polly. He has sullied Polly’s honor, and he must marry her.

Mrs. Mooney scares me. She’s written in almost a grotesque way. Mrs. Mooney SELLS Polly to Mr. Dolan – who really doesn’t want her, although he has enjoyed their affair. But he, on some level, is embarrassed by Polly – her bad grammar, and also her kind of shady family. What will his friends say? His family?

Mr. Dolan is no match for Mrs. Mooney.

Here’s an excerpt.

EXCERPT FROM Dubliners – by James Joyce – “The Boarding House”.

It was not altogether his fault that it had happened. He remembered well, with the curious patient memory of the celibate, the first casual caresses her dress, her breath, her fingers had given him. Then late one night as he was undressing for bed she had tapped at his door, timidly. She wanted to relight her candle at his for hers had been blown out by a gust. It was her bath night. She wore a loose open combing-jacket of printed flannel. Her white instep shone in the opening of her furry slippers and the blood glowed warmly behind her perfumed skin. From her hands and wrists too as she lit and steadied her candle a faint perfume arose.

On nights when he came in very late it was she who warmed up his dinner. He scarcely knew what he was eating, feeling her beside him alone, at night, in the sleeping house. And her thoughtfulness! If the night was anyway cold or wet or windy there was sure to be a little tumbler of punch ready for him. Perhaps they could be happy together …

They used to go upstairs together on tiptoe, each with a candle, and on the third landing exchange reluctant good-nights. They used to kiss. He remembered well her eyes, the touch of her hand and his delirium …

But delirium passes. He echoed her phrase, applying it to himself: What am I to do? The instinct of the celibate warned him to hold back. But the sin was there; even his sense of honour told him that reparation must be made for such a sin.

While he was sitting with her on the side of the bed Mary came to the door a nd said that the missus wanted to see him in the parlour. He stood up to put on his coat and waistcoat, more helpless than ever. When he was dressed he went over to her to comfort her. It would be all right, never fear. He left her crying on the bed and moaning softly: O my God!