The Boarding House review
The Boarding House is a short story authored by Joyce. The main characters in the short story are Mrs. Mooney, her daughter Polly, Mr. Doran and her son Jack. Mrs. Mooney separated from her husband since her husband was an aggressive alcoholic who tried to exterminate her. Mrs. Mooney lives with her children and other lodgers in the Boarding House. Mr. Doran takes advantage and engages in a love affair with Polly since she is a flirt. Mrs. Mooney hopes that Doran will proceed to be the future husband of Polly due to their love affair. Mrs. Mooney is materialistic since she does not prevent her daughter from getting into a relationship with Doran.
The author has highlighted themes of marriage, social opinion, and paralysis in the short story. Mr. Doran has no freedom of expressing his own thoughts and action, he is imprisoned by societal perception. Mr. Doran is very inquisitive about how his friends and employers will perceive their relationship with Polly. He is in constant fear of what the other people might think of him. The cowardice of Mr. Doran compels him into marrying Polly although he did not love her. Moreover, Polly belongs to a low social class, thus Doran feels she is not fit for her although he marries her to avoid disappointing the priests and his friends.
Joyce has employed the use of symbolism by using yellow and brown colors to represent moral decay and lack of power. The yellow eggs on the plate symbolizes the aspects of paralysis that is present inside the boarding house of Mooney. Besides, the author uses a yellow color to represent paralysis in the instance where Mrs. Mooney looks at a gilt clock as she waits to converse with Bob.
In conclusion, Joyce has portrayed Mrs. Mooney as a cunning individual since she allowed Polly to have an intimate relationship with Doran. The author has portrayed that Mrs. Mooney allowed Doran to seduce Polly since he was from a high social class for her daughter to benefit. Social opinion is a dominant theme in the story where characters like Mr. Doran cannot make their own choice. Most of the decisions of Doran are influenced by the perception of his friends.