cidThe Boarding House

2021年1月24日发(作者：schengen)
A Trap for Marriage
This
is
a
short
story
.
Someone
would
be
likely
to
say
it
is
a
simple
story
.
Or
others
may
treat
it as a story about
the
love affair between a
young couple.
However,
it
is
far
more
than
that.
The
Boarding
House
,
written
by
James
Joyce,
is
one
of
the
short
stories
selected
from
Dubliners
.
It
is
a
well- designed,
complicated
trap.
It
is
a
carefully
plotted
marriage.
The
mother-----
Mrs.
Mooney
,
is
more
of
a
chief
plotter
than
a
conspiracy
.
In
my
view,
the
conflict
between
Mrs.
Mooney
and
the
young
man----- Mr. Doran,
is the
highlight of the whole story. Why does Mrs. Mooney want
to choose a young man for her daughter? Why does Mr. Doran to be the
“
lucky dog
”
?
Why
does
Mr.
Doran
finally
compromise
to
the
mother
in
spite
of
his
reluctance?
I
would like to, therefore, explain these questions in the following context.

Mrs. Mooney
is a pitiful but determined woman. After experiencing a
frustrated
marriage with
her drunken, abusive
husband,
she
gets
separation
from
him and
gives
“
him neither money nor food nor house- room
”
. Then, she sets up a boarding house to
support
herself
and
her
two
children-----
Jack
and
Polly
.
She
is
also
a
big
imposing
woman and resourceful in business as she
“
governed the house cunningly and firmly
”
.
She
decides
to
take
her
daughter
home
to
entertain
her
lodgers
due
to
her
ex-husband
’
s disturbance to her daughter. She
is a shrew
judge and pays
no attention
to
Polly
flirting
with
the
young
men
as
she
knows
that
“

none
of
them
meant
business
”
. As an ordinary mother, it goes without saying that Mrs. Mooney is eager to
seek a proper
young
man
for Polly.
At
the same time, she also
wants Polly
to
have a
happy
marriage
so
as
to
make
up
for
her
regret
in
her
own
marriage.
The
most
important thing
is that she
must
find someone reliable to support the
family
when she
becomes
old.
Due
to
her
subtlety
and
canniness,
Mrs.
Mooney
do
know
the
difficulties
to
find
a
respectable
man
to
marry
Polly.
“
First
of
all
there
was
her
disreputable
father
and
then
her
mother
’
s
boarding
house
was
beginning
to
get
a
certain fame
”
, what
’
s more, she has a brother
“
who had the reputation of being a hard
case
”
. Just at that time, she notices Mr. Doran.
阿

Mr. Doran, the
“
lucky dog
”
or
to be
more exactly----- the
“
unfortunate prey
”
,
is
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