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Essay on the Dubliners

In: English and Literature

Submitted By TOMASZ
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Explore; ‘The Boarding House’ from “She was sure she would win” (Page 59) to “Some mothers she knew who could not get their daughters off their hands “(Page 60).
Using this extract, and referencing ONE other story of your choice, you should: * Explore how Joyce manipulates the voice of Mrs Mooney to communicate the social and moral pressures that will trap Mr Doran in to marriage. * Examine how the voices of the characters in BOTH stories reflect their reactions to the pressures placed upon them.
In the story ‘The Boarding House’, marriage offers promise and profit on the one hand, and entrapment and loss on the other. What begins as a simple affair becomes a tactical game of obligation and reparation. Mrs. Mooney’s and Mr. Doran’s propositions and hesitations suggest that marriage is more about social standards, public perception, and formal sanctions than about mere feelings. Throughout the short story we see various attempts by Mrs Mooney to try to trap Mr Doran in to marrying her daughter, Polly, by almost guilt tripping him and making him aware that his self-respect and status in the community was at risk if he did not go ahead with it.
Joyce’s use of free indirect style with “The question was: What reparation would he make?” highlights the true intentions of Mrs Mooney, in that her main aim was to persuade him that the noble thing to do was to marry Polly. The omniscient narrator allows us, the reader, to enter her head without her actually uttering the words in speech. Mrs Mooney feels that It would be a good idea for Polly to be married to Doran as he is a relatively comfortable (in terms of wealth), respected and honourable man in her eyes, but she does not tell Mr Doran this, instead she goes about worrying him and threatening him with all of the wrong that he has done – with the intention of provoking him to actively move on the matter of

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