The idea that the cleaver should bring separation and marriage in the Mooney family is not only ironic but also foreshadows Polly and Mr. Doran’s doomed marriage. If a cleaver is the end of a terrible marriage, a marriage that is created by a cleaver is destined to fail. Being completely unaware of this, Mrs. Mooney decides to confront Mr. Doran on “a bright Sunday morning of early summer”. Again, irony is present. When we think about a “bright and sunny summer morning”, feelings of freedom, warmth, and happiness are evoked. However, in this case, a crucial decision is being made on such a day, which will seal Mr. Doran’s fate in the short time of “seventeen minutes past eleven to twelve o’clock”. Marriage is one of the most important decisions one has to make in their life time. Yet this marriage between Mr. Doran and Polly will be made hastily in less than one hour, this further foreshadows the arrival of an unsatisfactory marriage, which we encountered in many other stories in Dubliners, such as A Little Cloud, A Mother, and Grace.
Mrs. Mooney is very confident that Mr. Doran will marry Polly, since she has the “weight of social opinion” behind her: “he had simply taken advantage of Polly's youth and inexperience;” the man “can go his ways as if nothing had happened, having had his moment of pleasure, but the girl has to bear the brunt”. If these reasons are not enough, Mrs. Mooney is an “outraged mother”, there are the authentic and expected reactions of a concerned and outraged mother, or at least, her simulation of them. From these reasons described by Mrs. Mooney, it is obvious that much thought has been put into them and the confrontation has been well planed out. This proves that Mrs. Mooney is a woman who has little problem with clarity of sight and purpose, that she definitely knows what she wants and how to get it. She has allowed her daughter Polly to have an affair with Mr. Doran and carefully planned out everything: “she knew when to be stern and when to let things pass”. As she prepares to confront Doran, she is able to carefully examine her appearance: "She stood up and surveyed herself in the pier-glass. The decisive expression of her great florid face satisfied her." She deals with an objective world, a world signified by a "pier-glass" that provides reliable images of her universe. Mrs. Mooney's reflection enables her to assess her own character and her aim precisely: the picture is "decisive" and "satisfying.” She has created a perfect opportunity for the expectations of the society to paralyze and trap Mr. Doran, leaving him no options but to compensate.
Unlike other mothers, who “would be content to patch up such an affair for a sum of money… she would not do so. For her only one reparation could make up for the loss of her daughter's honor: marriage." The “reparation” Mrs. Mooney wants is not so much a simple mode of exchange but rather a long-term compensation--since after all what has been taken from Polly cannot in any sense be repaired or restored. It is as well a form of re-compensation for Mrs. Mooney’s own disastrous marriage. Like previously mentioned, Mr. Doran is “a serious young man, not rakish or loud-voiced like the others” and he also has a constant source of income. How different from Mrs. Mooney’s “shabby stooped little drunkard” of a husband who had ruined her previous “business.” Like Mrs. Kearney in the story A Mother, Mrs. Mooney is desperately trying to fulfill her dream though her daughter, trying to make up for her hard life and disastrous marriage.
When we finally meet Mr. Doran half way through the story, one of his characteristics immediately jumps out. When Mr. Doran is attempting to shave, a "mist" gathers on his glasses, forcing him to "polish" them. This act of polishing is significant: it is not merely a wiping or drying, but is a symbol of Doran's desperate attempts to achieve clearer insight. Unlike Mrs. Mooney who has clear insight and purpose, Mr. Doran struggles to visualize himself and self-examine. His two failed attempts to shave suggest the tension between razor and skin is unresolved--just as Mr. Doran is unable even to cut himself, so too is he unable to open his character to introspection. In fact, he only knows that he has been purposely led to a trap, but has no idea of what he can do about it. On one hand, “his instinct urged him to remain free, not to marry” and it tells him that “once you are married you are done for”. On the other hand, “Dublin is such a small city: everyone knows everyone else's business.” He is terrified of public scandal, the possibility of losing his job, and “his sense of honor tells him that reparation must be made for such a sin”. The theme of powerlessness is conveyed here in Mr. Doran's situation. As with many other characters in Dubliners, various social pressures (his job, his reputation, Catholic guilt over the affair) combine to paralyze him. This paralysis and his suppressed insight cause his inability to realize that the real power lies within him; he is the one who gets to make the choice. Therefore, he must rely upon the flawed observations of others to provide him with insight into his own situation, thus leading to his downfall. There is Mrs. Mooney, who symbolizes a "moon" reflecting and distorting sunlight, casting tricky shadows; Polly, which is also a popular parrot’s name who repeats her lover's fears back to him; and the priest who he turns to for consolation, but who "in the end has magnified his sin."
Mr. Doran falls into the trap of social and religious expectations and allows his life to be manipulated, just as Mrs. Mooney has expected. Towards the end of the story, as he nervously descends the stairs to meet Mrs. Mooney, Mr. Doran’s glasses, once again, become "so dimmed with moisture" that he must "take them off and polish them." Even near the end, we can see that Mr. Doran still has his perceptions blanked and his awareness suppressed. Despite the fact that he longs “to ascend through the roof and fly away to another country”, “a force pushed him downstairs step by step.” That “force” is not only “the weight of social opinion” that Mrs. Mooney had impersonated earlier, which is all too real for the hopeless Mr. Doran, but also the weight of Polly's brother Jack who Mr. Doran meets on the stairs. Jack’s threat to “put his teeth down his throat” and his “thick short arms” reinforce those social obligations. Mr. Doran is stuck, paralyzed, and trapped in a life that he isn’t sure he wants. Even though he becomes aware of this trapped feeling, he creates a moral and spiritual paralysis that prevents him from escaping.
The end result of this story is a marriage based on bullying and manipulation. Yet the Mooney family seems unbothered. And somehow, it doesn't even matter to Polly. She contents herself with pleasant dreams of the future; as far as she is concerned, security is the key issue. She will have a home and a constant source of income. To her and her mother, a trapped husband is a faithful husband. She clearly understands her mother’s silence and wordlessly conspired with her mother to set up the trap for Mr. Doran. She knows well that her mother will take care of things for her. Where as water obscures Mr. Doran’s vision, it clarifies Polly’s sight as she contemplates her situation. "She dipped the end of the towel in the water-jug and refreshed her eyes with the cool water. She looked at herself in profile and readjusted a hairpin above her ear." Water, a primitive mirror, clarifies Polly's vision, similar to how the “pier-glass” gives Mrs. Mooney a clear insight. And just like her mother, Polly is able to regard herself critically, and makes adjustments to enhance her role as an innocent violated woman.
Polly is previously described to have “grey eyes with a shade of green”. A grey color with a shade of green is a very murky color; it is cloudy and hard to see through, creating a deceiving image. We also have prior knowledge that the color green has been used negatively by Joyce in the story An Encounter, where the clothing of the old man was green. The last image Joyce leaves us with is when Polly is called downstairs to see Mr. Doran, presumably to hear his marriage proposal, she is not in the least bit surprised. Polly’s eyes, her clear insight, and the last glimpse of her expose to us a woman every bit as sneaky as her mother. The final climactic choice is not really a choice at all; Joyce omits the crucial confrontation between Mr. Doran and Mrs. Mooney, because the determination of Mrs. Mooney and pressures of society are so strong, we know what Mr. Doran will choose.
Like all human beings, all three of the main characters in The Boarding House are motivated by the instincts for survival. Mrs. Mooney needs to rent out rooms to traveling men in order to support her family, and she needs to find a husband to support Polly after she passes away. Polly needs to find a husband, both to take her place in the adult world and to get rid of the rumors. And once Mrs. Mooney confronts Mr. Doran, he has to marry Polly in order to preserve his own reputation and job.
Even though this story ends with the prospect of marriage, it is not a happy solution, for all three characters are paralyzed by the expectations and trapped inside the narrow boxes of Dublin society. So are people really in control of anything, or are we just slaves to our surrounding?
