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Vidya Agree with you that it is another simple story. Here are my thoughts: The first thing which occurred to me when I read the story was that it deals with raw life, with survival under adverse circumstances. What is special in this story is how the mother and daughter work silently towards a common goal! The description of Mrs. Mooney in the second sentences as "a determined woman" just underlines the entire story. I think falling in love and marrying in love was a luxury few could afford at that time, perhaps even now. Mrs. Mooney must have been a very practical person. I guess, she was not any exception in the society of those times. Joyce writes "she thought of some mothers she knew who could not get their daughters off their hands." What strikes me here how little the Irish society - at least at the time of Joyce - differs(or replace "d" instead of "s") from the Indian society! Love was not as important as getting her daughter settled. She was "determined" that she was going to survive even though her own marriage had failed, so she managed to get a separation - must have been a difficult feat - puts up a boarding house which she manages very frugally by making bread pudding out of the crusts of broken bread collected at the breakfast table. Uhg, I would not have liked to live in such a house! As you say, Bob comes across as a weakling. Polly should have no problems in her marriage, but who knows! He may after all turn out to be another drunkard husband who goes after the wives with a cleaver! Somethings which puzzle me are the reference to Mrs. Mooney as The Madam, and a later reference that the house was beginning to get "a certain fame". What was the necessity to add these hints to such a commonplace story which has been going on for ages - of a woman looking for security in life, of a man trying to have some "fun" when he can! I think that at the end Mrs. Mooney gets what she wants. When Polly goes down, Bob has no choice but to ask her to marry him! Chandra END OF "THE BOARDING HOUSE" |
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