Victim of Boarding House

Nurbani Trisna Wardhani 10/297584/SA/15201 In this “Boarding House”, a short story form James Joyce, I think the character that becomes the victim is Mr. Doran. At the first the story tells about Mrs. Mooney who had been lived separated with his drunkard husband and built up a boarding house. She lived there with her two children, Jack and Polly. In another angle, we can see Mrs. Mooney boarding house is actually a ‘tool’ that was used by Mrs. Mooney to look for an ideal husband for Polly.
Also read Boarding Schools Should Be Abolished
She tried some ways to get a man with good financial to be Polly’s husband before. She sent Polly to be a typist in a corn-factor’s office in purpose to make bosses fell in love with Polly. Nevertheless, Polly was been flirted by a disreputable sheriff’s man, so Mrs. Mooney took Polly back to the boarding house and asked her to do house work. One day she thought to send Polly back to typewriting, but suddenly she knew that there was something between Polly and one of her guest in boarding house, Mr.

Doran. Mr. Doran is a man in about thirty-four or thirty five of age. He is a religious man who worked in the Catholic wine merchant office. Mrs. Mooney used Polly’s innocent to become a bait to get Mr. Doran got into her trap. She had already known that Mr. Doran was a man who lived in religious culture in Dublin and always obeyed the church rules, so she set that Mr. Doran slept with Polly. By doing this, Mr. Doran had a religious sin and felt guilty.
The only compensation for this sin in this society is marriage, and Mrs. Mooney utilized this. Mr. Doran was hesitated, would he marry her or run away. Nevertheless, he was afraid to lose his job and the church, this is one of reasons he would not run away. At last he chose to marry Polly, because in other hand he remembered by her kind to him. Although, in his thought perhaps he really loved Polly. He imagined they would have a happy life if they married perhaps.