Character and Social Class in "The Boarding House" by James Joyce

1. By: Windah Nora Avelina Pasaribu

2. ABSTRACT
In this paper, the writer tries to analyze a prose, entitled The Boarding
House written by James Joyce. The purpose of this writing is to appreciate
and analyze the intrinsic element, character, and the extrinsic element,
social class in the story. Theories which are used are textual, contextual,
and hyper textual by close reading method. The writer found that the all the
figures in this story have their own character. The writer also found that
social class influenced the marriage and how someone acts.
Keywords: Character, social class, the boarding
house

3. 1. Introduction
The Boarding House by James Joyce showing the effort of a single mother raising
her children and a love story which is obstructed by the different status.
2. Theory and Method
2.1 Theory
A character is a person in a narrative work of art (such as a novel, play,
television series or film. In literature, characters guide readers through their stories,
helping them to understand plots and ponder themes.
Social class is a set of concepts in the social-sciences and political history
centered on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of
hierarchical social categories, the most common being the upper, middle, and lower
class.
2.2 Methodology
The writer analyzes the characters and the social class issue in the novel with close
reading method.

4. 3. Author’s Biography
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on
February 2, 1882, just south of Dublin in a
wealthy suburb called Rathgar. The Joyce
family was initially well off as Dublin merchants
with bloodlines that connected them to old Irish nobility in the
country. James' father, John Joyce, was a fierce Irish Catholic
patriot and his political and religious influences are most evident
in Joyce's two key works A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man
and Ulysses. In 1905, Joyce completed a collection of eight
stories, entitled Dubliners, though it was not until 1913 that the
volume was actually printed. On January 13, 1941, James Joyce
died of a stomach ulcer at the age of 58, and was buried in
Zurich's Fluntern Cemetery.

5. 4. The Summary
After a difficult marriage with a drunken husband that ends in separation, Mrs. Mooney
opens a boarding house to make a living. Her son, Jack, and daughter, Polly, live with her in
the house, which is filled with clerks from the city, as well as occasional tourists and musicians.
Mrs. Mooney runs a strict and tight business and is known by the lodgers as “The Madam.”
Polly, who used to work in an office, now stays at home at her mother’s request, to amuse the
lodgers and help with the cleaning.
Surrounded by so many young men, Polly inevitably develops a relationship with one of
them, Mr. Doran. Mrs. Mooney knows about the relationship, but instead of sending Polly back
to work in the city, she monitors its developments. Polly becomes increasingly uncomfortable
with her mother’s lack of intervention, but Mrs. Mooney waits until “the right moment” to
intercede. First she speaks awkwardly with Polly, then arranges to speak with Mr. Doran on a
Sunday morning. Mrs. Mooney looks forward to her confrontation, which she intends to “win”
by defending her daughter’s honor and convincing Mr. Doran to offer his hand in marriage.
Waiting for the time to pass, Mrs. Mooney figures the odds are in her favor, considering that
Mr. Doran, who has worked for a wine merchant for thirteen years and garnered much respect,
will choose the option that least harms his career.

6. Meanwhile, Mr. Doran anguishes over the impending meeting with Mrs.
Mooney. As he clumsily grooms himself for the appointment, he reviews the difficult
confession to his priest that he made on Saturday evening, in which he was harshly
reproved for his romantic affair. He knows he can either marry Polly or run away, the
latter an option that would ruin his sound reputation. Convincing himself that he has
been duped, Mr. Doran bemoans Polly’s unimpressive family, her ill manners, and
her poor grammar, and wonders how he can remain free and unmarried. In this
vexed moment Polly enters the room and threatens to end her life out of
unhappiness.
In her presence, Mr. Doran begins to remember how he was bewitched by
Polly’s beauty and kindness, but he still wavers about his decision. Uneasy, Mr.
Doran comforts Polly and departs for the meeting, leaving her to wait in the room.
She rests on the bed crying for a while, neatens her appearance, and then nestles
back in the bed, dreaming of her possible future with Mr. Doran. Finally, Mrs.
Mooney interrupts the reverie by calling to her daughter. Mr. Doran, according to
Mrs. Mooney, wants to speak with Polly.

7. 5. DISCUSSION
5. 1 Character
a. Mrs. Mooney
Mrs. Mooney was a butcher’s daughter. She had divorced with her
husband. She was a protagonist in this story. She was a very ambitious
mother. She really wanted to make Mr. Doran married her daughter
because Mr. Doran had higher status. In fact Mr. Doran did not love her
daughter. She let her daughter had an affair with Mr. Doran. And she was
also a selfish mom. She asked Polly to stop working as a typist because
she knew Mr. Mooney still kept in touch with her. And actually she was the
one who asked Polly to work as a typist. Then she asked her to work in their
boarding house. Besides it, she actually loved her daughter. We can see it
from her way to make Mr. Doran married Polly even though with cunning

8. c. Mr. Doran
He was a thirty four or thirty five man who stayed in the boarding house. He
worked as an employee for thirteen years in a great Catholic wine-merchant’s
office. He was a smart man. He knew that Mrs. Mooney was trying to trap him
in a marriage just to get Polly to a better position in life. And in fact, he did not
love Polly too. He came from higher status, so when Mrs. Mooney asked him to
marry Polly, he refused it because he knew that his parents would not agree
because Polly was from lower class. And he worried if his friends talking of the
affair and laughing. But on the other hand, he was a loving man. In the middle
of the story he tried to comfort Polly when she was crying.

9. b. Polly Molly
Polly was the daughter of Mrs. Mooney. She was a slim girl of nineteen.
She worked in their boarding house. She loved to flirt with the young men but
Mrs. Mooney did not care about it because she knew they only passed for
business. And it was more like working for her mother. She was an obedient
daughter. When her mom asked her to stop working as a typist she did it. She
did everything which was asked by her mom.

10. d. Mr. Mooney
There is only a little information about Mr. Mooney. At the beginning of the story, it
was told that Mr. Mooney was a terrible husband to Mrs. Mooney, especially after
her father died and he felt like he could start drinking, embezzling money from the
butcher shop, and accruing debts. He tried to keep in touch with his daughter, and
as soon as Mrs. Mooney catches wind of it, she brings her daughter back home and
far from his influence. It shows that Mr. Mooney still loved his daughter.
e. Jack
Jack is the son of Mrs. Mooney. Jack was clerk to a commission agent in Fleet
Street, had reputation of being a hard case. Usually he came home in the small
hours. When he met his friends he had always a good one to tell them and he was
always sure to be on to a good thing-that is to say, a likely horse or a likely artiste.
He was also handy with the mitts and sang comic songs. There is only a little
information about Jack in the story.

11. 6. 2 Social Class
From this story we can find how important is social class in the daily
life. Our social class will determine how we act or talk. In this story there is part
when Mr. Doran worried about how Polly talk if he introduced her to her family
or friends. He said Polly was a little vulgar sometimes. Also there is moment
when Polly sang on one Sunday night. The lyric is “I’m a naughty girl; you didn’t
sham: You know I am”. A high class girl will not sing such that bad song. The
high class girl will talk more carefully and the grammar is good too. But the low
class girl, such as Polly, she talked carelessly and her grammar is not really
good. Social class also influenced the love story in this story. Mr. Doran did not
want to marry Polly because he worried if he introduced her to her family or
friends. Polly was from low class and he was from high class. So his parents
would not accept Polly. We also see how Mrs. Mooney tried to make Mr. Doran
marry Polly with her

12. This story tells about how a single mother raised her children
after divorcing with her husband and make a boarding house. She also
took role in her daughter’s love story. The figures in the story have their
own character. Their different character makes the story more interested.
James Joyce brings the problem of difference social class in this story.
After reading the story, the readers will find how the social class
influenced how we talk or act. It also influenced the marriage.

13. REFERENCES
http://www.gradesaver.com/author/james-joyce (accessed on June 1, 2016)
http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/955/ (accessed on June 1, 2016)
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/d/dubliners/summary-and-analysis/the
boarding-house (accessed on June 1, 2016)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_%28arts%29 (accessed on June 5,
2016)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class (accessed on June 5, 2016)