Moral Judgement by Gender in Joyce's "The Boarding House"

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James Joyce’s “The Boarding House” tells the story of two women - Mrs. Mooney and her daughter Polly - who, for their own gain, force Mr. Doran into marriage through deceit and manipulation. Despite being hard-working and devoted to his religion, Mr. Doran finds himself with a dilemma: remain unmarried, forced to live with his sin and risk losing his job and social standing; or, by marrying a woman from a lower social class, sacrifice his freedom in order to repair the wrong committed. Ultimately, either choice serves as a strong punishment for his sin. On the other hand, Mrs. Mooney and Polly, whose conduct throughout the story is far more morally repugnant than Mr. Doran’s, only stand to benefit from their sins. In this sense, “The Boarding House” is about the discrepancy between how men and women are judged morally, particularly within the scope religion. The narrator of the “The Boarding House” seems to be omniscient; the voice of the narrator could indeed be the voice of God, aware of each character’s history, actions and thoughts. The God-like narrator’s descriptions of characters indicate some sort of judgement having been passed before the story begins. Men are made to look weak and afflicted by their sins, such as Mrs. Mooney’s first husband after she leaves him, “He was a shabby stooped little drunkard with a white face and a white moustache white eyebrows, pencilled above his little eyes, which were veined and raw” or Mr Doran, who appears more afflicted after confession to his priest than before, “Three days' reddish beard fringed his jaws and every two or three minutes a mist gathered on his glasses so that he had to take them off and polish them with his pocket-handkerchief.” On the other hand, despite having committed more sins than Mr. Doran, neither woman shows any moment of weakness or remorse for their cruelty towards Mr. Doran. All the same,

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