Commonalities & Conscience in Two of Joyce’s Dubliners Stories
- Christina Francine
- Jul 6
- 8 min read
A Collection of Short Stories by James Joyce
First Published: June 15, 1914
368 pages
ISBN # 9780140186475
Available at most bookstores and most likely, your nearest library
by Christina Francine
Figure # 1. Dubliner Book Cover. Source: Penguin Publishers
James Joyce transcends the ages with a message from his anthology, Dubliners, that people today need to hear. This warning is especially transmitted through the commonalities in his stories “Eveline” and “The Boarding House.” These commonalities mainly involve characters making decisions based on what they consider what is best for others, which is not necessarily best for them. As a result, these characters dream of escape not only from their decision, but from the country of Ireland. These two stories share various similarities as well, such as epiphanies, “problem” characters using those with a conscience, and the barriers that characters cross which change their future.
Both “Eveline” and The Boarding House” involve a mother who makes life decisions for their daughters. Eveline’s mother makes her daughter promise to “keep the home together as long as she could” (33). Nineteen-year-old Eveline does as her mother requests. She keeps the house clean (29-30), shops for groceries, cooks, and gives her entire wages to her father (31). Polly’s mother, Mrs. Mooney, allows a relationship to blossom with her nineteen-year-old daughter and her thirty-four-year-old tenant, Mr. Bob Doran. Bob and Polly are interested in each other, and Mrs. Mooney knows it is only a matter of time before their relationship becomes physical. Joyce writes, “she (Mrs. Mooney) noticed that something was going on between Polly and one of the young men. She watched the pair and kept her own counsel” (58). Mrs. Mooney knows full well what is going on and waits, sets a trap. Joyce continues cluing in his readers a few paragraphs later and adds that Mrs. Mooney has a plan, “Some mothers would be content to patch up such an affair for a sum of money. For his only one reparation could make up for the loss of her daughter’s honor: marriage” (60). Both Eveline’s and Polly’s mothers make life decisions for their daughters because they believe these decisions are best for someone other than themselves. Both mothers, too, left the decision ultimately up to their daughters. However, both mothers know their influence carried weight. Because of their mothers, Eveline and Polly face a confinement of domesticity and of mothering children. Eveline loses her chance to mother her own children, but mothers someone else’s (her job) and cares for her brothers and father instead. She also cleans their home. Polly will have children of her own and will care for her and Bob’s home. Notably, Eveline’s mother and Mrs. Mooney led lives of domesticity and cared for their families.
Figure # 2. Evaline. Source: https://storiesofdubliners.weebly.com/the-boarding-house.html
Both Eveline and Polly are aware of the limits of their life choices. Eveline has the chance to leave with a wealthier man, one who wants to take her away from Ireland. Though Eveline does not love him, she “had begun to like him” (32). She enjoyed the respect of others (30), going to the movies (31), and believed, “Frank was very kind, manly, (and) open-hearted” (31). Eveline was about to leave behind her planned life to go nowhere. Frank would save her. “Escape! She must,” She wanted to live.” (33). When the time comes, though, and Frank has booked their passage to Buenos Ayres, Eveline feels duty’s call stronger and thus declines the trip at the last minute. Polly has the chance to pursue a career as a typist, one that will give her independence and further her life’s selections. Mrs. Mooney notes the men around her daughter and then refocuses. She realizes “a disreputable sheriff’s man used to come every other day to the office, asking to say a word to his daughter” and realizes too how Polly “flirted with the young men at Mrs. Mooney’s boarding house” (55-56). Since Joyce later writes “Polly had been frank in her answers” (59) to her mother’s questions about what had gone on between her and Mr. Doran, and that Polly “did not wish it to be thought that in her wise innocence she had divined the intention behind her mother’s tolerance, she had a choice and made it. Both girls, Eveline and Polly, had an epiphany – they realized their situation and acted on the choice they thought best, even though it meant an end to their freedom.
Figure # 3. A boarding house bar in Dublin (1907).
Another character who sees that his situation and freedom will be lost because of his sense of duty is Mr. Bob Doran. Mrs. Mooney and Polly have set him up. He realizes the stigma attached to having relations out of wedlock with a young girl reflects poorly on him. All his hard work, “long years of service gone for nothing!” (61). Bob worked in a “Catholic wine-merchant’s office” for “thirteen years” (60). He knew publicity would mean “the loss of his seat (respectable post)” (60). Poor Bob. He looked at Polly and her family and did not feel comfortable about marrying Polly. His “family would look down on her,” and “there was her disreputable father and then her mother’s boarding house,” which had begun a “certain fame” (61). Bob wants to “runaway” (61) – “longed to ascend through the roof and fly away to another country where he would never hear again of his trouble, and yet a force pushed him downstairs step by step” (63). Like Eveline, Bob wants to get out of the situation he is in and go to another country. Escape means one of improvement for Eveline and Bob alike. They feel imprisoned by a fate almost unavoidable.
Both stories deal with the past, present, and future. Eveline’s past starts okay, even though her father is harsh, but her vow to her dying mother changed her present and future life for the worse. Bob’s life also begins okay until one night of weakness changes his present and future for the worse. Interestingly, both stories involve a railing – a barrier separating their present from their future. Eveline is at the dock watching Frank leave on a ship she longs to be on. By crossing the railing onto the ship, Eveline could have had a better future instead of the terrible present she lives in. She does not cross because of a sense of obligation (34). Bob is at the top of the staircase in Mrs. Mooney’s boarding house. She has asked to see him and talk about what he has done with her daughter and to press him to do the “right” thing. To save his position and reputation at the job he worked so hard to succeed in, and because he feels guilty about what he has done with Polly, he descends the staircase, his present, and then meets the future he does not want (63). In Bob’s case, his future would have been better had he not crossed to the other side of the railing, but he, like Eveline, proceeds with the dreaded action anyway out of a feeling of obligation. Eveline and Bob must now face a hellish future.
Figure # 4. James Joyce. Source: https://shortstoryproject.com/writers/james-joyce/
Both “Eveline” and The Boarding House” contain characters with a milder disposition and a conscience. Eveline’s father uses her. He is dangerous. She never used to be afraid of him because she was a girl, but lately he had begun to threaten her and say what he would do to her only for her dead mother’s sake. And now she had nobody to protect her” (30-31). Her father wants Eveline’s wages and plays mind games and scare tactics to get it. He wears her down “squabble(s) for money on Saturday nights” (31), and then when she asks for money for food, “He said she used to squander the money, that she had no head, that he wasn’t going to give her his hard-earned money to throw about the streets” (31). Eveline’s father eventually gives her money (hers to begin with) with a further statement indicating a mind game. He asks, “her had she any intention of buying Sunday’s dinner” (31). Eveline remembers her promise to her mother even though she is not happy with her situation. Her father is the “problem” character. He is where he is because of his own doing. Eveline puts up with her father and takes care of him because of her conscience. Mrs. Mooney and her daughter use Bob Doran. They use him because they see Polly’s reputation at stake. Mrs. Mooney also worries about her daughter’s future. Since the typing job has not worked out, Mrs. Mooney decides Polly needs a safe future with a safe position, but one that cares for her financially as well. Bob and Polly’s interest in each other solves Mrs. Mooney’s problem. Being married protects Polly’s reputation, gives her a position, and provides for her financially. Polly is not as aware exactly of the specifics as her mother is, yet she uses Bob Doran as well. Polly came to Bob’s room late one night, knowing his attraction for her. “She had tapped at his door” asking him, “to relight her candle at his for hers had been blown out by a guest” (62). Eveline “wore a loose open combing-jacket (bathrobe) of printed flannel,” and it had been her bath night, so her skin smelled of “faint perfume.” In addition, Eveline warmed his dinners “when he came in very late” and sat beside him alone “in a sleeping house” (62). She is upset the next day because her mother knows about the night Eveline and Bob shared, but when Bob leaves to speak with Mrs. Mooney, Eveline is fine. Eveline stays in his room while Bob leaves to talk, sits on his bed, and “There was no longer any perturbation visible on her face” (64). Joyce wraps up the fact that Eveline uses Bob when he wrote, “At last she heard her mother calling. Then she remembered what she had been waiting for” (64). Bob feels bad when Eveline cries about her worry, is afraid of Jack, Eveline’s brother, and is worried about his job. His conscience makes him proceed with an action that he does not want to do. “His instinct urges him to remain free,” he thinks, “not to marry” (61). Mrs. Mooney and Polly are the “problem” characters. They are where they are because of their own actions.
Figure # 5. Dubliners Bk Cover.
Realizing commonalities in “Eveline” and in “The Boarding House” shows not only the concern Joyce felt for the people in Dublin, but also his perception of the characteristics of humans. In one way, shape, or form, people use each other. Some, however, use severely without a conscience, or at least not much of one. “Eveline” and “The Boarding House” point out that people often take advantage of those with a conscience, labeling them as gullible. Being kind, thoughtful, and considerate is fast becoming thought of as a weakness today. Those without control, careful consideration of others, or moral reflection see those with this trait as deserving the misery they get. Since Joyce witnessed poverty in Ireland, which brought out the worst in people, maybe he needed to provide a warning. Considering the growing mindset of people today, Joyce’s Dubliners is an anthology worth spending time with.
Works Cited
Joyce, James. Dubliners. New York: Penguin Group, 1993.
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SubjectGrade (150 pts)Comments Commonalities & conscience in two of Joyce's Stories submitted 7/1/2008 4:09:03 PM 145 Excellent comparison of characters and situations--well done! -connect all quotes to a sentence - the analysis falls into a comparison of Eveline and Mr. Doran--unify that with the intro (preview it in the intro) - nicely developed and supported analysis
Random House. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/
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