What wouldn't James Board with?

James Joyce a Dubliner and Irish man through and through, had no choice but to portray Mrs.Mooney, women, and Dublin in the state of paralysis because it was in fact all he ever really honestly saw them to be. Mrs.Money a typical figure in Joyce's society, imposing, forceful, yet always aiding in the continuation of the paralysis. Woman's good intention, always viewed upon as a tool of manipulation to control the environment by the oppressive to maintain the state of paralysis. And Dublin continuing to depreciate, Roman Catholic year after Roman Catholic year,  looking more and more like a sell out boarder town dead end to the ocean. James Joyce was born in Ireland, to live in Dublin, to be the man that depicted his own people, religion and society the way he saw them, paralyzed in a moment, to be understood honestly.

Mrs.Money, the "determined"(46) daughter of a butcher, is on a mission to get rid of her daughter, at all costs prolonging the paralysis throughout her family, Dublin and Ireland. After her "separation"(46) form Mr.Mooney, Mrs.Mooney was forced to be the head of the house hold, the authority of the home. Broken homes like this called for the mothers of these house holds to step up and take on a lot of added responsibilities. Mrs.Mooney opened "The Boarding house" to help her maintain a satisfaction-airy level of living, yet her circumstances lowered her level in society, trash. She uses Mr.Doran as her victim, a way to pimp her daughter out to a reasonable suitor, only for her to have a reasonable social standing of course. The things she does to execute her plan go above and beyond any healthy measures. She takes her daughters life into her hands and forces it into the life of another man. An Irish Catholic man, with a well to do family and a "good screw"(49). Except, didn't Mr.Mooney once have a great job too, "her father's foreman"(45).  Joyce might have seen a young Miss.Mooney on the her fathers work site, being given "the run of the young men."(47). Joyce uses the individuals residing inside "the Boarding House" found in Dublin in Ireland as the mechanism of portraying his vision of his race honestly, even if it means painting an ugly picture.

Women aren't painted too pretty in Joyce's shorts, they find themselves figures that can use or be used to hold onto the paralysis, that forces girls like Polly into lives like their mother Mrs.Mooney, drowning Dublin deeper into the drudge that Ireland is so stuck in and wont move out of. What makes Polly so unattractive is something that she is to young still to realized, yet she is a pawn in her mothers game, a game she is a willing participant in. The style in which her mother allowed her to trap a man is bound to leave a mark on the Psyche of a young girl. The type of behavior required to create such types of situations, is bred. Polly sub consciously or consciously knows what her mother is up to, always, she's a girl. The woman's roll is to maintain the ever present feeling of paralysis, within her family, her city and her Nation according to Joyce.

Dublin, a world class city, oppressed so heavily by the will of its own people, the "Dubliners", people James Joyce is saying define themselves one way yet see themselves in another. Mrs. Mooney is a tough woman in a real world. She might of known her husband never really loved her, who knows, but to maintain her lifestyle and her survival her actions are well beyond satisfactory. It's how that satisfaction is acquired without the context as a whole acknowledged. The issues of a place like "The Boarding house" are part of a process that Joyce could see destroying Ireland, yet his society as a whole were almost all pleading ignorant too. Mrs.Mooney should have known better then to force Polly down the throat of Mr.Doran, but instead of using her own experiences in life, to understand the situation, manipulating others to achieve her own goals gives way to the same old set of problems to roll in, in a few years when Mr.Doran starts drinking because he realizes then that he was swindled into marriage takes a knife to his young wife. Then she might have to leave the nest that the two created together, maybe she'll have kids. Again the Church would have to give her access to a separation and maybe she would start another boarding house to pimp her daughter out. This according to Joyce is a never ending process in Dublin. And like the ending of Mr.Mooney's marriage, it was a process that ended in much the same violent manner as some of Ireland's political issues.

Joyce must have really loved "Dubliners" to come up with such a beautiful way to make fun of them, characters like Mrs.Mooney and Polly are spectacular examples of how James Joyce though Ireland was in a state of paralysis. Mrs.Mooney a character driven by resentment of her own unfulfilled life turning unto her own daughter to carry her life in the same way, in viciouse tormented circle of lives without true love. Polly a daughter plague with a mother that knowingly sets her up using her own girlish instinct against her. In turn causing the the production of a society built on false morals and a wrong sense of freedom. A society of people living in and perpetuating the lies and leaving the city and the nation in a  state of paralysis and ruin.


Works cited

Joyce, James. "Dubliners". New York:Oxford University Press, 1967. Print.