Some Thoughts on "The Boarding House" by Lukas G., Justin W., and Adam R.

“The Boarding House” and the Trappings of Expectations

Dublin is such a small city - everyone knows everyone else’s business.

“The Boarding House” seems to concern itself with marriage; Joyce tends to view marriage as being a trap created by certain social expectations, and this is evident in the story. Mrs. Mooney wants her daughter to marry. She allows Polly to flirt with the young men in the house and does not regulate any of her activity. Joyce writes, “There had been no open complicity between mother and daughter, no open understanding but, though people in the house began to talk of the affair, still Mrs. Mooney did not intervene.” When Mrs. Mooney “discovers” Polly engaging in more than casual flirting with Mr. Doran, she still does not intervene until “she judged it to be the right moment.” Her timing, along with the statement, “She was sure she would win,” makes clear that Mrs. Mooney intentionally allowed her daughter to be put in a morally questionable dilemma from which marriage would almost have to occur. This might lead one to believe that her daughter is pregnant, for it is interesting that she is so eager to find a husband for Polly considering how her first marriage ended. Perhaps Mrs. Mooney traps Mr. Doran in a marriage because she assumes the worst has happened and wishes to preserve her daughter’s honor.

Mr. Doran is forced to make a decision based on two conflicting expectations - namely, those that come from the norms of a society versus the morals taught by one’s religious upbringing. He occupied a higher social status than Polly, who is only 19, so it would be frowned upon, socially speaking, to agree to marry her. Doran even worries that his “family would look down on her,” and he resents the idea that “he was being had.”  However, he had willingly kindled a relationship with her, and if she was pregnant, marriage would be expected - perhaps even commanded, religiously speaking. Doran’s Priest for instance “so magnified his sin that he was thankful at being afforded a loophole of reparation.” This is a no-win situation for Mr. Doran, as he can either marry her or flee such expectations. This situation causes the recurring experience of paralysis - a common theme of Dubliners.  Paralysis shows up in “Boarding House” because Mr. Doran cannot make the decision. On one hand, he has such vivid beautiful memories of her treating him well, but at the same time he knows how bad this would look for him. Joyce describes his final descent down the Boarding House stairs when he writes, “He 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.”

“The Boarding House” could be compared to the relationship between Ireland and Britain. Mrs. Mooney may symbolize Britain, while Polly stands for Ireland. Polly like Ireland is monitored by a superior; however, Mrs. Mooney allows Polly to have some sense of free will until intervention is necessary.

Questions:

Do you agree that Mrs. Mooney intended to put Mr. Doran in such a predicament? If so, what were her motivations? 

Is this Joyce’s view of marriage? Is he using his publishings to make a mockery of accepted social and political norms of Ireland?

Compared to other characters of Dubliners, is Mr. Doran’s and Polly’s “love” closer to Eros in some way? Or is it yet another particular copy that is far removed from the true form?

Some Reflections on "After the Race" by Students Nathaniel P., Jonathan C., and Thomas M.

Individuality in "After the Race"

by Nathaniel P., Jonathan C.,  and Thomas M.

Of all the stories present in Dubliners, the concept of individuality, or in this case the distinct lack thereof, is most present in After the Race. Throughout the story it is apparent to the reader that Jimmy (the Irish protagonist) has no real say in what’s going on but is content anyways,  happy to be party to such established men as Ségouin (the Frenchman) , Routh (the Englishman), Farley (the American), and Villona (the Hungarian). Obviously these men stand for their representative countries, but that’s another matter entierly. This feeling of “grateful inferiority” is perhaps most obvious when the reader is told that  “They [Ségouin and Jimmy] were not much more than acquaintances as yet but Jimmy found great pleasure in the society of one who had seen so much of the world and was reputed to own some of the biggest hotels in France.” Jimmy, like Ireland, does his best to fit in with the rest of the party but, despite his best efforts, is held at best as an accidental companion by the more established men, despite the fact that they are the foreigners and Jimmy is the native. This lack of self is most present when the men are gambling on Farley’s yacht. Jimmy is so inebriated that, though he realizes that he is losing terribly, he feels powerless to cash in what he has left and leave, thus choosing by default to stay and lose almost all that he has on him. This is made clear when we are told that“Jimmy felt obscurely the lack of an audience: the wit was flashing. Play ran very high and paper began to pass. Jimmy did not know exactly who was winning but he knew that he was losing.” The game’s winners are, of course, the Frenchman and Englishman, and despite having lost his belongings as well as his sense of self, Jimmy is happy to be held in what could be described as grateful inferiority.

Thoughts for readers:

1.       How does individuality, or the lack thereof, play into the rest of Dubliners?

2.       How could one expand upon the obvious symbolism (countries represented by men) present in "After the Race"? What about the Race itself? What things could it symbolize?

3.       Think about the scene where Jimmy and Routh argue “politics.” What are they talking about? What is going on between Ireland and England around the time the story was written? What is significant about Ségouin’s involvement in the discussion?

4.  Does Jimmy's lack of distinct identity make him more isolated or more connected as a character?

5.  What is Jimmy's "epiphany" by the end of the story?

Disillusionment in Joyce's "Araby" - A Posting by Students Dan C., David R., & Caitlin W.

"The syllables of 'Araby' were called to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an Eastern enchantment over me."

Some Thoughts on "Araby" by Dan C., David R., and Caitlin W.

"Araby" concerns the infatuation of a young boy with the girl next door, yet mirrors a heroic monomyth more than it does a simple romance. The boy, our narrator, does not describe Mangan’s sister beyond her “white... neck” and “brown figure” nor does he even tell us her name. This story shows the boy’s epiphany at discovering, perhaps, his own sexuality and attraction to someone he had not previously thought of in that manner. For this reason he is unable to describe her very well; he is only able to say that he is in love with her and cannot even really explain why himself. The lack of description implies a sort of transient, immature love - this is definitely his first. His love is of the idealized, youthful form - he says “O love!” to himself over and over and cries without knowing why, perhaps showing that he is emotionally developing. At the same time that he makes this discovery, he also makes the discovery that he is too paralyzed by various factors in his life to be in love. For one thing, he nearly does not make it to Araby because of his Catholic aunt; he also has too little money to buy anything of value; finally, the bustling bazaar that he had pictured is in reality a small, quiet affair. Perhaps then disillusionment is the story’s theme - after all, the narrator cannot stop thinking about Mangan’s sister and how great it will be to win her heart, but realizes by the end that his quest was for naught. He may not have realized the general immaturity of his infatuation, but it is likely that he will soon afterwards.


Questions to answer:
1. What would you have done were you in the narrator’s situation?
2. Do you think the narrator’s goal of buying a gift from the bazaar to endear himself to Mangan’s sister realistic? In other words, does he actually have a chance of getting in a relationship with Mangan’s sister? Does he understand what constitutes a relationship?
3. Are there factors outside of the narrator’s control, excluding those that prevent him from buying a gift, that keep him from loving Mangan’s sister?
4. While Dubliners’ main themes are considered to be epiphany and paralysis, Araby seems to show disillusionment as well. Could this be considered a third theme?

What good company we are!

Yesterday we at Greenhill took some time to review the six stories we've read as a group--Araby, Eveline, After the Races, Two Gallants, A Little Cloud, and A Painful Case. We wanted to give you a sense of the spirit of our class--including the music & humor.

Click here to enjoy, and at your earliest convenience, please respond.

Eveline and the Issue of Change - Presented by Students Maren M., Taryn S., and Lejla K.

Eveline

By Taryn, Lejla, and Maren 

During a discussion over "Eveline" earlier this week one of our classmates mentioned that Eveline is not so much afraid of making decisions as she is of change. After rereading the story we realized that Eveline has had a number of traumatic "changes" in her life, including the deaths of her mother and her favorite brother. The one potentially positive change in her life was Frank, although the reader, along with Eveline, is not sure whether or not they can trust Frank to keep his promises once they leave Dublin. Maybe if Eveline was more confident in her feelings for Frank, she would have been less afraid of the dramatic change he would cause in her life. 

As far as we could tell, the only time Eveline described her feelings for Frank was with the phrase "pleasantly confused" which is not the phrase one should use to describe the feelings you have for someone you are going to marry. Ultimately, Eveline's problem does not stem from her inability to defy her father, she had, after all, continued to meet with Frank after her father refused to allow her to see him again, but her inability to trust herself to make the right decision when a drastic change to her life is involved. After so many negative changes in her life, some of which she may wrongfully blame herself for, Eveline's ability to make decisions had been "paralyzed" by events outside of her control. 

Joyce even goes as far as to state "everything changes" within the story and since Joyce was never one to waste words, we can only assume that this phrase represents a major theme of "Eveline." Although he does not allow Eveline to specifically state how she feels about change, we feel that her decision to not leave with Frank at the conclusion of the story shows that she feels like she cannot bring herself to trust the change in her life that she so desperately wanted. 

Questions for readers:

-Do you agree with our conclusion about why Eveline could not leave Dublin? 

-Do you think Eveline returned home from the docks or did she go somewhere else?

-Do you think the story reflects Joyce's view of women? And what is that view?

-Is Frank a real prospect of change? Or is he just another man that will potentially try to control her?

Mr. Garza, Hockaday, Araby, and Eveline

And Mr. Garza, both I and my students thank you for all you added to the conversation, especially the challenging questions you repeatedly raised. I am sure Socrates, somewhere, was smiling! We all learned much from you, and, as a teacher, I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue between you and my students as well as between you and me. What fun!

As Mr. Garza points out, one dynamic of the conversation arose from the philosophical base from which my students (and I) are approaching these texts, given the necessity of doing so in this Literature and Philosophy course and where Dubliners naturally falls in the calendar of the curriculum. However, another dynamic (in my view) was that the students, as young women, were reading these texts as women, meaning they read as resistant readers of a male text, seeking subtexts that made sense to them as women.

I saw this in their analysis of “Araby,” showing a reluctance to understand the young boy's infatuation with Mangan's sister as an encounter with "Love" in the terms Plato offers (sometimes) as an experience of Enlightenment in the Forms. As you point out, Mr. Garza, many students did see the boy as immersed in the world of the particulars, and if I heard them right, they also wondered to what extent he objectified the girl to suit his needs. Not as silent as I might have been, I'm sure I encouraged this view in that his idealization of her seemed to fill his own needs more than do anything to understand her. As Mr. Garza points out, however, his “love” of her might be the first rung on Diotima's ladder, and if we want to invoke the chariot metaphor, perhaps we can understand his infatuation as his soul's reminder of its original "life" in the Forms, so that in experiencing her he is "remembering" what he already knew. Finally, I think these Hockaday students were a bit suspicious of his experiences in that they saw this young guy as still in the Cave, duped by shadows. Mangan's sister was just Mangan's sister, but he thrust upon her a construction of (religious) representations rather than seeing her as who she is (whatever that might mean).

As for "Eveline," I'm not so sure the Hockaday students felt that Frank was the door to freedom--in spite of the rhetoric of his name, to which Mr. Garza called attention, balancing the conversation in doing so. Speaking for my students (I hope) and definitely for myself, the fact might be that Joyce understands Frank as a way out of Eveline’s stifling world full of duty, but for her the trip with Frank might have just been a step into another world where her duties are merely to another man, not her father but her husband. Is this freedom? Those seas that "tumble her heart" signal to her "he would drown her," suggesting that she fears an obliteration of the self in spite of Frank’s good intentions.

Whether these interpretations derive from text or subtext I'm not sure, for certainly Joyce, presenting these stories, distrusts love as an escape from the particulars of life. If we might imagine love can release us from the Caves of our lives in the phenomenal world, we are doomed for disappointment. While Plato might suggest that Eros can lead to the numenal world of Beauty and Truth, Plato blindly discounts the power relationships that are part of lived experience between men and women--and this power relationship might be something Joyce reveals -- in spite of himself. 

An Encounter--visiting Hockaday on behalf of Greenhill

As a kind of practice for Oakridge's colloquium in February, Mr. Colley, Dr. Moreland and I have tried to get interschool dialogue started now about Joyce's Dubliners. This morning, I visited Dr. Moreland's philosophy and literature class and, although I thought I knew the stories well, I was energized and challenged by the philosophical readings that Hockaday's students brought to the conversation.

I brought with me from Greenhill's students a few questions related to "Araby" and "Eveline". Echoing the colloquium’s prompts, our concerns relate both to the text and to our lives. As for the text, how precisely does Dublin paralyze these two would-be lovers (“Araby”’s quester, and Eveline)? Also, what if anything about Eveline has changed? As for our lives, we asked two things. First, what does one need to be truly free? (For example, can Eveline care for her family in Dublin and, in some meaningful way, be free?) Also, what is the relationship between love and self-control?

Immediately, Dr. Moreland sought to ground our terms in the material of her course. Which Platonic image of eros was borne out by the stories--the unwieldy horse of Phaedrus' chariot allegory (246a - 254e, link) or the transcendent ladder of Diotima (related in Symposium 210a-211b, link)? Clearly Araby's narrator views love in sacramental terms--see the chalice he bears, his confused adoration, his prayerfully murmurred "O love! O love!" Still, Hockaday students were reluctant to call the narrator a lover, or even a would-be lover. So exaggerated is his quest, so inappropriate is the object of his love, they argued, that he clearly allowing his chariot to be drawn by the wrong horse. In vowing to bring Mangan's sister some token from Araby, he grounds their not-yet-relationship (infatuation? crush?) in the world of the particulars, a purchase Socrates would advocate only under the condition that it served as the first rung on a ladder of transcending, true love of wisdom.

Similarly precise and Platonic was Hockaday's critique of Eveline. I do not remember a Phadrus-focused critique of her choices--perhaps they might have argued that it is the horse of reason that leads Eveline to keep her promise to her mother despite the crushing boredom, the physical danger, the shabby surroundings, the apparent friendlessness, etc. They were persuasive in suggesting that Eveline might not be in love either; instead "She had consented to go away, to leave her home." Hers is a tale of frustrated escape, not tragic loss of love.

After this conversation (which I have captured poorly, I'm afraid), Dr. Moreland and her students suggested two questions for reflection: Is eros a way out? Can one be saved? (See the interior monologue "Frank would save her. [...] He would save her.")

Thanks again to Dr. Moreland and her students. We look forward to your adding your own interpretive angle to these stories. Perhaps you've seen the film version of "The Dead" (IMDB link). Perhaps you would like to describe the role of faith in the stories, or the role of women, or some other angle not mentioned here.

We'd love to have you join the conversation.