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The protagonist of the story, Mrs. Mooney is Polly’s mother and the owner of the boarding house. She is a formidable woman with a scheme to marry her daughter off. As a butcher’s daughter who separated from her alcoholic husband after he tried to attack her with a meat cleaver, Mrs. Mooney has had to make her own way in life and be shrewd in order to survive as a single woman in 20th-century Ireland. This necessary cunning has nevertheless positioned her near the fringes of respectable society: her lodgers at the boarding house call her “the Madam,” which is also the name for a female proprietor of a brothel. In her own, pragmatic way, Mrs. Mooney advocates for Polly by turning a blind eye on her flirtation with Mr. Doran, a resident of the boarding house, until she’s sure she’ll be able to secure a marriage proposal from him. Though, with her shrewdness and cunning, Mrs. Mooney has found a way to manipulate the strict social rules that oppress so many characters in Dubliners, she’s still not free of those rules: she can’t divorce her estranged husband, because divorce was illegal in Ireland at the time, and it’s the limited prospects for women that force her to work so hard to marry Polly off.
Mrs. Mooney Quotes in The Boarding House
The The Boarding House quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Mooney or refer to Mrs. Mooney. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Boarding House
Quotes
Mrs. Mooney was a butcher’s daughter. She was a woman who was quite able to keep things to herself: a determined woman.
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She governed her house cunningly and firmly, knew when to give credit, when to be stern and when to let things pass. All the resident young men spoke of her as The Madam.
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At last, when she judged it to be the right moment, Mrs. Mooney intervened. She dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with meat: and in this case she had made up her mind.
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The belfry of George’s Church sent out constant peals and worshippers, singly or in groups, traversed the little circus before the church, revealing their purpose by their self-contained demeanour no less than by the little volumes in their gloved hands.
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She was sure she would win. To begin with she had all the weight of social opinion on her side: she was an outraged mother.
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There must be reparation made in such cases. It is all very well for the man: he can go his way as if nothing had happened, having had his moment of pleasure, but the girl has to bear the brunt.
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Mrs. Mooney Quotes in The Boarding House
The The Boarding House quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Mooney or refer to Mrs. Mooney. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Boarding House
Quotes
Mrs. Mooney was a butcher’s daughter. She was a woman who was quite able to keep things to herself: a determined woman.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
She governed her house cunningly and firmly, knew when to give credit, when to be stern and when to let things pass. All the resident young men spoke of her as The Madam.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
At last, when she judged it to be the right moment, Mrs. Mooney intervened. She dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with meat: and in this case she had made up her mind.
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The belfry of George’s Church sent out constant peals and worshippers, singly or in groups, traversed the little circus before the church, revealing their purpose by their self-contained demeanour no less than by the little volumes in their gloved hands.
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She was sure she would win. To begin with she had all the weight of social opinion on her side: she was an outraged mother.
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There must be reparation made in such cases. It is all very well for the man: he can go his way as if nothing had happened, having had his moment of pleasure, but the girl has to bear the brunt.
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