Characterisation of Mrs Mooney

Mrs Mooney is one of the most developed characters in the short story “The Boarding House” by James Joyce, as the narrative follows her through most of the narrative. Mr Mooney is an absent character and Jack Mooney is a secondary character which help give the story authenticity and illustrate some aspects about Dubliners.

Outer characterisation

The woman’s outer characterisation informs us that she is a “butcher’s daughter” who used to be married to a man who worked for his father but subsequently became a violent drunkard. The woman also owns a boarding house, she is probably middle-aged and “a big imposing woman” at the time of the narration, and has a son and a daughter.

Inner characterisation

Mrs Mooney’s inner characterisation is initially rendered directly by the narrator who presents her as “a woman who was quite able to keep things to herself: a determined woman”

Subsequently, her inner traits unfold gradually, through her actions and attitude upon which the narrator comments occasionally.

The fact that she opened a boarding house and is called by her guests “The Madam” further indicates her determination to make a living, at any costs and that her business is not always viewed with good eyes, because the word “madam” can also be associated with owners of brothels. Furthermore, the narrator depicts her as a woman who is sneaky and knows how to protect her interests: “She governed the 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.”

In her relationship with her children she comes across as authoritarian, particularly with the daughter Polly, whom she decides to take out of her job as a typist at a factory because her ex-husband used to go there and visit Polly:

Mrs. Mooney had first sent her daughter to be a typist in a corn-factor's office but, as a disreputable sheriff's man used to come every other day to the office, asking to be allowed to say a word to his ...