The Boarding House Summary Class 12

The Boarding House

Brief Summary: 

This is an interesting story written by James Joyce that presents the life story of strong, determined and responsible woman, Mrs Mooney. She is a butcher’s daughter, but she gets married with her father’s foreman after her father’s death. After their marriage, her husband starts beating and abusing her. He is a drunkard and spends a lot of money on drinks. He quarrels and even beats her inhumanely. One night, he tries to kill her by showing a big knife. She runs away from there and saves her life spending the night in her neighbour’s house. Then she leaves her husband and starts her own boarding house in Harwick Street, where many tourists and workers come to stay. She has a son named Jack, a vulgar type of man and a young daughter named Polly. She is 19 years-old slim and beautiful. She also works there giving company to the tourists and serving them. She is in love with Mr Doran. Mrs Mooney knows everything about them but doesn’t try to stop that. She wants Doran to marry her daughter, but he does not want to marry her. Finally, Mrs Mooney talks with her daughter about their relationship and also calls Doran. Being helpless and confused, he tries to escape from there. But he gets in Mrs Mooney’s trap. Later, in their talking Doran says that though he accepts their relationship, he doesn’t want to marry Polly because Polly’s family background is bad, her mother’s boarding house does not have a good reputation, she can’t speak English correctly and she is not good at household works. So, he is much very much afraid of his prestige. He stands in between great problems because if he marries Polly, everyone will make fun of him, and if does not marry her, he will be sacked from his job because of this sin. So, he tries to leave Polly giving compensation. But Mrs Mooney says that she does not want to sell her daughter’s virtues. After some time, Polly comes to him crying and throws her arms round his neck. She reminds him about all the good works that she has done for him. At last, Doran remembers all the happy and romantic moments, which he has spent with Polly and decides to marry her.

Important Grammatical Questions