More paralysis, death, and corruption — and more symbolism and storytelling craftsmanship — are evident in "The Boarding House." As in "An Encounter," "Araby," "Eveline," and "After the Race," a character in "The Boarding House" (Polly) ventures forth — to her typist's job at the corn-factor's — only to return home without having achieved the object of her quest. In Polly's case, the quest is for a life independent of her mother. Though over thirty years old, Mr. Doran (who, like Lenehan, will return as a supporting character in Ulysses) seems to have made little forward progress in life, and he will make even less as Mrs. Mooney's son-in-law. Somehow hobbled until now, frozen at present with fear of Jack Mooney, he will be from this day on genuinely paralyzed — as paralyzed as Polly, her mother, and so many Dubliners characters before and after them.
Though Mrs. Mooney avoided her husband's meat cleaver, it makes little difference, as she is spiritually dead at the time during which "The Boarding House" takes place. It is no coincidence that the story's narrator refers to her as "the Madame." Like the proprietress of a whorehouse, she hopes to earn money from the young woman living under her roof and thus gives Polly "the run of the young men" there. (This corrupt financial transaction is reminiscent of Father Flynn's simony in "The Sisters.")
