Morally Ambiguous Characters

Morally ambiguous characters are characters that are not clear-cut good, bad, right, or wrong. In three stories from James Joyce's Dubliners, "A Mother," "The Boarding House," and "After the Race," there are three different types of morally ambiguous characters. Moral ambiguity occurs in very different ways due to various causes, but it always relies heavily on similar devices such as perspective, contrast, ambiguity. In "A Boarding House," Polly Mooney's moral ambiguity is due to perspective which causes ambiguity of the her intentions The narrator describes Polly as having "a habit of glancing upwards when she spoke with anyone ... [making] her look like a perverse madonna" (35). The image conveys a childish, innocent quality in her actions,

This contrast reappears throughout the story from Mr. Doran's perspective. He recalls the night she came to his room wearing "a loose open combing jacket ... Her instep [was visible] in ... her slippers" (37). Her appearance and the whole situation is clearly inappropriate, but she only "wanted to relight her candle ... for hers had been blown out ... It was her bath night" (37). The straight forward tone of her reasoning and her "timid[ness]" (37) invokes the image of a child who is too innocent understand the implications of such a situation. He implies that many of their interactions went similarly with diction that coveys a sense of innocence: "the casual caresses [of] her dress, her breath, her fingers ... They used to go upstairs together on tiptoe" (37). From outside perspectives, Polly is too innocent to understand the implications of her coincidentally lewd actions. However, the few glimpses of Polly's perspective conveys a more knowledgable character: "she did not wish it to be thought that in her wise innocence she had divined [her mother's] intention"

The diction that surrounds Ségouin in the beginning is somewhat contradictory: the narrator describes his words and laughter as "light" enough to be "flung ... over their shoulders" (24), but they also cause the author to "strain" in a way that was "not altogether pleasant" (24). The diction surrounding Ségouin's conveys a pleasantness to his personality, likely caused by the narrator's blatant admiration towards him, yet the narrators words also connote a sort of carelessness and disregard for the feelings the people behind him. Conflict between the narrator's skewed image of Ségouin and the connotation of his actions comes up again, as the narrator "admire[s] the dexterity with which their host directed the conversation ... when [he] shepherded his party into politics ... [his] task grew harder each moment ... The alert host at an opportunity lifted his glass ... [and] threw open a window significantly" (25-26). Though the narrator's tone conveys the "goodness" of Ségouin's actions, the authoritative diction connotes underlying tones of manipulation. Evidence of this manipulation appears again during cards as "the other men had to calculate [Jimmy's] I.O.U.'s for him" (26). During the final game the narrator says, "[Ségouin] rose ... to play the last tricks ... he was ... glad of the dark stupor that would cover up his folly" (27).