By this point, observant readers might notice a trend in the previous three stories. "Araby," detailing a boy's first crush, closes off the first set of stories about youth and childhood. "Eveline" inaugurates a series of stories dealing with various kinds of marriage and courtship. In "Eveline," marriage presents the possibility of escape. "Two Gallants" reduces marriage and courtship to its animal level, and makes even that secondary to the pursuit of money. "The Boarding House" gives us marriage as a social convention and a trap. We are light years from the boyish enthusiasm of "Araby." Here, we have the ugly maneuverings of a woman trying to rope down a respectable match for her daughter. "Two Gallants" gave us seedy men taking advantage of a young woman. "The Boarding House" gives us a more respectable social setting, but the basic cynicism about love and relationships between the genders remains.
One of the striking elements of the story is Mrs. Mooney's silence. Her daughter's honor is not really a concern, because she knows about the affair from the start. What matters to her is trading on her feigned outrage to get a social arrangement that will benefit her daughter.
The theme of powerlessness is conveyed in Mr. Doran's situation. As with many other characters in Dubliners, various social pressures (his job, his reputation, Catholic guilt over the affair) combine to rob him of choice. The final climactic choice is not really a choice at all; Joyce omits the confrontation between Mr. Doran and Mrs. Mooney, because the pressures on Mr. Doran are so strong that the reader knows what Mr. Doran will have to do.
Love is not even a consideration, and the Mooneys seem unbothered that the marriage is based on trickery. Mrs. Mooney manipulates the weaker Mr. Doran, using his concern for his job and his fear of scandal. We can infer that Jack Mooney, Polly's brother, also has some idea what is going on. Fear of Jack also plays a tiny part in Mr. Doran's final decision. The end result is a marriage based on bullying and manipulation. But somehow, it doesn't seem to matter to Polly. She contents herself with pleasant dreams of the future; as far as she is concerned, security is the key issue. A trapped husband is a faithful husband. Nor, for all her feigned innocence, does she really not know what to do. The last glimpse of Polly reveals a woman every bit as sneaky as her mother. She knows well that her mother will take care of things for her. When she is called downstairs to see Mr. Doran, presumably to hear his marriage proposal, she is not in the least bit surprised.