"The Boarding House"

“She sang: ‘I’m a naughty girl. You needn’t sham: you know I am.”

These lines are a very important aspect of the short story, “The Boarding House,” by James Joyce. The author used these lines to characterize Polly Mooney as promiscuous and childish. She sings these lines from a famous song but the fact that she sings these specific lines shows that she is either incredibly oblivious to what she is saying or she is intentionally making it seem like she is open. The reader will understand immediately that she has been with many men and acts immature around others for attention.
It is also ironic that James Joyce chooses these lines from the song to show that Polly sings often. The irony of they lyrics and Polly’s behavior emphasizes to the reader her immorality and unfavorable actions. When the Joyce first introduces Polly as a character and the reader reads these lines, they will immediately foreshadow that something terrible will come from Polly’s unrestricted behavior.
Joyce wishes the reader to dislike Polly so eventually at first so throughout the story they can begin to sympathize with her and somehow relate to her. Most people tend to dislike others because of something they do which ends up relating to a part of themselves. Since Polly acts juvenile and dissolute, Joyce demonstrates the theme that we all act foolish sometimes but we only realize this when we have come of age. The reader can relate to Polly because they realize that they had once acted this way and are able to sympathize with her at the end because they can feel her pain.