The mood throughout "The Boarding House" remains fairly removed and impartial with regards to its characters and their banally tumultuous lives. Joyce chooses not to linger on moments that might otherwise evoke a complex slew of emotions, moving quickly from one event to the next, recounting story beats through quick and pointed summary. This first occurs at the beginning of "The Boarding House," when the narrator reveals the series of events leading to Mr. and Mrs. Mooney's separation:
One night he went for his wife with the cleaver and she had to sleep in a neighbour’s house. After that they lived apart. She went to the priest and got a separation from him with care of the children.
The effect is rather one of an impersonal outsider looking in, as though viewing the events of someone else's life unfold briefly and succinctly, through the window of their home. "The Boarding House" itself is very short; the reader does not have much time to become endeared to the characters, leading to a feeling of emotional remove with regards to the overall mood of the narrative. This desensitization and lack of emotional turbulence inflicted through mood appear to be the author's intended effect.
