The narrator uses an incisive, diagnostic tone throughout "The Boarding House," connecting characters' feelings, impulses, and actions to broader social patterns. Though these observations about social roles may appear as an extension of a character's own thought process, Joyce takes care to distinguish between characters' observations and the narrator's subsequent interpretations. Note, for instance, the following excerpt, in which Mrs. Mooney contemplates the efficacy of her persuasive tactics:
She was sure she would win. To begin with she had all the weight of social opinion on her side: she was an outraged mother.
The problem at hand is a difficult one: Mrs. Mooney must convince Mr. Doran to marry Polly, with whom he has had an affair, in order to salvage the Mooney family's reputation. The assertion that Mrs. Mooney will win this persuasive battle originates from her. The claim is not an external diagnosis made using the voice and tone of the narrator, but rather an expression of Mrs. Mooney's personal voice and conscious conviction as a character. The subsequent statement, however, is unlikely to have originated with her. It is the narrator, instead, who makes the connection between Mrs. Mooney's conviction and the social weight bourne by an outraged mother. Joyce extends this character's thought process beyond and outside of her limited perspective, utilizing an analytical narrative tone to do so.
