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... er great florida face", Mrs. Mooney is fully aware that Mr. Doran is stewing about, anxious to converse with her on the reparation issue. Instead of taking pity on his dilemma, Mrs. Mooney tosses all emotions aside and rigorously continues on her mission.
Mrs. Mooney in turn lives by her false consciousness by not recognizing Mr. Doran's feelings and assuming that her actions were the only genuine ones to take. Furthermore, the ideals of the economy control Mrs. Mooney's duty as "an outraged mother" (75).
Mrs. Mooney recognizes that if she follows the moral pattern set up by her culture, everyone will think she is alright. Reflecting the prototypes of her society, when Polly is discovered pregnant, Mrs. Mooney, "the determined, imposing woman", puts on an appalled face and takes complete control of the situation (72). This is Mrs. Mooney's most obvious state of false consciousness.
When Polly became involved with Mr. Doran, Mrs. Mooney happily "kept her own council", recognizing Mr. Doran as a man of business. She constantly watched the relationship evolve, gambling and hoping for the perfect time to push it towards marriage. Mrs.
Mooney apprehends that she cannot let things naturally take their course and so she must quickly act on them. Upon Polly's new condition, Mrs. Mooney makes up her mind and intervenes, realizing that she has let the situation go far enough that it cannot go back. While she watched Polly and Mr.
Doran become grow closer, "there had been no open complicity or understanding between mother and daughter" (73). Although insisting she's outraged, a true outraged mother would have stopped such a relationship from occurring. However, Mrs. Mooney delightfully witnesses the situation and hopes for the right time to make Doran a husband. Playing the part of the "outraged mother", Mrs.
Mooney represses her overt knowledge of Polly's pregnancy, and puts on a pretence so as to show she neither received the news in too non-chant a manner nor seemed to have connived. The conversation between Mrs. Mooney and her daughter is very awkward and careful because both are working with information the other knows about, and are trying not to let that information surface. Mrs. Mooney knows that she cannot be an outraged mother and know what's going on.
In Marxian terms, Mrs. Mooney is the creature of ideology because even though all arrows indicate that Doran did not take advantage of Polly's innocence, she still demands life reparation for his vile sin. Though knowing all along the path of Polly and Mr. Doran's relationship, Mrs. Mooney lives by her false consciousness to reflect the present ideology. Mrs.
Mooney's position as the wife of a drunkard businessman causally relates to her positive outlook in dealing with Mr. Doran. First guaranteeing that reparation would be made, "she had all the weight of social opinion on her side" (75). Reflecting the needs of her false consciousness, in her eyes, Mrs. Mooney had acted out of kindness and allowed Mr. Doran, a supposed man of honor, to live under her roof and cherish her hospitality.
Mr. Doran "had simply taken advantage of Polly's youth and inexperience" (75). With the mass public buying her false image as an abused wife with two kids, working her hardest during a time of economic downfall, Mrs. Mooney "was sure she would win" (75). Secondly, ensuring her victory, she had the weight of the Catholic church on her side.
Mrs. Mooney knows what a serious and pious young man Mr. Doran is. She also knows how the church ominously weighs heavily upon his decisions, constantly reminding him of what sin he has committed and that marriage is the only acceptable reparation. The church is in collusion with Mrs.
Mooney and Polly. It works to trap Doran into a relationship benefiting all of the parties. The family will give money to the church, Polly will be able to raise a family, Mrs. Mooney will fulfill her role as a determined woman, and Mr. Doran will keep his job. By depicting the church getting in the way of Mr.
Doran's reality, Joyce further illustrates how materialism by religious aspects, determines our existence. Another result of Mooney's role as wife of depraved drunkard, is the growing dominion of her false consciousness. First, because of Mr. Doran's age, Mrs.
Mooney concludes that youth could be no excuse for his deed. Also, because Mooney labels him as "a man who had seen something of the world", ignorance could be no excuse either (75). Mr. Doran is clearly not a worldly man for he would have seen this trap coming long before. He is flawed with his naivety, and both Mrs.
Mooney and Polly prey on this weakness. Further evidence of the increasing superiority of her false consciousness, is when Mrs. Mooney rashly concludes that Mr. Doran took advantage of Polly's youth and purity. Clearly, Polly is not as chaste and virtuous as her mother characterizes her to be.
Mrs. Mooney knows that behind Polly's angelic face and beauty lies the coyness of a "little perverse madonna" (73). Mrs. Mooney understands her daughter is capable of tempting men into delirium, because she witnesses her in the act.
Also, Polly brags about her lack of couth, when she sings, "I'm a naughty girl. You needn't sham: You know I am" (73). Next, Mrs. Mooney's determination to repair her daughter's loss of honor reflects her false consciousness. Polly barely holds onto anything considered honorable in the first place.
She is lewd, not intelligent, and speaks with horrible grammar. Lastly, reflecting society's argument, Mrs. Mooney considers the whole situation the man's fault with Polly, the innocent victim, being lured into the affair. Realistically, Polly is not the tragic victim, "bearing the brunt" of the situation (75). She knew exactly what she was doing and was not at all surprise to find herself pregnant. This is apparent at eh end of the story when Mrs.
Mooney is about to confront Mr. Doran. After Polly melodramatically moans, "O my God", and pleads for Mr. Doran's to relieve her of her anguish, she takes notice of her white pillows and falls into a river, "no longer any perturbation visible on her face" (79). Joyce describes her waiting on "cheerfully, without alarm", deluded by visions of her future. Only when Mrs.
Mooney calls for Polly to come and speak with Mr. Doran, the supposed cause of all of her supposed anguish, does "she remember what she had been waiting for" (79). Someone worried about the outcome of a confrontation between an outraged mother and a wrongful man would not daydream and completely forget about the situation. Mrs. Mooney and Polly do no want to believe they are trapping the poor Mr. Doran as they really are.
It is imperative that Mr. Doran be the wretched aggressor and they be the helpless victims and if Mrs. Mooney plays her cards right, she will triumphantly acquire Polly a husband. With her false consciousness vastly overpowering her reality, Mrs. Mooney accurately represents the wronged, vengeful, and determined mother.
In Marx's view, the only way to consciously control these blind forces of materialism is to eliminate the struggles and conflicts of social classes. With everyone equal, no one will associate their wills and friction amongst the public will be destroyed. Political power, "the organized power of one political class for oppressing another", will cease to exist as well (Beer 32). Mrs. Mooney would not be as determined in her ways, had she not been born on the bottom rung of the economic ladder. As such, Mr.
Doran would have been able to spot the trap were he not controlled by his economic position and duty to reflect the creeds of the Catholic Church. Eliminating class structure would inevitably eliminate one's abiding by a false consciousness in that we would view people as they really are and not what we make them out to be. Ideology would no longer represent the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence. The ultimate gain in this process will be a free association "in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all" (32).
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Research essay sample on False Consciousness Catholic Church
