rength and clear perspective on life and the situation of her daughter would grow flat if the reader were allowed to inhabit only her consciousness. Shifting the focus from character to character to character gives the reader the opportunity to enter the consciousnesses of the other two far more emotional and chaotic characters' consciousnesses.
The reader is guided by Joyce's narrator from the stable personality of Mrs. Mooney to her more emotional daughter, to the frightened and trapped lover, and back to Polly. The final line of dialogue from Mrs. Mooney reminds us that she is in full and complete charge of the situation, that the story is finally about her.
The focus helps the reader see the theme by making it clear that the story is about Mrs. Mooney and the fact that she is a woman whose strength and ability to control the lives of others has emerged from under her husband's shadow. It appeared that her husband had been a controlling in
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