In Joyce's "The Boarding House," it is clear that Mr. Doran is a serious-minded, industrious, careful young man ("All his long years of service gone for nothing! All his industry and diligence thrown away!") and not given to waste, frivolity or violence ("the family would look down on her ...  disreputable father"). Joyce carefully contrasts him to Polly's brother Jack, who has taken after his rough and uncouth father ("thick bulldog face and a pair of thick short arms ... Jack kept shouting ... he'd bloody well put his teeth down [the artiste's] throat").

Based on Mr. Doran's character traits and on his narrated thought "Perhaps they could be happy together," there is every indication that James Joyce is giving us good grounds for thinking they will be happy, although there is direct evidence for Mr. Doran thinking he was intentionally manipulated ("He had a notion that he was being had"), which can breed a hot-bed of resentment. In addition, if Polly follows after her mother to the same degree that Jack follows after their father, then the worst Mr. Doran will get out of the deal is an efficient industriousness and native sagacity for a shrewd deal, providing he can overlook her ill-spoken vulgar grammar ("She was a little vulgar; some times she said "I seen" and "If I had've known."").