Ireland: beloved yet painful

Dubliners is filled with feelings of pain and remorse.  The characters are dealing with their anguish often by resorting to having a brew in the pub, and, most of them end up just going on with their lives.  Some characters are very fund of their country while others show much hatred towards it.  Some are just living their lives within the city following the flow of the hustle and bustle.

In the story "The Boarding House" the mother is a stern woman who finagles her daughter into a marriage with a well-to-do business man.  She successfully becomes independent of her husband, which causes her to be overbearing with her children.  The mother keeps her daughter from going to school to help out with the boarding house she owns, possibly to marry her off.  The middle aged suitor is nervous about marrying her, but he simply accepts the mother's will.  The mother gets the two to marry, yet the man sees the marriage as his doing because he the elder.  This sense of responsibility comes from his beliefs from the church.

On the other hand, Mr. Duffy from "A Painful Case" sees the world outside of other institutions and people.  He has lost hope in Dublin and lives outside of the city to live by his own accord.  He holds politically radical views, but he does not influence the advancement of ireland.  His love affair comes to a sudden end, and the death of his mistress brings him great pain.  Like the suitor, he blames himself for the outcome of the situation.  The mother from the boarding house and Mr. Duffy are just going through their lives dealing with pain and anguish.  Though they are not directly influencing the development of Ireland, the two share the undeniable pain that the Irish nationality all share.