The final chapter concludes with Molly’s perspective. Not the hero, or the anti-hero, or even the hero’s son. Up until this point Joyce has offered us situations that we anticipate but do not necessarily deliver what we expect (the meeting of Stephen and Bloom.) However, the look inside to Molly’s thoughts is different in that it satisfies one’s feeling that something might be missing. This third perspective adds another dimension to the text and even legitimacy to Molly’s actions and greater insight into Bloom himself. Even Stephen’s character is filled out by her thoughts when she plans to read up and buy flowers in case he stops by the house again. There is something in Stephen’s nature and disposition that causes Molly to want to impress him.

Despite Molly’s meditations on Boylan and opening the Episode thinking ill of Bloom for bringing her breakfast - her last thoughts are on Bloom, which I think the ending of Ulysses to be characterized as ambiguously positive. (will add more this)

EUMAEUS

Stephen and Bloom’s encounter with the “redbearded sailor’ is a particularly intriguing moment in the Eumaeus episode. Moments preceding their interaction Stephen ponders, “what’s in a name” and that names are imposters, consequently it is the first thing the sailor asks Stephen. Stephen replies with his surname, which the sailor recognizes as belonging to Simon as well. However Stephen does not reveal that he is Simon’s son. This withholding of information reminds me of the way Odysseus conceals his identity while testing Eumaeus’ loyalty. Stephen, I think was perceptive enough to see that Murphy was an imposter and full of windy stories and therefore did not encourage him by revealing his true identity. Bloom is baffled by this but soon too realizes this through his characteristic empathy.

This idea of imposter runs throughout the entire chapter and is most evident in the voice of the narrator. It is quite different than the voice we have heard before in that it is overly descriptive to the point of falsity and does not seem to know the characters well – especially Bloom. In reference to Bloom he writes, “He was at heart a born adventurer though by a trick of fate he had consistently remained a landlubber…” Knowing Bloom, an adventurer is probably the last thing one would choose to characterize him as, his thoughts being far more adventurous than his actions.

Circe

The Circe Episode most definitely stands apart from prior episodes not only because of its drama format, but also because of the (at times) absurd hallucinations and several obvious repeated motifs. The three motifs I found most prominent were dogs, clothing and shades returning from the dead. One particularly disturbing moment is when Paddy Dignam appears as a dog with a human face and then morphs into human form – “He grows to human size and shape. His green dachshund coat becomes a brown mortuary habit. His green eye flashes bloodshot. Half of one ear, all the nose and both thumbs are ghouleaten.” (472) This is another instance of Joyce illustrating how humans and animals are interrelated and take on each other’s characteristics (when Bloom imagines a cat’s perspective/ when he is disgusted at the animalistic way the men are eating at the pub.) Also, this moment with Paddy (and before that Bloom’s dead parents) sets up the appearance of Rudy at the end of the episode. The final moments of the episode serve as a clear link between Bloom and Stephen and their father son relationship – Stephen has literally become his son and throughout the episode Bloom has been performing father-like duties – Zoe even asks if Stephen is Bloom’s son.

Clothing in this episode seems to serve as a vehicle for injecting color into the narrative. Up until this point I had not paid much attention to color other than the black clothes of mourning and the repetition of white in Oxen of the Sun. However, in this episode color is everywhere and Joyce uses it to bring a certain vividness to the text.

OXEN OF THE SUN

Because this episode is set in a maternity ward for the most part, it comes as no surprise that themes of fecundity (bloom’s meditation on Theodore Purfoy), bareness (wasteland images before the rain) and conception (esp. of ideas – all the authors Joyce has referenced) run rampant through the pages. Joyce further echoes these themes by assuming the roles of past authors to create an evolution (another theme explored with references to Darwin and the ‘missing link’) of writing styles through the ages. The relationship created between the events in the narrative and the morphing narrative style is micro/macrocosmic and they tend to dip in an out of each other. One of my favorite imitations Joyce explores is the gothic novel – which is clearly exaggerated, but it too incorporates larger ideas in an immediate scene: “My hell, and Ireland’s is in this life.” The section that follows the gothic seems to be a thinly veiled allusion to Joyce’s decision to construct this episode in this particular manner: “What is the age of the soul of the man? As she hath the virtue of the chameleon to change her hue at every new approach.. so too is her age changeable as her mood.”

Another interesting facet of this episode is the way Bloom is represented and described (childe Leopold, sir Leopold, traveler Leopold.) In keeping with his tendency toward empathy Bloom continually wonders at Mina Purfoy’s plight: “Sir Leopold heard on the upfloor cry on high and he wondered what cry that it was whether of child or woman.” Later in the episode he turns his thoughts to her husband, Theodore in what further reveals Bloom’s insecurities in his ability to procreate.

One part of the episode that I found particularly self-conscious on Joyce’ part was when he abuts the Defoe section with a diary section (allusion to Robinson Crusoe?) however it is also incredibly brilliant. It is also in the diary section that a rain storm is described, which brings life to the “barrenness” – in the same vein as how Robinson Crusoe brought new life to the English literary tradition by being considered the first novel.

CYCLOPS

Incredible episode. It is vastly different than the chapters that preceded it, not only because the narrator has materialized into a character but also because we never enter into either of the two protagonists’ thoughts. The narrator’s perspective is highly exaggerated and editorial – he spends nearly two pages describing the figure of the citizen. This description stands out particularly in light of the basic one line descriptions allotted to our supposed heroes. “The eyes in which a tear and a smile strove ever for the mastery were of the dimensions of a goodsized cauliflower.” The narrator’s style boarders on absurdity and hilarity especially when he goes on to list “Irish heroes and heroines of antiquity,” which naturally includes Cleopatra and Adam and Eve. At the end of this particular rambling the bartender brings over their pints, Joe “lays out a quid” and then the narrator remarks to us, “O, as true as I’m telling you.” This seems to be an obvious poke at the ‘reliable narrator’ trope from Joyce because he certainly is not reliable but leads us through wordy ramblings.

SIRENS

The language Joyce uses in this Episode is at times unavoidably luscious and indulgent and usually accompanies a character when they are eating or drinking. “Boylan eyed, eyed. Tossed to fat lips his chalice, drankoff his tiny chalice, sucking the last fat violet syrupy drops.” (267) The thinly veiled sexual connotation does not come as a surprise in light of Boylan’s character and ironically enough links him to Bloom and serves as a sort of metaphor for each man’s sexual appetites. Bloom again eats with relish “the inner organs, nutty gizzards, fried cods’ roes.” But while Bloom takes pleasure in eating Bolyan takes pleasure in drinking up Miss Douce’s attention. This part also reminded me of the peach and pear exchange between Boylan and the shop girl in the previous chapter. Joyce uses images of food to both reflect a character’s disposition and as metaphors for things left unsaid (the blushing of the peaches.)

The Siren Episode is appropriately aural. Not only do the frequent instances of “jiggedy jingle jaunty jaunty” give sound to the text but the words themselves are often alliterative and echoing and contain assonance: “Brightly the keys, all twinkling, linked, all harsichording, called to a voice to sing the strain of dewy morn, of youth, of love’s leavetaking, life’s, love’s morn.” (264) Sound becomes serpentine weaving though Joyce’s words and giving them a poetic song-like quality – this is what Joyce does best: he uses these subtle techniques to translate a particular feeling or impression from a scene for the reader without using explicit descriptions.

The Wandering Rocks

I am not quite sure what to make of the fractured vignettes in the Wandering Rocks Episode. Surely it is and interesting and a well timed lull it what seemed to be a focus on Stephen and Bloom. So, in a way that is just what Joyce may be doing here- breathing life and giving depth to other characters and situations that up until not have remained on the periphery. In the first vignette with father Conmee – the third person removal is unavoidable. Nearly every other paragraph begins with, “Father Conmee this,” or “Father Conmee that,” if anything this chapter brings to the forefront the narrator’s role in the course of events and that perhaps he too is part of the story (or what enlivens it.) Through the narration of Father Conmee we see how the narrator proves to be quite editorial and omnipotent in his remarks- “ Father Conmee walked and walking, smiled for he thought on father Bernard Vaughans’s droll eyes and cockney voice.”
In particular these different insights shed light on the relationship between Simon Dedalus and his children. Simon is the absent father, the inadequate father and the father nominally and not in any other way. This, I think, is important to note in comparison to Bloom who longs to have had a boy to father in a close way. In a sense Bloom plays the role of a father to his wife Molly. He makes her breakfast in bed, buys her smutty novels, encourages her singing career and now that their relationship is no longer sexual he sees her in a more detached way.