NESTOR

The Nestor Episode offers up another character that is fundamentally different than Stephen: Mr. Deasy. Unlike Buck who is young and strapping, Deasy is old and I think, in some ways jealous of Stephen (despite all of his apparent short-comings.) Deasy takes pleasure in lecturing Stephen and makes a little show when it is time to pay him with his leather purse and placing his payment on ceremoniously on the table. “He brought out of his coat a poketbook bound by a leather thong. It slapped open and he took from it two notes, one of joined halves, and laid them carefully on the table.” This is another way in which these to men differ: money. Deasy is meticulous and obsessed with it while Stephen could really care less. Deasy preaches to Stephen about getting a little machine like his in order to keep his money safe and Stephen replies with, “Mine would often be empty.” In the Telemachus Episode we learn that Stephen is the one who pays for the rent, milk and trips to the Ship and doesn’t really even think much about it. In fact, after he is paid he refers to the “lump in his pocket” as “symbols soiled by greed and misery.”

The scene in which Deasy asks Stephen to take his letter about diseased cattle to get it printed is telling of Deasy’s character. He wishes to still be influential in someway and the best way he can think of is through this letter. For some reason I associate this act with aging – still wanting to be heard while you influence is waning. Perhaps this is because I feel like writing a letter like this is something my grandmother would do – a form of assertion and proof that he is still capable.