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.