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.