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.