James Joyce, Ulysses [Penelope]

This novel excerpt written by James Joyce focuses on themes such as the naturalness of sexual desire, the differences between men and women, and the embrace of life.

If you read Ulysses previously, you might think of Molly Bloom as contradictory and nuanced. “Early readers called her “earth mother’ and “satanic mistress” while 21^st century readers called her “bitch’, ‘slut’ and ‘thirty shilling whore” (Greer). While reading this particular passage, Molly’s character comes off as self-centered, yet charitable and sympathetic towards others. Her monologue holds facts and emotions that forces readers to alter their previous perspectives of her and her marriage. Readers have to consider the fact that after her and her husband married and lost their first born child, there marriage started on a downward spiral. Molly was unhappy. Their marriage remained sexless for ten years.

Blaze Boylan is the man that Molly had an affair with while still being married to her husband. Boylan is described as a well-endowed and wild man. However, Molly seems to think that he “doesn’t know poetry from a cabbage.” This is quote could suggest that Molly isn’t romanticized enough when she is with him. She thinks of it all as just a rough and sexy affair. Molly frequently finds herself reflecting on the times when her and her husband were dating and how he would sweep her off her feet. Throughout the passage, Molly fantasizes about the many relationships that she has had in the past but always seems to come back to the memories with her husband.

Molly’s soliloquy lacks a lot of punctuation and includes abrupt shifts and uninterrupted flow of thought. I believe that this was written that way to show how quickly Molly’s mind works. While reading, it is almost like she didn’t take a breath. She just had to get all of her thoughts out and has no time to stop. At the end of the section, she says, referring to her husband, “and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower… and yes I said yes I will Yes.” She is presented as a character who embraces life and I think that this passage portrays it perfectly.

 

Greer, Lindsey. “The Judgement of ‘Penelope’: A Day In The Life Of Molly Bloom.” Central College, www.central.edu/writing-anthology/2019/04/09/the-judgement-of-penelope-a-day-in-the-life-of-molly-bloom/.