Today we ended our literary journey of James Joyce's Ulysses with the world famous "Yes." Penguin (933.9)
Molly has not slept since Bloom fell asleep after kissing her bottom. Her thoughts have moved back and forth amongst Bloom, Boylan, Stefan, Milly, Rudi, Mulvey etc. She gets quite 'heated up' thinking about Bloom and his vagaries, but at the same time her 'anger' gets tempered by the understanding she has for her husband. Does Molly have second thoughts of her afternoon with Boylan when she thinks, "... its all his own fault if I am an adulteress...", further consoling herself with "... if thats all the harm ever we did in this vale of tears God knows its not much doesn't everybody (do it too) only they hide it ..."?
Drawers, underclothes, being kissed on the bottom ... Molly's mind is awash with these thoughts. She wants to buy new underclothes, but "because of this bloody pest of a thing (periods?)", she knows that she will have to wear the old things. It might even be better so as she tells herself, "... Ill wipe him off me just like a business his omission...."
It is almost 6 in the morning. (The nuns will soon be ringing the angelus.) An unearthly hour, though, theyre just getting up in China now coming out their pigtails for the day. (Why on earth Molly thinks of China and Chinese must remain a mystery here!) Molly plans to do the place up that day, in case he (Bloom) brings him (Stefan) home. They (Molly & Stefan) can have music and cigarettes, she can accompany him (for that she has to clean the keys of the piano with milk first). A big question is what she should wear (shall I wear a white rose). The thought of the white rose makes her recollect how she loves flowers (... Id love to have the whole place swimming in roses...), and triggers off recollections of nature, of wild mountains, the sea, waves, fields of oats and wheat, ... At this point when thoughts of nature come up, Molly's belief in the Creator surfaces. She has no patience left for atheists or whatever they call themselves ... they might as well try to stop the sun from rising tomorrow...
sun is the cue to recollect Bloom telling her "... the sun shines for you...." on that day they were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head. What follows is a fond recollection of her getting engaged to Bloom, which she did because she saw he understood or felt what a woman is and true to her pragmatic nature because she knew she could always get round him... Thoughts of Gibraltar alternate between those of Dublin... with Molly acknowledging to herself that she was leading him on till he asked her to say yes...
Which she did do by saying, "... yes I will Yes."
Thus we came to the last word, to the famous 'Yes' by Molly, to the last alphabet ('s') of the book which starts with another 's' (Stately, plump buck Mulligan....), and reached the end of our literary journey after nearly two and a half years. Did I write 'end'? Not really true as nothing really ends and the reading cycle starts again. Within a couple of weeks (i.e. around mid May)! This blog will also continue...
Molly has not slept since Bloom fell asleep after kissing her bottom. Her thoughts have moved back and forth amongst Bloom, Boylan, Stefan, Milly, Rudi, Mulvey etc. She gets quite 'heated up' thinking about Bloom and his vagaries, but at the same time her 'anger' gets tempered by the understanding she has for her husband. Does Molly have second thoughts of her afternoon with Boylan when she thinks, "... its all his own fault if I am an adulteress...", further consoling herself with "... if thats all the harm ever we did in this vale of tears God knows its not much doesn't everybody (do it too) only they hide it ..."?
Drawers, underclothes, being kissed on the bottom ... Molly's mind is awash with these thoughts. She wants to buy new underclothes, but "because of this bloody pest of a thing (periods?)", she knows that she will have to wear the old things. It might even be better so as she tells herself, "... Ill wipe him off me just like a business his omission...."
It is almost 6 in the morning. (The nuns will soon be ringing the angelus.) An unearthly hour, though, theyre just getting up in China now coming out their pigtails for the day. (Why on earth Molly thinks of China and Chinese must remain a mystery here!) Molly plans to do the place up that day, in case he (Bloom) brings him (Stefan) home. They (Molly & Stefan) can have music and cigarettes, she can accompany him (for that she has to clean the keys of the piano with milk first). A big question is what she should wear (shall I wear a white rose). The thought of the white rose makes her recollect how she loves flowers (... Id love to have the whole place swimming in roses...), and triggers off recollections of nature, of wild mountains, the sea, waves, fields of oats and wheat, ... At this point when thoughts of nature come up, Molly's belief in the Creator surfaces. She has no patience left for atheists or whatever they call themselves ... they might as well try to stop the sun from rising tomorrow...
sun is the cue to recollect Bloom telling her "... the sun shines for you...." on that day they were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head. What follows is a fond recollection of her getting engaged to Bloom, which she did because she saw he understood or felt what a woman is and true to her pragmatic nature because she knew she could always get round him... Thoughts of Gibraltar alternate between those of Dublin... with Molly acknowledging to herself that she was leading him on till he asked her to say yes...
Which she did do by saying, "... yes I will Yes."
Thus we came to the last word, to the famous 'Yes' by Molly, to the last alphabet ('s') of the book which starts with another 's' (Stately, plump buck Mulligan....), and reached the end of our literary journey after nearly two and a half years. Did I write 'end'? Not really true as nothing really ends and the reading cycle starts again. Within a couple of weeks (i.e. around mid May)! This blog will also continue...
