Today we completed episode 6, and moved on to episode 7. Thus this post will be in two parts. This part, PART A, deals with the conclusion of episode 6. PART B deals with the episode that follows.
Patrick Dignam's burial is almost over. The funeral party moves away. Bloom and others walk through the cemetery, looking at tomb stones and other such embellishments. Bloom is brusked by John Henry Menton, when Bloom makes him aware that his hat is a little crushed. Bloom, chapfallen, moves on reflecting over Menton's behaviour: "Thank you (indeed). How grand we are this morning!" Thus the episode of Dignam's burial ends with an unexpected remark.
The clay fell softer. Bloom thinks that Dignam will soon be forgotten. Out of sight, out of mind. While Hynes starts noting down the names of the people who came to the funeral, he approaches Bloom to know his christian name. This is another small, apparently insignificant detail that gains significance as it shows that Bloom is an outsider in the Dublin society. People call him 'Bloom' and not by his first name. Bloom supplies names of two other people to the list, a real one - M'Coy whom he had met that morning, and - inadvertantly - a 'wrong' one, Macintosh,. When Bloom says 'Macintosh', he just means a man wearing a macintosh but Hynes understands it being the name of that man.
As the mourners move away, Hynes says, "Let us go round by the chief's grave."
Patrick Dignam's burial is almost over. The funeral party moves away. Bloom and others walk through the cemetery, looking at tomb stones and other such embellishments. Bloom is brusked by John Henry Menton, when Bloom makes him aware that his hat is a little crushed. Bloom, chapfallen, moves on reflecting over Menton's behaviour: "Thank you (indeed). How grand we are this morning!" Thus the episode of Dignam's burial ends with an unexpected remark.
The clay fell softer. Bloom thinks that Dignam will soon be forgotten. Out of sight, out of mind. While Hynes starts noting down the names of the people who came to the funeral, he approaches Bloom to know his christian name. This is another small, apparently insignificant detail that gains significance as it shows that Bloom is an outsider in the Dublin society. People call him 'Bloom' and not by his first name. Bloom supplies names of two other people to the list, a real one - M'Coy whom he had met that morning, and - inadvertantly - a 'wrong' one, Macintosh,. When Bloom says 'Macintosh', he just means a man wearing a macintosh but Hynes understands it being the name of that man.
As the mourners move away, Hynes says, "Let us go round by the chief's grave."
As they talk about Parnell, Bloom walks on. The sight of the saddened angels, crosses, broken pillars, family vaults, stone hopes praying with upcast eyes, old Ireland's hearts and hands makes him feel that such embellishments are of little use. More sensible to spend money on some charity for the living. He recalls that he will be visiting his father's grave on the twentyseventh.
The engravings on the gravestones bring to his mind the immortal poem, An Elegy written in a country churchyard, by Thomas Gray. Typical of Bloom, he calls it Eulogy in country churchyard, and attributes the poem to Wordsworth or Thomas Campbell. The many a grave in the cemetery make Bloom wonder: "How many! All these here once walked round Dublin." He comes up with ways to remember the dead people. For example, to recall the voice, use gramophone. (It was invented already in 1877 by Thomas Edison.) As he ponders over how the recorded voice of a poor old greatgrandather would sound, he notices a grey rat toddling along the side of the crypt, and disappearing under the plinth.
Bloom thinks of the various ways - apart from burial in the ground - available for disposing of a dead body: cremation, Parsee tower of silence, burial in the sea... (By the way, it is because the Parsees consider earth, fire and water to be sacred and must not be polluted, they use the Tower of Silence to dispose of their dead, which are then eaten by birds.)
Soon the gloomy thoughts leave Bloom. He feels that there is plenty to see and hear and feel yet. By then Martin Cunningham and John Henry Menton appear. Bloom was acquainted with Menton, having won once a bowling game against him. Perhaps that was why Menton had taken a dislike of Bloom. When Bloom tells him that his hat is a little crushed, he is acknowledged curtly, with just a Thank you!
"Thank you. How grand we are this morning!"
Note: This last incidence has a Homeric echo. At the end of Book 11, Odysseus encounters in the underworld the shades of several of his former comrades in arms, including Ajax, who refuses to speak to Odysseus because he is still "burning" (angry) over the fact that in the contest over who was to bear Achilles' arms after his death, the Lady Thetis and Athena awarded the honor to Odysseus. (Don Gifford, 6.1025)
