We stopped with "A heavy stye droops over her sleepy eyelid." (Penguin 621.32), (Gabler 15.2077)
These pages show that this episode, Circe, becomes more and more bizarre as we turn the pages. Bloom continues to hallucinate, apparitions of people we had met earlier appear in quick succession, earlier episodes are echoed at increased frequency, reality and hallucination are juxtaposed, etc. But all these things - even if most of them are unexpected and are perhaps confusing at first instance - make reading this episode an unforgettable experience, and underscore the genius of Joyce as the creator of this Ulysses.
After Buck Mulligan pronounces Bloom to be 'virgo intacta', other doctors - Dr. Madden, Dr. Crotthers, Dr. Punch Costello- all the three, like Buck Mulligan still students of medicine -, Dr. Dixon - doctor at The Mater Misericordiae Hospital - (we had met all of these in episode 14, Oxen of the Sun), appear and testify about the multiple illnesses of Bloom. Dr Dixon even announces: 'He is about to have a baby.'
Women faint. Naturally! As Bloom says, 'O, I so want to be a mother', Mrs Thornton, the midwife who had assisted at Milly's birth (episode 4, Calypso), appears telling Bloom, 'Embrace me tight, dear. You'll be soon over it. Tight, dear.' Soon Bloom bears eight male yellow and white children. Why eight? Why yellow and white? We don't know the answer to the first question. But Gifford (1.2) says the following about the color yellow: "16 June is the feast day of St. John Francis Regis (1597-1640), a little known French saint much venerated in the south of France. Since it is the feast day of a confessor, the appropriate vestments for the Mass are white with gold optional. But the gold of liturgical vestments is not a yellow fabric but cloth of gold, a fabric woven wholly or in part with threads of gold. Liturgically, the color yellow has many negative connotations: 'Yellow is sometimes used to suggest infernal light, degradation, jealousy, treason, and deceit. Thus, the traitor Judas is frequently painted in a garment of dingy yellow. In the Middle Ages heretics were obliged to wear yellow.'" Joyce uses the color yellow often in Ulysses. For example, when Stately, plump Buck Mulligan appears in the first paragraph of the novel, he appears wearing a yellow dressing gown, ungirdled,... It should also be noted that the names of the eight male 'children' all contain the word gold or silver (yellow or white).
These pages show that this episode, Circe, becomes more and more bizarre as we turn the pages. Bloom continues to hallucinate, apparitions of people we had met earlier appear in quick succession, earlier episodes are echoed at increased frequency, reality and hallucination are juxtaposed, etc. But all these things - even if most of them are unexpected and are perhaps confusing at first instance - make reading this episode an unforgettable experience, and underscore the genius of Joyce as the creator of this Ulysses.
After Buck Mulligan pronounces Bloom to be 'virgo intacta', other doctors - Dr. Madden, Dr. Crotthers, Dr. Punch Costello- all the three, like Buck Mulligan still students of medicine -, Dr. Dixon - doctor at The Mater Misericordiae Hospital - (we had met all of these in episode 14, Oxen of the Sun), appear and testify about the multiple illnesses of Bloom. Dr Dixon even announces: 'He is about to have a baby.'
Women faint. Naturally! As Bloom says, 'O, I so want to be a mother', Mrs Thornton, the midwife who had assisted at Milly's birth (episode 4, Calypso), appears telling Bloom, 'Embrace me tight, dear. You'll be soon over it. Tight, dear.' Soon Bloom bears eight male yellow and white children. Why eight? Why yellow and white? We don't know the answer to the first question. But Gifford (1.2) says the following about the color yellow: "16 June is the feast day of St. John Francis Regis (1597-1640), a little known French saint much venerated in the south of France. Since it is the feast day of a confessor, the appropriate vestments for the Mass are white with gold optional. But the gold of liturgical vestments is not a yellow fabric but cloth of gold, a fabric woven wholly or in part with threads of gold. Liturgically, the color yellow has many negative connotations: 'Yellow is sometimes used to suggest infernal light, degradation, jealousy, treason, and deceit. Thus, the traitor Judas is frequently painted in a garment of dingy yellow. In the Middle Ages heretics were obliged to wear yellow.'" Joyce uses the color yellow often in Ulysses. For example, when Stately, plump Buck Mulligan appears in the first paragraph of the novel, he appears wearing a yellow dressing gown, ungirdled,... It should also be noted that the names of the eight male 'children' all contain the word gold or silver (yellow or white).
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| (Belshazzar's feast by Rembrandt at the National Gallery in London) |
The following pages (Penguin 615 - 618) contain many echoes. There are obvious echoes from earlier episodes. Some of the other examples are the following. 'Bloom, are you the Messiah' echoes, the question Pilate ask Jesus: 'Art thou the King of the Jews?' Ichabudonosor, one of the names in Bloom's genealogy recited by Brini, Papal Nuncio, echoes the name of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. 'A deadhand: (Writes on the wall)' echoes Belshazzar's feast. The litany sung by the daughters of Erin (Kidney of Bloom, pray for us etc) echoes the recitation of the litany of Our Lady of Loreto that Bloom had heard earlier in the evening, while he was sitting on the Sandymount shore (Episode 13, Nausicaa). Even otherwise this litany itself is an echo. It consists of 12 lines, each line echoing an earlier episode.
Bloom, who was earlier anointed and was hailed as the savior, is now denounced by one and all. Lieutenant Myers of the Dublin Fire Brigade by general request sets fire to Bloom. Bloom becomes mute, shrunken, carbonised. Suddenly, we are back in reality. Zoe is still there with Bloom, who is now dressed like an ordinary Irish peasant in an old shabby hat (caubeen) with a clay pipe stuck in the band. He talks like one too. Thus here even reality is not really like reality! Soon he is in babylinen and starts to lisp like a baby, 'One two tlee: tlee tlwo tlone.' Zoe leads him into the house, at the doorway of which two sister whores are seated. On the antlered rack of the hall hang a man's hat and waterproof. Bloom sees and recognizes them. Lynch and Stephen are inside. Stephen stands at the pianola on which sprawl his hat and ashplant. Two whores, Kitty Ricketts and Florry Talbot, are also there. A heavy stye droops over her (Talbot's) sleepy eyelid.
Bloom, who was earlier anointed and was hailed as the savior, is now denounced by one and all. Lieutenant Myers of the Dublin Fire Brigade by general request sets fire to Bloom. Bloom becomes mute, shrunken, carbonised. Suddenly, we are back in reality. Zoe is still there with Bloom, who is now dressed like an ordinary Irish peasant in an old shabby hat (caubeen) with a clay pipe stuck in the band. He talks like one too. Thus here even reality is not really like reality! Soon he is in babylinen and starts to lisp like a baby, 'One two tlee: tlee tlwo tlone.' Zoe leads him into the house, at the doorway of which two sister whores are seated. On the antlered rack of the hall hang a man's hat and waterproof. Bloom sees and recognizes them. Lynch and Stephen are inside. Stephen stands at the pianola on which sprawl his hat and ashplant. Two whores, Kitty Ricketts and Florry Talbot, are also there. A heavy stye droops over her (Talbot's) sleepy eyelid.
