Today we completed the Circe episode, which we had started reading on 12 January 2016, which also means that we completed book II of Ulysses! To put it extremely mildly, it has been an interesting, although at times pretty bewildering, literary journey.
Last week, we had left Stephan lying prone - but with his face to the sky - after being struck in the face by Private Carr. Private Compton tugs his comrade, saying 'There's the cops!'
We are now back in reality. Well, at least till the very end. Two policemen arrive at the scene, wanting to know what has been happening. Some bystanders have assembled. A man, bending down to look at Stephen, announces that he has fainted, but he'll come to all right. Bloom gets angry - for the second time on this memorable day - at Private Carr, who he says, struck Stephen without provocation. As the police wants to note down name and address of Stephen, a car (a hackney) arrives with Corny Kelleher. (He works for the undertaker, O'Neill, and had arranged Dignam's burial that morning.)
It was said that Kelleher was a tout (informer) of the police. Perhaps that is why Bloom is happy to see him now. Earlier Bloom had turned his face away when the car with Kelleher and two lechers (was Boylan one of them?) had come to a stop at the door of the brothel, just as Bloom was hurrying out to go after Stephen. Kelleher manages to send off the police. The bystanders also disperse slowly.
Bloom and Kelleher try to explain to each other why each was in the nighttown. Kelleher had left those two lechers at the brothel, and had got off his car, when he saw the crowd, to see what was happening. Bloom was visiting an old friend, and was going home by Gardiner street... Even the horse wants to go hohohohome. On hearing that Stephen lives in Sandycove, Kelleher quickly gives up the idea of giving him a lift, and leaves. The car jingles tooraloom round the corner of the tooraloom lane. (Tooraloom is a song associated with Corny Kelleher. He was singing it earlier in episode 5. It is a take on the song, 'I vowed that I never would leave her' by Arthur Lloyd.)
Things are quietening down. So far the episode was brimming with people, sometimes in reality, more often in fantasy. Now only two are left: Bloom and Stephen. Stephen is still lying on the ground. Bloom tries to wake him up, calling his name. In his muddled up state, Stephen wakes up murmuring black panther (episode 1), vampire (episode 3), and singing words of the poem, 'Who goes with Fergus' by W. B. Yeats (episode 1)
Last week, we had left Stephan lying prone - but with his face to the sky - after being struck in the face by Private Carr. Private Compton tugs his comrade, saying 'There's the cops!'
We are now back in reality. Well, at least till the very end. Two policemen arrive at the scene, wanting to know what has been happening. Some bystanders have assembled. A man, bending down to look at Stephen, announces that he has fainted, but he'll come to all right. Bloom gets angry - for the second time on this memorable day - at Private Carr, who he says, struck Stephen without provocation. As the police wants to note down name and address of Stephen, a car (a hackney) arrives with Corny Kelleher. (He works for the undertaker, O'Neill, and had arranged Dignam's burial that morning.)
It was said that Kelleher was a tout (informer) of the police. Perhaps that is why Bloom is happy to see him now. Earlier Bloom had turned his face away when the car with Kelleher and two lechers (was Boylan one of them?) had come to a stop at the door of the brothel, just as Bloom was hurrying out to go after Stephen. Kelleher manages to send off the police. The bystanders also disperse slowly.
Bloom and Kelleher try to explain to each other why each was in the nighttown. Kelleher had left those two lechers at the brothel, and had got off his car, when he saw the crowd, to see what was happening. Bloom was visiting an old friend, and was going home by Gardiner street... Even the horse wants to go hohohohome. On hearing that Stephen lives in Sandycove, Kelleher quickly gives up the idea of giving him a lift, and leaves. The car jingles tooraloom round the corner of the tooraloom lane. (Tooraloom is a song associated with Corny Kelleher. He was singing it earlier in episode 5. It is a take on the song, 'I vowed that I never would leave her' by Arthur Lloyd.)
Things are quietening down. So far the episode was brimming with people, sometimes in reality, more often in fantasy. Now only two are left: Bloom and Stephen. Stephen is still lying on the ground. Bloom tries to wake him up, calling his name. In his muddled up state, Stephen wakes up murmuring black panther (episode 1), vampire (episode 3), and singing words of the poem, 'Who goes with Fergus' by W. B. Yeats (episode 1)
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| (The black panther in the kitchen of Martello Tower, now James Joyce Tower and Museum, Sandycove, Dublin) |
Bloom, on hearing the words, Fergus, shadows, woods, white breast ..., thinks that Stephen is thinking of a girl named Ferguson! Best thing could happen him. For some unexplained reason, Bloom murmurs the oath of the Freemasons initiation into the lodge. (The original oath is midway on this website.)
Suddenly we are back in fantasy. Against the dark wall the figure of a fairy boy of eleven appears, dressed in an Eton suit with glass shoes (like Cinderella) and a little bronze helmet. ... On his suit he has diamond and ruby buttons. He is carrying a slim ivory cane. It is Rudy, Bloom's deceased son. Bloom had once imagined that his son will walk one day beside Molly in an Eton suit (Penguin, p. 110). Gifford (15.4965-66) explains that in the language of gems, the diamond has the power of making men courageous and magnanimous and of protecting them from evil spirits. The ruby is symbolic of a cheerful mind, and it works as a preservative of health and as an amulet against poison, sadness, and evil thoughts. The bronze helmet, the ivory cane and lambkin hint that Rudy appears in the role of Hermes (Mercury).
All this symbolism brings together on one hand Homer's Odysseus and Joyce's Ulysses. When Odysseus approaches Circe's palace, he is stopped by Hermes. Here Hermes appears when our Odysseus leaves Circe's palace. On the other hand, the appearance of Rudy shows that Stephen is a potential son of Bloom. Seeing Rudy, all the paternal protective instinct is awakened in Bloom. The last part of Ulysses deals with what happens to this father - son duo.
On December 20, 1920, after having rewritten the episode from start to finish six or seven or eight or nine times (the count varied), Joyce pronounced that the episode, Circe, is done. (Ellmann, p. 497). Ellmann writes: 'The Homeric story delighted him, especially the Circean transformation.... There were considerable difficulties to be resolved in portraying the suppressed desires of Bloom and Stephen in vaudeville form, psychoanalysis turned into a vehicle of comedy.' (p. 495). It is anybody's guess whether Joyce indeed succeed in his endeavor! (I for one will miss this episode!)
