We stopped at "... for the fat lot I care ..." (Penguin 887.9), (Gabler (18.411)
We have completed almost half of this final episode of Ulysses.Molly's monologue must be listened to - or read aloud - to truly appreciate what Joyce has created in this episode. (You can get a taste of it here, an excerpt from Joseph Strick's 1967 production of Ulysses.)
Before falling asleep, Bloom has obviously told Molly that he had met Josie Powell, current Mrs Breen. (See Lestrygonians, episode 8.) Molly now muses about the mutual jealousy felt between Josie and herself when both were being courted by Bloom, who Molly thinks was very handsome at that time trying to look like Lord Byron (Penguin, p. 879), (Gabler 18.219).
At that time Bloom had given her gifts - Byron's poems and three pairs of gloves. Thinking of Mrs. Breen, she also thinks of her dotty husband, who sometimes used to go to bed with his muddy boots on (Penguin, p. 880), (Gabler 18.218). Musings on husbands and wives such as the Purefoys, Breens, she herself and Bloom reminds her of Mrs Maybrick who in 1889 was convicted (whose death sentence was commuted later) of poisoning her husband with white Arsenic. Wondering why they call it Arsenic (Arse + nic), Molly is true to herself when she thinks wasnt she the downright villain to go and do a thing like that, finding at the same time a possible justification for Mrs Maybrick's behaviour saying of course some men can be dreadfully aggravating drive you mad... (Penguin p. 880), (Gabler 18.237).
She remembers sitting in D B C (Dublin Bakery Company) with Bloom, having ordered 2 teas and plain bread and butter laughing and trying to listen (to Bloom's explanations??) when she saw Boylan, who was sitting with his two old maids of sisters looking at her foot which she was wagging and which she herself does not like ("I don't like my foot so much", Penguin p. 881, Gabler 18.262.) This must have been the first time where the two felt mutual attraction, as Molly remembers of having gone back to D B C two days later hoping to meet Boylan again, a hope that was not fulfilled. This thought about her 'foot' (that attracted Boylan to her) triggers off memories of Bloom asking her once to take off her stockings (while lying on the hearthrug in front of a fire), and another time to walk in muddy boots in all the horse dung she could find. These unusual 'desires' of Bloom make her realize, perhaps once again, that hes not natural like the rest of the world (Penguin, p. 881), (Gabler 18.268).
Molly is reminded of not having paid much attention to what Bloom was then saying, as her attention had moved to the sight of the man with the curly hair, then to Bartell dArcy who had kissed her on the choir stairs, and whose name was not on Bloom's series of Molly's lovers (Penguin, p. 863), (Gabler 18.274), not having been told by Molly yet about this guy. One day Molly plans to surprise him with this information. It would be a surprise to Bloom as according to Molly Bloom thinks nothing can happen without him knowing when he hadnt an idea about her mother till we were engaged otherwise he'd never have got me so cheap... Not much is known in Ulysses about Molly's mother. Was Molly illegitimate? Is that why Bloom got her so cheap? And what exactly is meant here by 'getting so cheap?)
Molly's thoughts turn to the days of her courtship with Bloom, how he had begged her to give him a tiny bit cut off from her drawers (drawers drawers the whole blessed time,
Penguin, p. 883) (Gabler 18.305), how he wanted to enquire the shape of her bedroom, how he wanted to lift her orange petticoat on the road even though it was raining and how she was dying to find out was he circumcised with him shaking like a jelly all over, the letters he wrote (similar to the letters Joyce wrote to Nora), the 8 big poppies he had sent (Molly's birthdate is 8th September), ...
Soon Boylan enters her thoughts with Molly hoping that hell (he will) come on Monday as he said at the same time (at four). Molly thinks how she hates people who come at all hours, like the messengerboy that afternoon through whom Boylan had sent (instead of coming himself) the port and peaches, which made Molly wonder whether it was a putoff.
Again Molly's thoughts switch from Boylan to Bloom, who was not Irish enough though she had the map of it all (that is, she has the map of Ireland all over her face: colloquial for 'it's obvious that she is Irish'; Gifford, 18.378)), who was a freemason, who was putting Lead Kindly Light to music, ...
We have completed almost half of this final episode of Ulysses.Molly's monologue must be listened to - or read aloud - to truly appreciate what Joyce has created in this episode. (You can get a taste of it here, an excerpt from Joseph Strick's 1967 production of Ulysses.)
Before falling asleep, Bloom has obviously told Molly that he had met Josie Powell, current Mrs Breen. (See Lestrygonians, episode 8.) Molly now muses about the mutual jealousy felt between Josie and herself when both were being courted by Bloom, who Molly thinks was very handsome at that time trying to look like Lord Byron (Penguin, p. 879), (Gabler 18.219).
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| Lord Byron (Source here) |
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| Leopold Bloom (Source here) |
She remembers sitting in D B C (Dublin Bakery Company) with Bloom, having ordered 2 teas and plain bread and butter laughing and trying to listen (to Bloom's explanations??) when she saw Boylan, who was sitting with his two old maids of sisters looking at her foot which she was wagging and which she herself does not like ("I don't like my foot so much", Penguin p. 881, Gabler 18.262.) This must have been the first time where the two felt mutual attraction, as Molly remembers of having gone back to D B C two days later hoping to meet Boylan again, a hope that was not fulfilled. This thought about her 'foot' (that attracted Boylan to her) triggers off memories of Bloom asking her once to take off her stockings (while lying on the hearthrug in front of a fire), and another time to walk in muddy boots in all the horse dung she could find. These unusual 'desires' of Bloom make her realize, perhaps once again, that hes not natural like the rest of the world (Penguin, p. 881), (Gabler 18.268).
Molly is reminded of not having paid much attention to what Bloom was then saying, as her attention had moved to the sight of the man with the curly hair, then to Bartell dArcy who had kissed her on the choir stairs, and whose name was not on Bloom's series of Molly's lovers (Penguin, p. 863), (Gabler 18.274), not having been told by Molly yet about this guy. One day Molly plans to surprise him with this information. It would be a surprise to Bloom as according to Molly Bloom thinks nothing can happen without him knowing when he hadnt an idea about her mother till we were engaged otherwise he'd never have got me so cheap... Not much is known in Ulysses about Molly's mother. Was Molly illegitimate? Is that why Bloom got her so cheap? And what exactly is meant here by 'getting so cheap?)
Molly's thoughts turn to the days of her courtship with Bloom, how he had begged her to give him a tiny bit cut off from her drawers (drawers drawers the whole blessed time,
Penguin, p. 883) (Gabler 18.305), how he wanted to enquire the shape of her bedroom, how he wanted to lift her orange petticoat on the road even though it was raining and how she was dying to find out was he circumcised with him shaking like a jelly all over, the letters he wrote (similar to the letters Joyce wrote to Nora), the 8 big poppies he had sent (Molly's birthdate is 8th September), ...
Soon Boylan enters her thoughts with Molly hoping that hell (he will) come on Monday as he said at the same time (at four). Molly thinks how she hates people who come at all hours, like the messengerboy that afternoon through whom Boylan had sent (instead of coming himself) the port and peaches, which made Molly wonder whether it was a putoff.
Again Molly's thoughts switch from Boylan to Bloom, who was not Irish enough though she had the map of it all (that is, she has the map of Ireland all over her face: colloquial for 'it's obvious that she is Irish'; Gifford, 18.378)), who was a freemason, who was putting Lead Kindly Light to music, ...
Lead kindly light, amid the encircling gloom
Lead Thou me on
The night is dark, and I am far from home
Lead Thou me on
(Cardinal Newman, 1833)
(Cardinal Newman, 1833)
Molly thinks again of Gardner, who was just the right height and to whom, "I was lovely the evening we kissed goodbye at the canal lock..", and who died of enteric fever (typhoid), reminding me of Charles Hamilton in Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind published fourteen years after Ulysses!
Her thoughts turn to the trip to Belfast, where she is going with Boylan, the lovely linen, nice kimono things that she can find there. Prudent Molly thinks it might be better to leave her wedding ring at home on this trip, because as she feels they might ... tell the police on me but theyd think were married O let them all go and smother themselves for the fat lot I care...
