Stopped at "... heroic defense of Rorke's Drift." (Penguin 584.5), (Gabler 15.781)
Bloom continuing his hallucinations of Mrs Breen recalls a trip to Fairyhouse races with himself, Molly, Milly and Mrs Breen. She had then worn a new hat, which he did not obviously like much. He tells her: "... it didn't suit you one quarter as well as the other ducky little tammy toque with the bird of paradise wing..." As Bloom is recalling the many things that happened then - like Molly's laughing, the tea merchant, Marcus Tertius Moses's driving past -, Mrs Breen fades away, saying eagerly, 'Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes" foreboding the famous last word (Yes) of this novel.
In a change from hallucination to reality, Bloom walks on, towards Hellsgates (read more about the area in the book, 'To Hell or Monto: The Story of Dublin's Most Notorious Districts' by Maurice Curtis) followed this time by the whining dog. Outside a shuttered pub he sees loiterers listening to jokes and laughing. With his description of all these people, Joyce connects his Ulysses to that of Homer's. Homer's Circe converted Odysseus's men into pigs. Cheap whores, singly, shawled, disheveled, call from lanes, doors, corners. We again meet the two British soldiers, Private Carr and Private Compton, and the drunken navvy (a construction site worker), who is shouting the song, We are the boys of Wexford.
An interior monologue of Bloom's follows in which he wonders what a wildgoose chase this is. He asks himself: 'What am I following him for?' Naturally he knows the answer to that question. Because 'he's (Stephen) is the best of that lot'. Bloom does not know what to do with the parcels of food (crubeen and trotter) he is carrying. It was a waste of money. One and eightpence too much. (This last sentence is an echo of what father Daedalus had said that morning in the coach traveling to the funeral of Patrick Dignam. / See episode 6). Finally, with the retriever still behind him, Bloom goes to a dark stalestunk corner and lets the unrolled crubeen and trotter slide from his hands.
Any question one may have had about the dog(s) we meet in this episode, whether we meet the same dog that changes its appearance/breed every time we meet it or whether we meet different dogs at different times, vanishes here. In one single paragraph, the dog was a retriever at first, then a wolfdog, later a setter, finally a mastiff. Soon afterwards it becomes in turn a bulldog, a boarhound and a greyhound. The significance of the 'dog' will become clearer later in the episode!
The two police (watch) who appear demand that Bloom identifies himself. Their declination of Bloom (Bloom. Of Bloom. For Bloom. Bloom.) stops with the accusative case befitting their accusation of Bloom. Here reality gets mixed with imagination, with hallucination. (The police are real enough. The gulls cawing in their 'gully' language, Bob Doran - we had met him earlier in Cyclops, episode 12, snoring drunk, blind to the world -, Signor Maffei and Martha people Bloom's hallucination.). There are many words/phrases that trigger this hallucination. Bloom's stammering that he is doing good to others brings forth the hallucination of the cawing gulls, whom he had fed earlier in the day Banbury cakes, for which he had not got even a caw as thanks from them. (See episode 8.) Now of course, they caw their thanks, saying 'Kaw kave kankury kake.' The thought of the highly demoralising tales of circus life brings forth the image of Signor Maffei.
In this part of the hallucinations, not only dogs but Bloom's hat also changes its appearance. He is wearing a high grade hat, when he tells the police that he is Dr Bloom, Leopold, dental surgeon. Soon he is wearing a red fez, when he picks up the card that has fallen from inside the leather headband of the hat, and which proclaims that he in fact is Henry Flower of no fixed abode. The flower in question becomes the crumpled yellow flower that he had received that morning with the letter from Martha (See episode 5). As Bloom murmurs privately and confidentially that they are engaged, Martha appears, thickveiled, a copy of the Irish Times in her hand. Bloom had placed an advertisement - Wanted smart lady typist to aid gentleman in literary work - in that newspaper. (See episode 8). Martha sobbingly declares herself to be Peggy Griffin, accusing Bloom of breach of promise. Bloom tries to excuse himself, explaining, "I am a respectable married man, without a stain on my character." He talks of his wife, the daughter of Majorgeneral Brian Tweedy, who got his majority for the heroic defense of Rorke's Drift. (Note but that there was no Major Tweedy at the defense of Rorke's Drift in the war of 1879 between British and Zulu troops! Gifford 15.780-81)
Bloom continuing his hallucinations of Mrs Breen recalls a trip to Fairyhouse races with himself, Molly, Milly and Mrs Breen. She had then worn a new hat, which he did not obviously like much. He tells her: "... it didn't suit you one quarter as well as the other ducky little tammy toque with the bird of paradise wing..." As Bloom is recalling the many things that happened then - like Molly's laughing, the tea merchant, Marcus Tertius Moses's driving past -, Mrs Breen fades away, saying eagerly, 'Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes" foreboding the famous last word (Yes) of this novel.
In a change from hallucination to reality, Bloom walks on, towards Hellsgates (read more about the area in the book, 'To Hell or Monto: The Story of Dublin's Most Notorious Districts' by Maurice Curtis) followed this time by the whining dog. Outside a shuttered pub he sees loiterers listening to jokes and laughing. With his description of all these people, Joyce connects his Ulysses to that of Homer's. Homer's Circe converted Odysseus's men into pigs. Cheap whores, singly, shawled, disheveled, call from lanes, doors, corners. We again meet the two British soldiers, Private Carr and Private Compton, and the drunken navvy (a construction site worker), who is shouting the song, We are the boys of Wexford.
An interior monologue of Bloom's follows in which he wonders what a wildgoose chase this is. He asks himself: 'What am I following him for?' Naturally he knows the answer to that question. Because 'he's (Stephen) is the best of that lot'. Bloom does not know what to do with the parcels of food (crubeen and trotter) he is carrying. It was a waste of money. One and eightpence too much. (This last sentence is an echo of what father Daedalus had said that morning in the coach traveling to the funeral of Patrick Dignam. / See episode 6). Finally, with the retriever still behind him, Bloom goes to a dark stalestunk corner and lets the unrolled crubeen and trotter slide from his hands.
Any question one may have had about the dog(s) we meet in this episode, whether we meet the same dog that changes its appearance/breed every time we meet it or whether we meet different dogs at different times, vanishes here. In one single paragraph, the dog was a retriever at first, then a wolfdog, later a setter, finally a mastiff. Soon afterwards it becomes in turn a bulldog, a boarhound and a greyhound. The significance of the 'dog' will become clearer later in the episode!
The two police (watch) who appear demand that Bloom identifies himself. Their declination of Bloom (Bloom. Of Bloom. For Bloom. Bloom.) stops with the accusative case befitting their accusation of Bloom. Here reality gets mixed with imagination, with hallucination. (The police are real enough. The gulls cawing in their 'gully' language, Bob Doran - we had met him earlier in Cyclops, episode 12, snoring drunk, blind to the world -, Signor Maffei and Martha people Bloom's hallucination.). There are many words/phrases that trigger this hallucination. Bloom's stammering that he is doing good to others brings forth the hallucination of the cawing gulls, whom he had fed earlier in the day Banbury cakes, for which he had not got even a caw as thanks from them. (See episode 8.) Now of course, they caw their thanks, saying 'Kaw kave kankury kake.' The thought of the highly demoralising tales of circus life brings forth the image of Signor Maffei.
In this part of the hallucinations, not only dogs but Bloom's hat also changes its appearance. He is wearing a high grade hat, when he tells the police that he is Dr Bloom, Leopold, dental surgeon. Soon he is wearing a red fez, when he picks up the card that has fallen from inside the leather headband of the hat, and which proclaims that he in fact is Henry Flower of no fixed abode. The flower in question becomes the crumpled yellow flower that he had received that morning with the letter from Martha (See episode 5). As Bloom murmurs privately and confidentially that they are engaged, Martha appears, thickveiled, a copy of the Irish Times in her hand. Bloom had placed an advertisement - Wanted smart lady typist to aid gentleman in literary work - in that newspaper. (See episode 8). Martha sobbingly declares herself to be Peggy Griffin, accusing Bloom of breach of promise. Bloom tries to excuse himself, explaining, "I am a respectable married man, without a stain on my character." He talks of his wife, the daughter of Majorgeneral Brian Tweedy, who got his majority for the heroic defense of Rorke's Drift. (Note but that there was no Major Tweedy at the defense of Rorke's Drift in the war of 1879 between British and Zulu troops! Gifford 15.780-81)
