Penelope is the supremely faithful wife of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. She is the archetypal symbol of marital faithfulness. In Joyce’s Ulysses, the episode of Molly Bloom is the final chapter of the book. It is named after Penelope, the supremely faithful wife of Odysseus. Molly Bloom is the modern reincarnation of Penelope. She differs from Penelope in at least as much as her husband differs from Odysseus. For, while Penelope is renowned for her fidelity, Molly is notorious for her infidelity.
The Stream of Consciousness
Molly thinks, rather feels, like a torrent. Joyce himself says that the episode consists of 8 sentences. But the so called sentences average more than 5 pages each. Here is what Joyce himself said about this chapter: “I am the flesh that always says yes.”
The keyword here is ‘Yes’ and that is the key to Joyce’s conception of Molly. ‘Yes’ is the alpha and omega of Molly’s monologue, the beginning and the end of it all.
Molly as Earth-Mother and Individual
Barbara Clayton takes up the analysis of Kathleen McCormick who has recently shown that in the history of critical response to this chapter the first line of defense against attacks was the argument that Molly is an earth-mother, the symbol of mythic embodiment of female fertility (Clayton 123-125). But for all her mythic implications, Joyce never allows myth to engulf her, to swallow up her individuality.
The Impact of Rudy’s Death
The text explains that Bloom’s long abstinence from sex with Molly originates with the death of Rudy. Molly was also greatly traumatized by Rudy’s death. Instead of killing her desire for sex with her spouse it seems to have turned her against all children, even her own.
Molly’s View of Women and Men
Molly articulates what Joyce himself saw as the revolution dramatized by Henrik Ibsen, the revolt of women against the idea that they are the mere instruments of men. She feels anything but submissive toward them. Yet she also contradicts herself, distrusting most women.
Molly’s Final ‘Yes’
Her final words are self affirming: “I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish Wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes” (Joyce 995).
Works Cited
- Bowker, Gordon. James Joyce: A New Biography. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.
- Clayton, Barbara. A Penelopean Poetics: Reweaving the Feminine in Homer’s Odyssey. USA: Lexington Books, 2004.
- Deming, Robert H. James Joyce The Critical Heritage. New York: Routledge Publications, 2007.
- Gifford, Don. Ulysses Annotated. London: University of California Press, 1988.
- Joyce, James. The Complete Novels of James Joyce. London: Wordsworth Editions, 2012.
- Maddox, Brenda. Nora The Real Life of Molly Bloom. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988.
- Pearce, Richard. “Molly Blooms: A Polylogue on ‘Penelope’ and Cultural Studies.” James Joyce Quarterly Vol. 33 No. 1, 1995, 129-134.