Ulysses

Episode 17 switches to a third person question and answer format. The form follows the model of Socratic dialogue or the Christian catechism for 309 questions. Bloom leads Stephen back to his house. They talk about “music, literature, Ireland” (619) and much more, finding much common ground. At his home, Bloom realizes that he has “forgotten” (621) his key, much to his annoyance. He jumps over his wall and walks in through the kitchen, then admits Stephen into the house. He boils a kettle as Stephen declines the offer of a wash. He claims to be “a hydrophobe” (625). Bloom plans to shave because doing so at night results in “a softer beard” (627). In the kitchen, the various items such as betting slips and a gift basket hint that Boylan visited earlier. The betting slips remind Bloom of the Gold Cup, making him realize that his misunderstanding led to Lyons winning a large sum of money. Feeling “satisfied” (629), Bloom makes cocoa, and the two men quietly sip their drinks. Bloom remembers when he, like Stephen, wrote poetry. They have met on two occasions, when Stephen was five and 10. The two men have similar personal histories, but Stephen represents the “artistic” (635) temperament whereas Bloom represents the “scientific” (635) temperament, evidenced by his fascination with advertising and inventions. The men swap stories. Bloom believes that Stephen’s anecdotes would make a good book. They speak to each other in Irish and Hebrew, comparing the “guttural sounds” (641) and other linguistic similarities. To Stephen, Bloom represents the past. To Bloom, Stephen represents the future. Stephen discusses Little Harry Hughes, an antisemitic story from the medieval era in which a Jewish man’s daughter cuts off the head of a Christian boy. Stephen compares himself and Bloom to the Christian boy, though the mention of a Jewish daughter makes Bloom think about his own daughter, Millicent. He remembers moments when Milly was growing up and wonders whether she might ever love a man like Stephen.

Bloom offers Stephen the chance to stay in the house for the night. Stephen declines, though he is grateful. Bloom returns Stephen’s money “without interest” (648), even rounding up the amount slightly. He wonders whether they might do something together soon but Stephen answers only in vague terms. Bloom suspects that they might not meet again. Stephen, like Bloom, feels dejected. Before Stephen leaves, the two men urinate in the backyard while staring up at the sky above them. Bloom stares into the seemingly infinite universe and reflects on the unknowable connections between himself and Stephen. A shooting star passes overhead. They shake hands and part ways to the distant “chime of the bells in the church of Saint George” (656). Bloom, left alone, hears Stephen’s departing footsteps fade away and feels “the cold of interstellar space” (657). Returning to his home, he notices that the furniture has been moved. He sits down and begins to undress as the items in the room and his books are listed in careful detail. One day, Bloom hopes to own “a thatched bungalowshaped 2 story dwellinghouse of southerly aspect” (665) in the Dublin suburbs named “Bloom Cottage” (667). He locks away Martha’s letter in his private drawer and thinks about the women he has met during the day. Inside another drawer, he hides his “collection of objects” (674). These include family life insurance policies, the deedpoll with which his father changed his name, and the note left by his father before he died by suicide. Bloom regrets that he has not measured up to his father’s moral and religious standards. He has not adhered to a kosher diet, for example. However, he is grateful that his father left him enough money to keep him from “poverty” (677). Bloom imagines himself as a penniless traveler, touring the world guided only by the stars.

Leaving behind his memories, Bloom prepares for bed. He takes a mental itinerary of his day’s accomplishments. In the bedroom, he sees more signs that Boylan visited earlier in the day. He can think of as many as 25 men with whom his wife may have had numerous affairs. Boylan is the latest of these men. The thought makes Bloom feel jealous, but he soon becomes resigned to his situation. Climbing into bed, he kisses his wife’s “rump” (686). He decides to sleep with his head at the foot of the bed. When Molly wakes, he tells her about his day. He does not tell her certain things and lies about others. He mentions the time he spent with Stephen, whom he credits as “professor and author” (687). Molly says nothing but notes that more than a decade has passed since she and her husband last had sex. Bloom recognizes the tension that has arisen between them since Milly’s adolescence. Molly is portrayed as the mother of the Earth and Bloom as “the manchild in the womb” (689), as well as a sailor who has returned from a long journey. Episode 17 ends with a black dot, indicating that this is the place where Bloom will rest.

Episode 18 is presented the first-person interior monologue of Molly Bloom. In eight very long sentences, she describes her life in a stream-of-consciousness style. After Bloom returns home, Molly is surprised that he has asked for breakfast in bed the following day. She suspects that he has had an orgasm earlier in the day and wonders whether he has visited “those night women” (691). She knows that he has had affairs with other women, just as she has had her own affairs. She compares Boylan’s sexual prowess to Bloom’s relative strangeness in bed. Bloom may be more virile than Boylan she concedes, remembering how handsome Bloom was as a young man. She compares her marriage to others, such as the Breens, and considers herself lucky. Molly makes a mental itinerary of the men who admire her. Boylan is obsessed with “the shape of [her] foot” (696), she notes. A singer named Bartell D’Arcy kissed her after a church service. A soldier named Lieutenant Gardner died, she remembers, of a fever that he contracted during the Boer War. Her husband has a fetish for underwear. The thought of this arouses Molly, who thinks ahead to Boylan’s next visit. Soon, they will visit Belfast together. She thinks about her job as a singer and the other people in her profession, most of whom annoy her. She recalls Boylan “swearing blazes” (701) because his chosen horse did not win the Gold Cup, especially after Lenehan recommended the horse to him. Molly does not like Lenehan. She plans to lose weight and wishes that she could afford more stylish clothes, especially with a view to pleasing Boylan. She wishes that Bloom would take a higher paying job in “an office or something” (703). When he was fired by Mr. Cuffe, she remembers, she visited the office to plead for his job. Cuffe looked licentiously at her breasts and then refused her request.

Molly compares the aesthetic beauty of women’s breasts to the ugliness of men’s penises. Bloom once suggested that she take a series of nude photographs to earn money. The thought of such pornographic pictures makes her think of the painting of the nymph and Bloom’s attempts at explaining metempsychosis. On another occasion, she remembers, Bloom suggests that she put her excess breast milk “into the tea” (705). Bloom has many absurd ideas, and Molly imagines collecting them together in a book. Soon, however, her thoughts turn back to the afternoon spent in bed with Boylan. A train whistles in the distance and Molly is reminded of her childhood in Gibraltar. There, she knew a woman named Hester Stanhope whose husband was named “Wogger” (706). When they left, Molly’s life was dull. She would write letters to herself because she was “so bored” (708). Molly recalls how her daughter Milly sent a long letter to Bloom but only a card to her mother. She wonders whether Boylan might ever write her “a loveletter” (709).

Molly remembers the first love letter she ever received, from a man named Lieutenant Mulvey. She kissed him in Gibraltar, she remembers, then wonders whether he is “dead or killed” (712) these days. A train whistles again, this time making her think of a song and her own upcoming concert series. The other female singers annoy Molly with their childish silliness. She views herself as a more worldly figure. She is part Spanish, and her darker features were inherited from her Spanish mother. Had she not married Bloom, she believes, she could have been a famous actress. She moves in bed to release “some wind” (714) as quietly as she can, timing the release with another train whistle. After thinking about her own childhood, she thinks about Milly. These days, she is alone in the house when Bloom goes out and she does not like this. Bloom was the one who decided to send “Milly away” (716) to Mullingar to learn about photography, possibly because he knew that Molly and Boylan would soon begin an affair. The relationship between Molly and her daughter is loving but occasionally tense. Milly has grown into an attractive but wild young woman, just as her mother once was. Molly is annoyed that her menstrual cycle will begin soon. She climbs out of bed and reaches for the chamber pot. The onset of her menstrual cycle means that Boylan “didnt make [her] pregnant” (719), she realizes, as she begins to remember their afternoon encounter all over again.

Molly returns to bed. She remembers the number of times that they have moved home, a practical necessity due to Bloom’s sketchy history with money. Molly is concerned that her husband may have wasted money in a brothel earlier, as well as donating money to the Dignam family. She pictures the men lined up at “the grand funeral” (723). For all their pleasantness, she imagines, she does not like the way they condescend to her husband. She recognizes Simon Dedalus as a skilled singer and tries to remember what she knows about his son. She met Stephen when he was a child and hopes that he has grown up into an interesting young man. Knowing that he may visit soon, she plans to read more so that the “handsome young poet” (725) will think that she is intelligent. Molly thinks about her husband and the lack of physical affection he shows toward her. Rather than hug her, he has many “cracked ideas” (727) such as kissing her backside. Molly imagines that the world would be better if women were in charge. The thought of motherhood takes her mind back to Stephen, who has recently lost his mother. This makes her think of the death of her son, Rudy. She and Bloom “were never the same since” (728). She brings an immediate end to this line of thought. She does not want to make herself sad. Molly fantasizes about waking her husband the next morning and then telling him about her affair with Boylan. She wants him to realize that he is at fault for her affair. Since Stephen might return the following day, she plans to buy flowers. The image of flowers and nature makes her think of God, as well as the day she spent with Bloom by the Howth lighthouse. She thinks about when he proposed to marry her and how she answered him with “yes I will Yes” (732).