"ULYSSES Flashcards
ULYSSES
It’s a kaleidoscopic, disturbing, shocking novel. Ulysses is a long, complex novel set in Dublin on one single day, 16 June 1904.
Joyce’s Ulysses is an epic novel which offers different visions of
- daily life
- personal attitudes
- political and cultural discussion
- reflection on the human condition.
It’s composed of 18 episodes that narrate the actions and interactions of three characters.
Part I: ‘The Telemachiad’
from episode 1 to episode 3
The protagonist is Stephen Dedalus, already introduced in “A Portrait of the Astick Young Man”.
Part 2: ‘The Odyssey’
from episode 4 to episode 15
The protagonist of the main part is the middle-aged Jewish advertising salesman Leopold Bloom, who wanders around Dublin
Part 3: ‘Nostos’
from episode 16 to episode 18
Leopold comes back home to his loving but cheater wife Molly.
The part ends with 60 pages of Molly’s monologue, nearly 1600 lines of free stream of consciousness prose.
The novel concludes with a triumphant affirmation of love and acceptance of Leopold.
JOYCE’S STYLE IN “ULYSSES”
Its styles are multiple and varied; - invents words
- plays with sound patterns .
Each episode has its own style and title.
The title could refer to
– a character or incident from Homer’s The Odyssey
– a time and place
– a part of the body
– an art
– a colour
– a symbol
– a narrative technique.
Joyce’s references to Homer’s and to the world of ancient mythology
bring universality to the events narrated i
ironically underlines the squalid reality of modernity, which lacks of heroism
The ‘mythical method’ adopted by Joyce in Ulysses is very similar to the one used by Eliot in The Waste Land: both writers use ancient myths to represent the modern world as a place where heroism has disappeared
Yes, I said. (yes) I will (yes) – ULYSSES
In this passage, taken from the 60 pages - monologue, Molly is thinking about the day Bloom proposed to her.
THE REPETITION OF “YES” is a technique used by Joyce to
– play with sound patterns
– To construct a more rhythmic prose,
–to underline the fact that, at the end of the monologue she will say yes to the proposal.
We can split the passage in 3:
– The day of the proposal
–Molly doesn’t want to answer yet and remember all the people she met when she was younger
– Molly answers yes
Molly is in bed talking about atheism theories because she thinks that, without women, it couldn’t have been possible the Creation. This idea is present in all the monologue because Joyce underlines that it was MOLLY to guide him to propose to her, it was MOLLY to answer, it was MOLLY to made him wait.
1- The day of the proposal: Molly doesn’t want to answer yet
Leopold and Molly are in Howth head, a little place near Dublin, laid in a rhododendron field. It was 16 years ago.
They are eating a seed cake when Molly thinks how much she loves this guy, because she feels he really understands women’s minds and ofc her.
He says she is beautiful as a mountain flower and then proposes to her.
But she doesn’t want to answer yet because there are lots of things happening in her mind.
2- Molly remember all the people she met when she was younger
There are three main elements in Molly’s mind: the mountains, the sea, the flowers The sailors and the sea, the Spanish Girls laughing and the missed boat there, the sunseats, the Alameda gardens..
3- Molly answers yes
The repetition of the word “yes” is now more intense because she is soon going to say yes.
She asks him with her eyes to repeat the question because now she is ready to answer, she kisses him again and she answers “yes”.
