Episode 17
RETURN HOME TO ECCLES STREET 2.00 a.m.
How did Bloom and Stephen return to Eccles Street? They walked together on a parallel course from Beresford Place, at a normal pace to Mountjoy Square, at reduced pace to Temple Street, at reduced pace and halting now and then to Hardwicke Place until at a relaxed walking pace they crossed in front of George’s church.
What did they discuss on their journey? They deliberated about music and literature, woman, prostitution, diet, the influence of gaslight on the growth of the adjoining paraheliotropic trees, religion and nationhood and Stephen’s fall.
Did they hold similar views? There were similarities in their reactions to music, preferring it to art, they both were nonbelievers of many orthodox religions and national and ethical doctrines and they were both attracted to the opposite sex.
Did they have different opinions? They had divergent opinions about diet and civic self help and the role of literature. Bloom changes his mind about the date of conversion of the Irish nation to Christianity from Druidism under Stephen’s instruction.
Did they share any negative opinion? They were both equally negative about the damaging effect of artificial light on the paraheliotropic trees.
Had Bloom ever before discussed these subjects? Bloom had enjoyed such late night discussions in the past. In 1884 with Oweb Goldberg and Cecil Turnbull, 1885 with Percy Apjohn, 1886 with a few casual acquaintances, 1888 with Major Brian Tweedy and Miss Marion Tweedy and on one occasion in 1892 and in 1893 with Julius Mastiansky.
What conclusion did Bloom come to about the disparity in time between each discussion?
The irregular sequence of explorative discussions coincided with the regressive nature of individual development that seemed to occur once restricted in a relationship.
How had things changed? Issues of existence and non-existence had changed with a relationship.
What did Bloom do when they arrived at 7 Eccles Street? When he reached the fourth uneven number he automatically put his hand in his pocket for the house key but discovered that his key was in the corresponding pocket of the trousers he wore the day before the day before yesterday.
Why was he twice annoyed with himself? He had reminded himself on two occasions not to forget.
What were the two alternatives? The alternatives without a key were whether to enter or to knock or visa versa.
What does Bloom decide to do? Bloom climbs the railing and jumps the extra two feet and ten inches to the ground.
How heavy was his fall? He crouches to lessen the impact of his fall. His body weight is eleven stone and four pounds as certified at the pharmacy of Francis Friedman on May 12th 1904 of the Christian era; 5664 of the Jewish era; 1322 of the Mohamedan era.
Does Bloom suffer any injury? Bloom gets to his feet with only minor concussion and goes through the scullery to the kitchen. He lights a match and then the gas lamp and a candle.
Could Stephen see Bloom? Stephen observed all this activity as well as the removal of a pair of boots.
Did Bloom disappear? A period of four minutes went by before he came back to open the hall door and beckoned Stephen to follow him quietly. Stephen helps to close and chain the door before following Bloom down five steps to the kitchen.
Bloom blows out the candle and pulls two chairs to the hearth, then he kneels at the grate to rekindle a fire.
What similar memories does this evoke for Stephen? Thoughts of others who had lit fires for him: Brother Michael at Clongowes, Simon Dedalus at 13 Fitzgibbon Street and his mother Mary at number 12 North Richmond.
What does Stephen see when he looks up from the fire? Five house bells, four handkerchiefs and one pair of ladies hose hung up to dry with three wooden clothes pegs on each.
What does Bloom do at the stove? Bloom removes a blue saucepan from the right hob of the stove and lifts the kettle to the sink. He turns the faucet for water.
Does the water flow? It flows from Roundwood reservoir in county Wickow to the 26 acre reservoir in Stillorgan and then by a series of relieving tanks to the city boundary. Mr Spencer Harty C.E. had placed restrictions on water usage to 15 gallons per person, per day, because of the drought.
What does Bloom like about water? He admires the ability of water to find its own level, its expansiveness in the oceans, its ability to change into vapour, mist, cloud, rain, sleet, snow, hail and form loughs and bays; its ubiquity at making up 90% of the body and its link to the moon.
Why does Bloom return to the tap after putting the kettle on the stove? In order to wash his dirty hands with lemon soap and to splash his face with cold water.
What explanation did Stephen give for not washing? He did not like to be immersed in water and it had been almost one year since he had taken a bath.
Why does Bloom not give him advice on hygiene? Bloom restrains himself from instructing Stephen because water and genius might be incompatible. He also did not discuss diet for the same reason
What characteristics of Stephen did Bloom admire? Stephen’s ability to abandon himself and then to recover in equal measure.
What happens to the water in the kettle? An updraught of air fans the fire and helps the hydrocarbons of the fuel to begin a process of combustion, the heat of which radiates through the iron kettle to raise the temperature of the water from 50 degrees to boiling point 212 degrees. The original source of this heat was from the sun nourishing forest vegetation, which over aeons compressed to form coal.
What indication was there that this change had occurred? Plumes of steam came from under the lid to announce that the water was ready. Normally Bloom would have used this kettle of water to shave himself, something he liked to do late at night when all was quiet and he had less chance of some sudden noise causing him to nick himself. He also liked this time to reflect away from the clattering of milk cans and the postman’s double knock.
Why was Bloom less concerned about light? He trusted the steady sense of touch and so didn’t require such bright light in order to avoid the shedding of blood. He preferred less drastic forms of medical care than surgery that required incision and the spilling of blood.
What new items does the dresser contain? Amongst the breakfast crockery is an empty pot of Plumtree’s potted meat, a Jersey pear lying in a wicker basket and a half drunk bottle of William Gilby and Co’s port still wrapped in it’s pink tissue. Food items include a packet of Epp’s soluble cocoa and a jar of Irish Model Farm’s cream.
What attracts his attention on the dresser shelf? Bloom frowns when he notices two betting tickets roughly torn. He had read the results of the Gold Cup at the Cabman’s shelter and remembered the many times throughout the day it had been mentioned and how he had inadvertently predicted in a throwaway line to Bantam Lyons the winner of the race. One could only know such things after the event and so Bloom felt satisfied that at no loss to himself he had brought a positive gain to others.
How did Bloom convey his hospitality? Bloom does not use his favorite Crown Derby cup but prepares the cocoa in two identical ones and as a further mark of hospitality pours Stephen a generous quantity of thick cream normally reserved for Molly’s breakfast. He restrains himself from offering to repair a tear on the jacket of his guest or giving him one of the four ladies handkerchiefs over the fireplace.
Who is fastest to imbibe the cocoa? Bloom sips his cocoa faster as he cools it on the concave surface of the spoon.
What mental activity occupied the drinker of cocoa? Bloom imagined Stephen deep in creative thought and so did not disturb the silence. He had seriously turned to Shakespeare for answers himself but even with the help of a glossary could never come to a satisfactory conclusion. He recited his first poem written when he was eleven, a series of anagrams based on his name and a poem based on ‘poldy’ written for Valentine’s day 1888 for Miss Marion Tweedy. In 1893 he had been distracted from completing the lyrics to If Brian Boru could come back to Dublin’ for the Sinbad the Sailor pantomime at the Gaiety Theatre, for fear of compounding an adverse reaction, to the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York
What relation was there between their respective ages? In 1888 Bloom was Stephen’s age when Stephen was 6 and in 1920 16 years from now Stephen would be Bloom’s present age and Bloom would be 54, and in 1936 when Bloom would be 70 Stephen would be 54 and the ratio between their ages would then be 17.5 to 13.5 as opposed to 16 to 0. If the proportion existing in 1883 had remained unchanged, then Bloom by 1952 would have surpassed by 221 years the maximum antediluvian age that of Methusalah’s 969 years. These calculations would be nullified by the death of either Stephen or Bloom, a change in calendar or the end of the world destroying all forms of human life.
How many times had they met before? In 1887 at Mathew Dillon’s, Bloom met five year old Stephen with his mother when he was too shy to shake hands. They met again five years later in 1892 at Breslin’s Hotel, this time with his father, and the young man extended a dinner invitation, which Bloom, although effusive in his gratitude, regretfully had to decline. They discovered they both knew a wealthy widow Mrs Riordan who had lived with Stephen’s family from 1888 to 1891 and then at the City Arms Hotel at the same time as Bloom in 1893 and 1894. Bloom had sometimes pushed the invalid in her chair as far as the corner of North Circular Road and lent her his binocular field glasses so she could observe the traffic between the city and the Phoenix Park.
Bloom liked to compare the constant motion with the changing patterns of colour observed through a kaleidoscope. Mrs Riordan had died in 1896. Bloom remembered her Bezique cards and counters and her Skye terrier. Stephen remembered her shrine to the Immaculate Conception and her green and maroon brushes in honour of Parnell and Michael Davitt.
Was there any way for Bloom to feel rejuvenated? He would begin a series of indoor exercise written by Eugen Sandow that helped one to be more agile. Bloom lacked courage in gymnastics as a young man but excelled at lifts on the parallel bars because of exceptionally strong abdominal muscles.
Did Bloom and Stephen hint at differences in race? Neither openly alluded to racial differences but Bloom makes certain assumptions about what Stephen thinks about him and tries to guess what he thought he might be thinking about him.
Who were their parents? Bloom was born to Rudolf Virag of Szombathely and Ellen Higgins. Stephen was born to Simon Dedalus of Cork and Mary Goulding.
Had either Bloom or Stephen been baptized? Bloom had been baptized three times: by Mr Gilmer Johnston in Saint Nicolas Without Protestant church in Coombe, by James O’ Conner, Phillip Gilligan and James Fitzpatrick under the village pump at Swords, and, like Stephen, by the reverend Charles Malone in the Three Patrons Church at Rathgar.
Did they have the same education? Stephen had undertaken a more extensive education than Bloom who refrains from mentioning the University of Life fearing he might be repeating himself from an earlier conversation. Bloom represented a scientific temperament and Stephen an artistic one. Bloom’s aptitude was for applied science with an interest in the parachute and the telescope and the canal lock with winch and sluice. He preferred as a child the astronomical kaleidoscopes showing the twelve constellations than playing with catapults or popguns. Bloom liked to ponder the endless possibilities for advertising to capture the attention of the public such as his house of keys association for Alexander J. Keyes. He noted the advertisement for George Plumtree’s potted meat being placed by Joseph P. Nannetti under the obituary notices in the Freeman’s Journal. Originality did not guarantee success as was the case with his scheme, for attractive girls to sell stationery, from show carts. Stephen suggests another scene: an isolated hotel room with a young woman entering to write something which is observed by a young man hidden in a dark solitary corner. Bloom thinks of his father in a solitary hotel room in Ennis on 27 June 1886 taking aconite that he bought along with a straw boater hat on the same day.
Bloom is cheered up listening to Stephen’s Parable of the Plums. The sharing of stories reminds Bloom of other essays that he considers have potential for publication to engage the mind as the nights grow longer after Saint Aloysius Feast Day. June 21s will be the shortest day with sunrise at 3.33 a.m. and sunset at 8.29 p.m.
What preoccupied Bloom? The need for wives to be entertained with parlour games, embroidery, musical duets and variety shows and the merits of medically controlled masculine brothels and ways to instruct wives with deficient mental development. He had observed Molly scribble hieroglyphics and interpret phonetically foreign words. He had tried to motivate her by leaving books open in strategic positions around the house. Bloom was challenged to find a circuitous strategy to get Molly to carry an umbrella, i.e. he bought her a new hat and she carried the umbrella to protect the new hat.
Who does Bloom consider most eminent in thought? Bloom listed three seekers of pure truth: Moses of Egypt, Moses Maimonides and Moses Mendelssohn. Stephen suggests the addition of Aristotle who had been the pupil of a rabbinical philosopher.
Other candidates for consideration were the composer Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohm, the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, the pugilist Mendoza and the reformer and duelist Ferdinand Lassalle.
What extracts of text do they discuss? Bloom and Stephen compare the ancient Hebrew and Irish language from their limited knowledge. Bloom hiding the cover of The Sweets of Sin uses a blank page to demonstrate to Stephen some written examples.
They find many similarities between the languages and the peoples who speak them. Rabbis and Culdees had recorded archeological and genealogical knowledge as well as information about saints, scripture and homilies in toponomastic, historical and religious literatures. The peoples had survived persecution and dispersal and the restoration in Chanon David of Zion and the impending autonomy of Ireland were testament to the resilience of both. Bloom chants the first verse of a Jewish anthem which he is then for lack of knowledge forced to abandon. They trace connections between Egyptian hieroglyphs and Greek and Roman alphabets and the influence of Semitic and Celtic writing. Stephen signs his name in Roman and Irish characters. Bloom connected Stephen to the past and Bloom senses the predestination of a future in his young male guest.
Stephen held images of the essence of identity as depicted by Johannes Damascenus, Lentulus Romanus and Epiphanius Monachus.
Bloom thought of models for potential careers; John Conmee for the church, Rufus Isaacs for the bar, Charles Wyndham for the stage.
What did Bloom invite Stephen to do? In the privacy of the kitchen and cocoa having been consumed Bloom asks Stephen to recite an ancient legend. Bloom is pleased that the verses include a story about a Jewish girl all dressed in green but does not know how to react to her cutting off the boy’s head, as he lies among the dead.
What long philosophical commentary does Stephen expound? Whether we are predestined as victims or whether we deliberately go forth and challenge our destiny. Bloom is sad at the thought of a victim being predestined but the alternative seems against the law of conservation of energy. Bloom silently weighs the pro and cons of ritual murder. He reflects on his own experience of hypnotic suggestion and somnambulism.
Had Bloom’s family experienced any sleeping disorder? Milly aged 6 and 8 years had awoken in terror from two figures interrogating her in her sleep. Memories of childhood and adolescence come flooding back. The idea of a first love alluded to in the letter, written on her 15th birthday, disturbed him less than he had imagined and more than he had hoped. He compares this attachment with the one he has with the cat and decides that certain gestures are not dissimilar, such as Milly pulling a plait of her hair and the cat washing an ear. He used the gift of an owl to teach her about flight and the idea of being able to see in the dark, and a clock to teach her about time and the pendulum. Milly in turn appreciated his knowledge about science and gave him a breakfast moustache cup for his 27th birthday to which he was very attached and still used all the time.
What suggestions does Bloom make to Stephen? Bloom suggests that he lay down in a separate cubicle upstairs for the rest of the night. It would give him a secure roof over his head and tomorrow Bloom could continue this stimulating conversation and Stephen could help Molly with her pronunciation of Italian. There were several possible contingencies of how things could develop and even a possible association with a Jew’s daughter via her mother. Stephen replies in the negative to a question about Mrs Emily Sinico who had been killed in an accident on 14 October 1903. Bloom does not explain why he was unable to attend the internment of Stephen’s mother, Mary Dedalus, on 26 June 1903 as it would have entailed an explanation about the anniversary of the death of his own father Rudolph Virag. Stephen expressing deep gratitude declines the invitation to stay.
What financial transaction was undertaken? Bloom returned to Stephen the money taken for safe keeping, an amount of one pound and seven shillings. Proposals were made for Italian classes, vocal instruction and intellectual dialogues. Locations for meeting were listed including the Ship Tavern and the National Library. Bloom envisaged perhaps some embarrassment and remembered the clown who had singled him out in a circus performance to be his papa. The future could not be predicted as the random return of a coin demonstrated. Bloom felt humanity was at a critical turning point and wanted to minimize the impact of inequality and avarice. Bloom believed that better social conditions were possible even within the laws of nature where destruction was an inevitable occurrence when getting food, the threshold between life and death, and disasters at sea caused by uncontrollable forces such as earthquakes. Bloom did not have the intellect to work out the solutions. Stephen responds that he can only proceed from the known to the unknown as a conscious rational animal with an awareness of the microcosm and the macrocosm as inescapably built upon the uncertainty of the void. Bloom does not understand but takes comfort in the fact that he had managed without a key to get from the unknown to the known.
What is the procedure for them to leave the house? Bloom takes the candle and Stephen his hat and ashplant to go to the back door. They chant the 113th psalm In exitu Israel de Egypt. Bloom puts down the candle and the cat enters.
What do they see in the dark garden? A glorious spectacle of stars. Bloom meditates on the vastness and describes various constellations: the Milky Way, Sirius, Actturus, Orion and Nova located in 1901. Our system is plunging towards the constellation of Hercules and so fixed stars are in reality in constant motion travelling from inestimably distant eons to infinitely far-flung futures in comparison with the brief instant of a human life.
Such vastness could be measured against the eons of geological periods recorded in the layers of the earth with a myriad of insects found under every rock, the billions of millions of molecules on a single pinhead and divisions that went on endlessly.
What prevented Bloom from completing the mathematical equation? In 1886 Bloom in exploring the area of a circle had learned of the ‘9th power of the 9th power of 9’ and the results could not be contained even in 33 volumes of 1000 pages. Bloom thought there was potential life on other planets but with special anatomical adjustments for atmospheric pressure at high altitudes. He assumed however that if they were like humans they would remain attached to all the vanities of the species.
What aspects of the stars did they contemplate? The colours and brilliance of the constellations, astronomical discoveries, the recurrence of meteoric showers on the feast of Saint Lawrence, the cycles of the moon, the effect of celestial bodies on humans, the special movement of a star to coincide with the birth of Shakespeare, the birth of Leopold Bloom, the birth of Stephen Dedalus and the birth and death of Rudolph Bloom. Bloom made the logical conclusion that the night sky was Utopia, there being no known way to get from the known to the unknown. The juxtaposition between the finite and infinite might be held to be the movement of an illusion created when forms frozen in space remobilize in air.
The beauty of this phenomena was evoked by poets who experienced the ecstasy of being in harmony with the constellations or the devastation of rejection when invoking the locked energy of the satellite of their planet.
The influence of astrological conditions seemed just as open to being confirmed or refuted as the sort of correspondences interpreted from the study of charts showing the physical features of the moon or the study of the formation of dews or the abundance of the ocean.
Bloom contemplates a list of special affinities there might be between the moon and women such as waxing and waning and omens of tempest and calm.
What light did Bloom notice? Bloom brought Stephen’s attention to the paraffin oil lamp at the upstairs window which shadowed the presence of his wife Marion (Molly) Bloom. They both watch in silence as they urinate with Bloom’s piss longer and Stephen’s piss higher as a result of the amount of liquid he had consumed during the day. Bloom surmises on the size and cleanliness of Stephen’s penis that is hidden from view. Stephen imagining that Bloom is circumcised wonders if perhaps the 1st of January should be a holy day of obligation, in honour of the circumcision of Jesus, with his prepuce conserved as a sacred relic.
What celestial phenomena catches their attention at the same instant? A shooting star, that moves from Vega in the Lyre, above the zenith, through the Tress of Berenice towards the zodiacal sign of Leo.
How does Bloom facilitate the exit of Stephen? He inserts the barrel of a key into the hole of a lock and turns it to the left to release a bolt so the door can be pulled inwards to provide space for the guest to leave. Bloom and Stephen shake hands formally as the bells of St George chime out the hour of the night. Stephen recognizes the Liliata rutilantium whilst Bloom hears heigho, heigho the same peal which had wrung out as they traveled to Glasnevin cemetery for Paddy Dignam to be laid to rest in his grave.
Bloom hears the double reverberation of receding footsteps resonate as the double vibration of a Jew’s harp in the lane.
How did Bloom feel after Stephen’s departure? The predawn chill sent a shiver through Bloom and the coldness of space being thousands of degrees below freezing makes him think of the dead: Percy Apjohn, Mathew F.Kane and Paddy Dignam.
He is tempted to remain to see in the dawn. In 1887 after charades at Luke Doyle’s he had watched the sun rise golden on the eastern horizon in the direction of Mizrach.
Back inside the house he notices that the furniture has been rearranged in the front room, including the two chairs, one an upholstered armchair with a slanted back, and the other a dark brown cane chair. The vertical piano now stands where the sideboard had been and on top is an ashtray containing two cigarette ends and Love’s Old Sweet Song is still on the music stand. Bloom toys with these objects, the evidence of Molly’s afternoon with Boylan. He bends to turn back the upturned end of a rug fringe. He takes a cone of incense from a box on top of the majolica topped table and lights it from the candle until the aromatic fumes starts to waft upwards.
When he places the candle on the mantelpiece he notices the three wedding presents that rest there and finds himself looking at his solitary reflection in the gilded mirror at the back of a dwarf tree, a gift from Luke and Caroline Doyle. He notices that the books on the shelves opposite are out of order and he places them alphabetically thinking of the necessity of order and that books do not provide a very secure hiding place for secret documents. The books include The Child’s Guide, Thoughts from Spinoza, Voyages in China, A Handbook of Astronomy, Physical Strength and How To Obtain It. Bloom takes out Hozier’s History of The Russo-Turkish War to check the decisive battle mentioned by Major Brian Tweedy but remembers it is ‘Plevna’ before he opens the book.
What does Bloom do to relax? Bloom contemplates the beauty of form of the statue of Narcissus in the middle of the table. He removes his collar which is irritating him and undoes the buttons of his waistcoat, trousers, shirt and vest and loosens his clothes so that the top of his black pubic hair and both his nipples are visible. He undoes five buttons as one is missing and scratches the flesh near where he was stung by a bee on 23 May 1904. He finds a 1 shilling coin in his waistcoat pocket that he must have placed there at his last funeral, that of Mrs Emily Sinico. He then writes out his expenses and credits until he has balanced his budget for June 16th 1904
His feet ache from all the walking and he undoes his laces and takes off his boots for the second time. His big toe has come through his right sock and he picks off the fragment of lacerated nail a habit from childhood, of picking his nails, as he said his night prayers.
What does Bloom consider his ultimate aspiration?
To own his own grazing land which would either contain a baronial hall and gate lodge or a two storey dwelling house with ivy on the walls and a green hall door. The upstairs balcony would have views over the pastureland and the house would only be seen from the road at night when the lights would be visible over the hedge of topiary cutting. It would be within easy commuting distance of the city and would be of sufficient size to have separate accommodation for three servants. The grounds might also feature a tennis court, a rockery, a beehive arranged on humane principles and flowerbeds with an array of colourful bulbs purchased from the nursery of James W. Mackey (Limited) at 23 Sackville street. A garden shed would store the ten-tooth rake, hoe, brush, fishing rods and telescope ladder. There would be room for improvement with the addition of a conservatory, two hammocks, a sundial and a beautiful sounding Japanese bell for the left gatepost.
How did Bloom imagine himself at Flowersville? Bloom would reside at Flowersville wearing a Harris tweed cap and garden boots and pushing a wheelbarrow full of weeds at sunset with the smell of new mown hay in his nostrils.
Interests would include photography and celestial constellations, cycling, boating, walking, the study of erotic art and simple carpentry with an array of tools including a hammer, bullnose plane and turnscrew.
Ownership of a few cows and a churn would help enhance his image as a gentleman farmer.
What would be his social status in the community? Letters after his name would indicate his distinguished credentials. As resident magistrate he would uphold unbiased social justice and public order and gradually introduce reforms tempered with moderation. He would exercise the widest possible latitude in interpreting the law but nonetheless would be exact in the retribution for crimes. Property would be confiscated for the crown when deemed fair and just.
A lifetime of integrity could be traced back to his school days where he had disclosed to Parcy Apjohn his disbelief in the doctrine of the Irish (protestant) Church to which his father had converted in 1865 from his Israelitic faith. He had been baptized into Roman Catholicism prior to his marriage in 1888. In 1882 he had advocated to a young friend the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man and The Origin of Species. In 1885 he had publicly supported the land rights programme of Michael Davitt.
How did Bloom plan to finance Flowersville? Payment for the property would be made possible by raising a mortgage with an enterprising international state aided finance company. Payments would be made over a period of 20 years with the title deeds to be held as security by the lender in the event of failure to make the protracted payments. A third of the total amount needed to be paid as a down payment on purchase.
The schemes which would facilitate the immediate availability of this sum were a telegram link between Ascot and Dublin with a time difference between Greenwich and Dunsink time allowing vital minutes in which to place bets on rank outsiders at 50 to 1, the discovery of a valuable stamp or unique relic, the donation by a Spanish prisoner of bullion lodged in a bank one hundred years earlier with accumulated interest and expertise on the laws of mathematical chance that would break the bank of Monte Carlo.
Industrial schemes which could generate vast wealth included the reclamation of sandy land to grow oranges and melons and the recycling of human excrement of which each person yielded, with water removed, 80 pounds annually and this multiplied by the population of Ireland was a substantial quantity.
More ambitious schemes were the development of a hydroelectric plant, riverboats for tourists on the river Liffey and the building of a tramline from the Cattle Market to the Quays for direct export of livestock to Europe. The wealth of either a Rothschild or Rockefeller would be required to underwrite this scheme. Only the discovery of an inexhaustible gold mine would render him financially independent.
Why did Bloom contemplate such far-fetched schemes? Meditations such as these were undertaken by Bloom each night for relaxation to ensure a good night’s sleep. In an average lifetime of seventy years more than twenty were spent sleeping These daydreams helped to compensate for the impossibility of achieving such a small proportion of one’s ambitions in one life time.
What fear did Bloom experience? Bloom feared he might lose his reason and commit homicide or suicide in his sleep.
How did Bloom finish his period of contemplation? His final thoughts were to find the ultimate advertisement that would work with the pace of modern living.
What did Bloom find when he opened a locked drawer? Bloom unlocking a drawer found a school copybook of his daughter Milly, a box containing ‘J’ pen nibs, a sealed prophecy from 1886 in which Bloom outlines the consequences of William Ewart Gladstones’s Home Rule Bill of 1886, a cameo broach belonging to Ellen Bloom, three typewritten letters, a chart of measurements showing the results of two months spent using the pulley exerciser of Sandow-Whiteley, a remedy for rectal complaints from Wonderworker, Coventry House, South Place, London E.C. Advantages claimed by the prospectus included instant discharge of gases with accompanying testimonials.
Bloom added a fourth typewritten letter to the box from Martha Clifford and thought with pleasure about the favorable female company of the day before with Mrs Josie Breen, Nurse Callan and Gerty.
The second drawer contained a birth certificate, an endowment assurance policy, a bank passbook, a docket confirming the purchase of a plot at Glasnevin cemetery and a press clipping announcing the change of name of Rudolph Virag to Rudolph Bloom, a portrait of Rudolph with his father Leopold Virag taken in 1852, an ancient hagadah book, a postcard of the Queen’s Hotel in Ennis with an envelope addressed to him by his father, which made him think of the anniversary of his death and his fondness for his dog Athos. Bloom felt some remorse that he had not been more patient and tolerant of his Jewish beliefs such as not consuming fleshmeat and milk at the same meal. In maturity they appeared no better or no worse than other beliefs. The first memory of his father was at aged six finding the places of migration of the family from Szombathely, Budapest, Vienna, Milan, Florence, London and Dublin on the map.
What were the two most common signs of aging? Difficulty in seeing coins and belching; however, there were consolations such as having an endowment policy and a bank passbook. He felt protected from the need to resort to jobs such as debt collecting in order to avoid destitution and the attendant indignities including the indifference of females. Death or change of location would help him avoid this unfortunate circumstance and the beauty of certain parts of Ireland made the latter option more desirable: The Cliffs of Moher, Giant’s Causeway, Golden Vale of Tipperary, Islands of Aran. Abroad, Ceylon with it’s spice gardens, the Straits of Gibraltar where Marion Tweedy was born, the Parthenon with nude Grecian divinities and to see the Bay of Naples and die. They all seemed like attractive options. The stars and the moon would help to guide him. An advertisement would offer a reward for information about a missing gent aged about 40 answering to the name Bloom, Leopold (Poldy).
He would call himself Everyman or Noman with equal anonymity. He would wander beyond the fixed stars to the extreme boundary of space until reluctantly compelled by the sun to return. He would be reborn under the constellation of Cassiopeia and would carry out a crusade for justice, awake to the misdeeds of the world and wealthier than any Rothschild. He would return as the estranged avenger, a sleepwalker awakened with financial resources surpassing those of Rothschild.
Why was the idea of return not rational? The reversible and irreversible nature of space and time would make his return scientifically impossible. The lateness of the hour and the nearness of a bed warmed by a mature female as opposed to a hot water jar made departure an unattractive option.
What were Bloom’s final thoughts before going to bed? The burned kidneys, the visit to the museum and national library (holy place), the music in the Ormond Hotel (Shira Shirim), the eroticism produced by feminine exhibitionism (rite of Onan).
What did Bloom hear? The timber table emits a loud single crack as Bloom rises and as he gathers his clothes he wonders who was McIntosh? Bloom blowing out the candle suddenly understands after 30 years the simple answer that Moses was in the dark when the light went out.
What events prevented it being a perfect day? Failure to finalize a renewal of an advertisement and the inability to confirm whether the statues of Greek goddesses contained a rectal orifice.
Whose face did Bloom remember? The face of Major Brian Tweedy came to mind as he boarded the train in uniform at Great Northern Railway, Amiens Street.
What items of women’s clothing does Bloom notice? Silk black ladies hose and a pair of new violet garters tossed on a trunk with the initials B.C.T.(Brian Cooper Tweedy). He also notices less personal objects: a commode, a washstand with soapdish and brushtray.
What does Bloom do? He places his clothes on a chair and from beneath a bolster takes his nightshirt and removes a pillow to the foot of the bed. He enters the bed carefully to avoid disturbing the noisy springs of the mattress and with a certain reverence for a place of consummation of marriage and breach of marriage. He feels the clean linen and the presence of a female body, crumbs and flakes of potted meat which he removes. He smiles to think that each man thinks he is the first when he is part of a series without beginning or end. Mulvey was the first, Bartell d’Arcy, John Henry Menton and a series ending with (Blazes)Boylan.
Bloom regards Boylan as a vigorous, competitive boaster, qualities not dissimilar to other members of the same series. Bloom felt antagonistic initially, then reached a point of equanimity when he accepted that copulation between male and female was as natural as every other act of nature and therefore should be naturally expressed in accordance with the nature of his or her natural tendencies. It was not the end of the world and in fact far less calamitous than a multitude of everyday actions such as theft, cruelty to children and animals, embezzlement, misappropriation of public money, corruption of minors, criminal assault and premeditated murder. The options for retribution such as assassination and a duel were extreme and it was a too late for divorce. He reflected on the fragility of the hymen and the tension in the build towards sexual union and the relaxation after it is over.
In the final analysis Bloom was happy with the world and derived pleasure from a plump woman’s bottom which he found erotic and he turns to kiss the rounded female form beside him.
This silent action was followed by an interrogation on the days events in which he omitted to mention Martha’s letter, the altercation at Barney Kiernan’s pub and the exhibitionism of Gerty on the beach but included the performance of Mrs Bandman Palmer at the Gaiety, the purchase of a pornographic book Sweets of Sin and the meeting with Stephen Dedalus which was discussed in detail.
What did they realize during the sleepy discussion? The lack of conjugal rights in their marriage since five weeks prior to 29 December 1893, the birth of their only son who died on 9 January 1894. A period of ten years, five months and eighteen days during which they had not had full sexual congress. Complete mental intercourse had not taken place since their daughter Milly reached puberty, menstruating on 15 September 1903. Since then mother and daughter had intuitively interrogated the masculine presence about every detail of his coming and going over a period of nine months and one day. The lamp sent out a series of concentric circles above their heads. They rested relative to each other but in turn were part of the perpetual motion of the earth.
The listener reclined on her side with right leg extended. The narrator lay in the foetal position with his index finger and thumb resting on the bridge of his nose. Weary he rested with Sinbad the Sailor, Tinbad the Tailor and Yinbad the Lailer and Pinbad the Zthhailer.
When?
Where?