ULYSSES
It's
the story of Bloom and his friend's Dedalus (Joyce
projection, often used in his books) wandering, through Dublin on June 16th, 1904,
projected against the background of the journey of Ulysses. Ulysses represents
the prototype of the complete man: son, father and husband. 555b11f Bloom is an
anti-hero, like Eliot said, used by Joyce as a constant reminder of the
decadence of our modern age. Other people say that Bloom is a hero, with
positive qualities, such as sympathy, generosity and faith in human progress.
Joyce shows us Bloom's life from many angles, from the interior monologue to a
"mini-drama".
Bloom day is projected against the story of Ulysses, and each scene in the book
is related to a specific episode of the Odyssey. In the first part of the book Dedalus, come back home from Paris, set off to find his friend and
"spiritual father" Bloom, who is in search of a "spiritual
son". When the two friends meet, Bloom "adopt" Dedalus and offers to take him home and give him shelter.
At home Molly Bloom waits for them, like Penelope, thinking of her past and
present life, with a mental, interior monologue. This "river of
words" called "stream of consciousness" ends with the words
"yes", like a total, non-judgemental, acceptance of life.
Ulysses caused a great scandal when it was published in Paris for his technical innovations and for
his explicit language. It was banned for a long time in England and in the U.S. The sexual frankness of
Leopold Bloom, an unsuccessful middle-aged married man, and of his wife Molly,
is a necessary part in the complete rendering of their mental life.
Joyce has shown all human history in one day, one set of events, past and
present, significant and insignificant, trivial and heroic, familiar and
exotic; it's just a matter of points of view, and author has none and all of
them.
