Ulysses: Episode 18: Penelope: Marge Simpson: 06/26/09
Here we are at the end of Ulysses. Just as The Odyssey is ultimately about Penelope, Ulysses is ultimately about Molly Bloom. Told in eight run-on sentences with no punctuation, Molly thinks about all the things that keep her up at night.

Coming so late in the book and after the incredibly long "Circe" I really wasn't in the mood for stream of consciousness.

So what keeps Mrs. Bloom up at night? Breakfast in bed (Calypso), Bloom's infidelity (Circe), and her own infidelity. She goes on to think about lovers past and present. From there she thinks of her lonely childhood writing letters to herself. From there she returns to sex and to love letters she has received. Then she's glad her period has started, meaning her latest affair hasn't left her with child. That then makes her think of financial woes past and present. Her thoughts end on wondering what a matriarchal society would be like.

All through the novel until "Penelope" Molly doesn't seem like much of a character. She's mostly just Leopold Bloom's wife. Then at the end she lets her hair down and in this incoherent sixty page ramble. I couldn't help during Molly's ranting of Marge Simpson who sometimes has her moments.

Tomorrow I will write a proper review of Ulysses which will include links my thoughts (silly as they are) on each of the eighteen episodes. Then on July 4th I'll have my first post about Proust's Swann's Way.

books | fiction | James Joyce | 1918

Comments (0)

Permalink