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Odysseus Meets Nausicaa
Friday, July 9, 2010
But his brief analysis of one typical passage in Gerty's
"stream of consciousness" does not really tell us all that is
happening there. As I hope to show, there are times when Gerty's actual voice is heard. The complexity of the method lies in the subtle shifts from the reflected internal monologue to the "genuine" adolescent tones of Gerty's voice along with the presence of the intrusive author. Humphrey's account does not take all these other factors into consideration.
Hugh Kenner9 also analyzes various passages from the episode for techniques employed and for their special effects. But again,as in the case of Humphrey's critique, his analysis of chosen passages from Gerty's internal monologue gives a partial and incomplete picture of what is actually taking place in Gerty MacDowell's stream of consciousness. Nor does either critic consider the episode as a whole in terms of its technical presentation.
William Tindall points out the disparity between Bloom's and Gerty's monologues, but he fails to point out exactly how the episode is unified by these monologues to form a whole picture. Nor does he discuss the unifying effects of the episode on the rest of the book.
Irene Hendry's11 use of the term "block technique" for the shift from Gerty to Bloom is another example of a failure to appreciate the unity of the episode and its place in the plan of Ulysses.
Richard Ellman12 writes about "spiritual tumescence-
detumescence," but he neither gives a definition of the term nor does he show how it is achieved in the episode.
The one critic who has shown that it is a unified whole and that it relates esthetically to the rest of Ulysses is Philip Toynbee. According to Toynbee, Joyce's stylistic solution for the objectives he had set for himself revolved around the "theory of the total impression. Each page was to be, not a thing of individual excellence, but the most potent contribution to the whole."13 Because Joyce refused to compromise this bold and difficult choice, Toynbee feels that he lost a certain amount of clarity and effectiveness. However, the success of Gerty MacDowell's monologue is due to the fact that it stops "at the point of repletion. Had it continued for the whole section, the nausea and fascination would have turned sour, and the effect would have been destroyed. Instead of this we are returned, to our overwhelming relief, to the familiar racy language of
Bloom."14 Nor is Bloom's monologue overextended. The sound of the cuckoo clock heard at the end immediately relates the episode to the "chronological architecture of the whole book."15
Although I agree with some of Toynbee's general conclusions,I think he seems to take the complexity for granted. Moreover,his brief analysis of the episode does not take us very far into the technical aspects of it.
IV
Before we begin our study, it would be helpful to give a
short summary of the episode.
The thirteenth episode of Ulysses (340-76), opens quietly on the rocks of Sandymount shore at eight p.m. A description of the twilight, sea, beach, promontory, and church is given in this opening.
Gerty MacDowell and her friends, Cissy Caffrey and Edy
Boardman, sit on the beach enjoying the approaching evening. The girls are minding the twin brothers of Cissy Caffrey and the Boardman baby who is in a pushcar. While the other two girls alternately kiss and discipline the children, Gerty sits apart,daydreaming. Her daydreams center about love, marriage, and the handsome stranger on the beach who is watching her intently.
Although she is an attractive girl, and wears all the make-up and paraphernalia necessary to attract men, she has nevertheless been thrown over by the boy whom she had hoped to marry, a young man named Reggie Wylie. With this hope gone she has little to look forward to except a life of drudgery as a housekeeper to a drunkard father, or a possible marriage with someone of her own class and level of thinking.
When Mr. Bloom (who is the stranger on the beach) rolls a ball to Gerty that one of the twins threw to him, she realizes that she is the main object of his attention. As she ponders the meaning of his glance, Mr. Bloom, who is partially hidden by a rock, begins to masturbate. Meanwhile, the sounds of organ music and a religious service issue from a nearby church and fuse with Gerty's thoughts on religion and sex.
A display of fireworks begins at the Mirus Bazaar. Cissy and Edy, along with the children, run further down the beach to get a better view. Left alone on the strand with Bloom, Gerty leans back and shows her legs. As the rockets flash in the sky, Bloom has an orgasm. A few minutes later Gerty gets up, waves to him, and walks away. As she walks, Bloom notices for the first time that she is lame. Alone, he experiences a twinge of pity for Gerty coupled with a letdown in spirits after his orgasm. As Bloom walks away he sees the paper left by Stephen on a rock earlier in the day. He reads it and starts to write in the sand, then abandons the project. He notices that his watch has stopped at 4:30, the time that Blazes Boylan was with his wife Molly. As
bats fly about his head, Bloom takes a short nap. The episode
closes when a mechanical clock in the priest's house reminds the reader of the time and of Bloom's situation by calling "cuckoo" nine times.
NOTES
1 All references from Ulysses in this paper are from the
Modern Library Edition (New York: Random House Inc., 1946).
Hereinafter all page numbers to references from Ulysses will
appear in the text.
2 I will refer to the thirteenth episode of Ulysses as the "Nausicaa" episode of Ulysses in accordance with the plan
provided by Stuart Gilbert's authorized book, James Joyce's
Ulysses (New York: Vintage Books, 1955), 30. This plan will be followed in referring to other episodes by their Homeric titles within this paper.
3 William James, The Principles of Psychology (New York:
Holt and Co., 1904), 239.
4 James, 279.
5 Harry Levin, James Joyce: A Critical Introduction Norfolk, Conn.: New Directions, 1941), 89.
6 Levin, 88.
7 Gilbert, 290.
8 Robert Humphrey, Stream of Consciousness in the Modern
Novel (University of California Press, 1954), 30-31.
9 Hugh Kenner, Dublin's Joyce (Indiana University Press,
1956), et passim.
10 William Tindall, Forces in Modern British Literature:
1885-1946 (Knopf, 1947), 298.
11 Irene Hendry, "Joyce's Epiphanies," James Joyce: Two
Decades of Criticism, ed. Sean Givens (Vanguard Press, 1948), 31.
12 Richard Ellman, "The Backgrounds of Ulysses," The Kenyon
Review, XVI (Summer, 1954), 337-86.
13 Philip Toynbee, "A Study of James Joyce's Ulysses," James
Joyce: Two Decades of Criticism, 243-84.
14 Toynbee, 276.
14 Toynbee, 277.
Chapter I
Gerty MacDowell's Reflected Internal Monologue
Because we see Gerty MacDowell from so many different
angles, she is a fully realized fictional character. We see her through her own eyes and through the eyes of Joyce, who disguises his voice as a sentimental novelist. In that disguise Joyce also parodies various styles of writing, presents the effect of Gerty's "stream of consciousness," and comments on the surrounding scene. We also see Gerty as she appears to Bloom and her friends on the beach. In order to demonstrate how Joyce created character and a unified form at the same time we will first discuss the nature of the parody employed by Joyce. Then we will discuss other technical devices which contribute to the
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