Ashplant

Related topics:

Bodies
Doubles
Paternity
Questions and Answers
Sexuality
The Unspoken

Link to citation page: https://www.worldcat.org/title/ulysses-en-gendered-perspectives-eighteen-new-essays-on-the-episodes/oclc/40119718&referer=brief_results

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Lamos characterizes the language of "Eumaeus" (U 16), which is filled with errors and duplicity, as that of a tired speaker who lacks the lucidity necessary for clear narration. The inability of the reader to locate a specific speaker induces a "generalized epistemological anxiety which exceeds any single character or voice" (Lamos 242-43). This unstable voice, coupled with the homosexual otherness of D.B. Murphy, creates a feeling of constant paranoia throughout the episode. As the speaker, whom Lamos characterizes as a member of the bourgeoisie, trespasses grammatical boundaries, he also trespasses moral boundaries by representing the "underside of middle-class virtues": male homosexuality (245). The anxiety induced by homosexuality arises through misdirection and innuendo, and as many, including Lamos, have pointed out, double entendres and butt jokes permeate "Eumaeus." The anxiety surrounding Murphy begins as he distributes a postcard with a woman on it in an attempt to mediate the anxiety of the homosocial atmosphere, and later, Bloom's homosexual anxiety toward the sailor culminates in his showing Molly's sexy photograph to Stephen, with the implicit suggestion of desire for a homoerotic love triangle between Bloom, Stephen, and Molly. These two situations create a parallel between Murphy and Bloom through their mutual display of pictures, with hints of homosexual desire ascribed to both characters. Murphy and Bloom, Lamos argues, represent a "textual 'double economy' correlative to the potential 'double lives' of its characters" (253). While Joyce never directly indicates homosexuality, it exists obliquely as part of the undercurrent of the double economy of language in "Eumaeus." Lamos concludes her argument by relating the dual currents of language to the dual currents of Murphy, public and private, that make him the embodiment of unfulfilled homosexual desires.

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