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Reading, Smashing, and Playing Ulysses
Shelton, Jen. "Bad Girls: Gerty, Cissy, and the Erotics of Unruly Speech." James Joyce Quarterly 34, no. 1–2 (Fall-1997 Winter 1996): 87–102.
Related topics:
Language and Linguistics
Narration
Obedience and Rebellion
Paternity
Sexuality
Link to citation page: https://www.worldcat.org/title/bad-girls-gerty-cissy-and-the-erotics-of-unruly-speech/oclc/198705401&referer=brief_results
Shelton's article calls for us to reevaluate our conceptions of both Gerty MacDowell and Cissy Caffrey in Joyce's Ulysses (U 13). She recasts the girls as "narratively disobedient," rather than passively feminine and "submissive to culture" (88). The two respond to their culturally prescribed roles in different ways: Gerty adopts the role of the innocent, romance-driven girl while Cissy dresses as a tomboy, smokes, and swears. With disobedience comes power, Shelton notes, and as a result the "girls' desire subverts cultural norms, mingling transgressive speech and eroticism with apparent compliance" (88). Though Gerty and Cissy explore typical female roles, like virgin/mother/whore, such types prove inadequate to contain their characters.
On the surface, Gerty's obsession with romance novels appears to reflect her deluded sense of the world. She imagines that a perfect prince charming will come along and rescue her. Her subtle hints about her father's alcoholism and her avoidance of the family topic alludes to a dark home life. Shelton argues that rather than reflecting Gerty's ignorance, it reveals "a self-conscious attempt to remake the world according to a gentler standard" (90). Similarly, she understands the vulnerability of women to male voyeurs, but, rather than feeling victimized, sees it as a "disguise under which girls can explore their own desires" (91). Cissy is transgressive in a different way: instead of appropriating cultural stereotypes to empower herself, she rejects them altogether. She defies gender boundaries and behaves immodestly and forwardly: smoking, swearing, and dressing in men's clothes. Her behavior, including her "mockery of masculinity," reveals her "persistent deflation of social hierarchies and dominant narratives" (92). Shelton also discusses Cissy's speech from a biographic critical perspective, revealing that Joyce was himself attracted to Nora when she swore.
Finally, Shelton considers that Bloom's "illicit interest in a young, inexperienced girl" (97) at the beach may be a stand-in for his suppressed attraction to his daughter, Milly. Shelton draws connections between the characters of Milly and Cissy/Gerty, arguing for latent incestuous feelings of Bloom towards Milly. Through these "unruly girl characters," Joyce enacts a "dynamic in which he can assault cultural truths" and explores "the transgression lurking beneath the surface"—whether it be deviance from expected gender roles, or deviant sexual desire (100).
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