“The soul is in a manner all that is: the soul is the form of form. Tranquility sudden, vast, candescent form of forms.” This early quote by Talbot in the 2nd chapter, frames Joyce’s use of the “soul” throughout the novel as being the inherent “quality” of a person place or thing. Used in every single chapter of the book, “soul” encapsulates Joyce’s concern with the ever evolving self and essence of being. Joyce also connects this extremely personal definition and oftentimes conflates it with the more traditional and ecclesiastical definition of the soul. In addition, Joyce is interested with the idea of taking these canonical, almost knee-jerk interpretations of the word “soul” and complicating the matter through related terms like “metempsychosis”, which reflects the structure of the novel; particularly in the relative uncertainty surrounding the identities of certain characters and sacrilegious overtones that permeate throughout the text. The frequency with which we encounter the word normalizes what is traditionally considered extraordinary, and allows Joyce to play with the concept of a “soul” through both his shifting characterization and varied modes of storytelling.
I. Soul, noun. An essential principle or attribute of life, and related senses; animate existence; this viewed as a possession of which one is deprived by death. death.
Bone them young so they metamspychosis. That we live after death. Our souls. That a man’s soul after he dies. Dignam’s soul …
II. The principle of intelligence, thought, or action in a person (or occas. an animal), typically regarded as an entity distinct from the body; the essential, immaterial, or spiritual part of a person or animal, as opposed to the physical.
And in my mind’s darkness a sloth of the underworld, reluctant, shy of brightness, shifting her dragon scaly folds. Thought is the thought of the thought. Tranquil Brightness. The soul in a manner all that is: the soul is the form of forms.
