In an effort to understand Episode 15 of Ulysses, unfortunately, looking at the mess through sports and competition offers few answers to the many questions and great confusion created by the text. I’ve been noticing a trend in this episode that is somewhat similar to previous episodes, where mentions of sports/competition, which up to this point there are roughly a handful of in episode 15, pop up as brief little islands in the text, appearing in a sentence only to be quickly forgotten. As a result, until I can make additional conclusions about the purpose of these references more generally in the whole text, I aim to understand some of the references in the text now on an isolated level.
In Episode 15, Joyce brings us two cyclists racing past Bloom (15.179), but the fact that cyclists are included is diminished considering that “urchins” are what alerts Bloom of their coming. The topic of cycling later returns at line 233, when Bloom makes reference to the Irish Cyclist publication. A few lines after the urchins, we have what might be a merely coincidental sports terms, when the Motorman mentions “Are you doing the hat trick?” (15. 194). Thinking about the reference to one player scoring three goals alone, however, does not make much sense immediately in the context of the quote.
One of the more substantive moments of competition occurs at line 277, when Bloom mentions “They challenged me to a sprint. It was muddy. I slipped.” Instead of claiming and owning up to his loss, Bloom blames his athletic shortcomings, and likely perceived lack of masculinity and strength on the quality of the ground. In this instance, the theme of Bloom’s masculinity in question continues to reappear, as we have seen in previous episodes.
Another instance of note, and one of the last competitive moments so far is the highly ironic horse racing conversation around line 547, where Bloom talks about Molly winning seven shillings on a horse named “Nevertell.” This name is especially ironic that she is deemed a winner with “Nevertell,” given that she’s never explicitly told Bloom about her affair with Boylan, but still can seem to “win” by being able to maintain both relationships.
