As I’ve considered the theme of haunting in Ulysses over the semester, most of my observations have fallen into two categories: people and things. I’ve posted about smells, echoes, and metempsychosis as evocative of haunting; about Stephen and Bloom as subjects of haunting, and about Stephen’s mother, Rudy, Parnell, and again Bloom as ghostly figures. With a short paper in mind, the idea that emerges most strongly is to make the case that Leopold Bloom is symbolically represented as a ghost.

I am sort of surprised that there isn’t more identification between Bloom and ghostliness out there, because in my reading of Ulysses he struck me as the most ghostly character. In my paper, I’ll argue that Bloom’s symbolic death occurred when Rudy died (this ties into themes of hereditary confusion throughout the book and Bloom’s fixation on producing a child.) He haunts those around him: Molly, who is trying to move on to a new partner; Stephen, who doesn’t ask for Bloom’s company but is content to be haunted by an entity less horrifying than his mother. Perhaps the reason that Bloom takes such pleasure in eating (kidney, sandwich, Molly’s chewed up food) and excreting is because he is grasping for things that make him feel living. I would argue that the disgust he feels while watching the men in the pub devour food is similar to his thoughts about the obese rat in the graveyard devouring bodies – here, thoughts of food and death collide in a disturbing way for Bloom. Another aspect I’d like to explore (but could end up bringing too much to the table for a short specific paper) is Bloom’s loss of identity throughout his life. I think that the ways in which his name changes – both last and first – contribute to my sense of his ghostliness.

But what about the figures who haunt Bloom? Rudy is the most readily identifiable one, particularly in his appearance at the end of Circe—the climax of Bloom’s halluci-fantasy. The life and times of C.S. Parnell also seem to haunt Bloom (see my 11/1 post.) I think that proposing the idea that Bloom is not only a haunter but a hauntee will make my argument more complete and nuanced. It will also help tie my thoughts to the broader theme in Ulysses of cycles and the blurred distinctions between beginnings and endings.