Mourning

Forms

[in] mourning, mourns, mourners, mournful, Mourne, mournfully

Related Terms

grief, grieving, black, sorrow, clad

Explication

The word “mourning” gains prominence beginning in episode six with the narration of Patty Dignam’s funeral, and the word is predominantly used to describe individuals who are “in mourning,” meaning they are wearing the black attire typically associated with funerals in the Western tradition. After Dignam’s funeral, for example, his son walks along the street and wonders, “do they [the schoolboys] notice I’m in mourning” (U. 10. 1159). In this context, the word connotes an external representation of grief that may or may not match up with internal feelings. Bloom, for example, dresses in black to give the appearance of mourning Dignam’s death, but his wandering thoughts during the funeral indicate that he may not actually be grieving.

Similarly, the word is also used as an adjective to describe objects typically associated with mourning, like a “mourning coach” (U. 6. 322) “mourning hat” (U. 6. 40) and “mourning card with a black border round it” (U. 12. 439). Since hats, coaches, and carriages (and individuals for that matter) are not inherently associated with mourning, the addition of “mourning” as an adjective implies that it is a temporary state of being.

Joyce also employs the word as a noun: “the mourners knelt here and there in prayingdesks” (U. 6. 322) at Patty Dignam’s funeral, and “the mourners split and moved to each side of the hole, stepping with care round the graves” (U. 6. 800) at his burial. In these instances, we can infer that the “mourners” are also “in mourning,” wearing black as a physical embodiment of their inner grief. The noun derivative does not allow for individuals to exist outside of their grieving state – while “in mourning” is a state which an individual can pass in and out of, in these examples, we know nothing about the individuals other than that they are “mourners” and it is impossible for us to separate them from that identity.

Definitions and Examples

1. , Anxiety, sorrow, etc. The action of feeling or expressing sorrow, grief, or regret; sorrowing, lamentation; an instance of this.

1. in mourning: sorrowing or grieving for the death of a person, esp. in the period of the conventional or ceremonial manifestation of sorrow. Also Wearing clothes or covered with the draperies customarily indicative of bereavement. Cf. sense.
   6. “Mr Bloom at gaze saw a lithe young man, clad in mourning” ( 6. 40)

• mourning coach  (a) a coach of black colour used by a person during the whole period of his or her mourning (now hist.);  (b) a closed carriage, usually black, used to convey mourners on the occasion of a funeral;  †(c) a coach for conveying a corpse; a hearse (obs.).
  6. “A mourning coach. Unmarried. Black for the married” ( 6. 322)

1. n., a person who mourns, laments, or grieves; one who mourns the death of a friend or relation; a person who attends a funeral out of respect or affection for the deceased. Also fig.
   6. “The mourners knelt here and there in prayingdesks” ( 6. 584).

Related Topics

Funerals

Clothing