In tracking various instances of storytelling and narration in episodes seven and eight, I was particularly drawn to instances where Bloom tells us stories about his relationship with Molly and gives us insight into the nature of their past together. Specifically in episode eight, such stories come about via Bloom\u2019s vivid flashbacks to his past, and as he walks around Dublin a sort of \u201cthen vs. now\u201d dichotomy develops between Bloom as he sees himself now and Bloom as he existed during the peak happiness of his relationship with Molly.<\/p>\n
Over the course of episode eight it has become evident that Bloom is still somewhat infatuated with Molly \u2013 she constantly appears in his internal narration, and most interactions he has with people in real life remind him of Molly. Bloom thinks, \u201cLucky Molly got over hers lightly\u201d (132) when thinking about Mrs. Purefoy\u2019s pregnancies, he remembers that \u201cMolly had the elephantgrey dress with the braided frogs\u201d (127) that she wore to the races that happened \u201csix years. Ten years ago\u201d (127), he plans ahead for her birthday (138), and plans to buy her \u201csilk petticoats\u201d (147) to match her new garters. He says, \u201cremember her laughing at the wind, her blizzard collar up. Corner of Harcourt road remember that gust. Brrfoo! Blew up her skirts and her boa nearly smothered old Goodwin \u2026\u201d (128), and we come to understand Bloom\u2019s relationship with Molly as one that makes him inclined to fantasize about his own past.<\/p>\n
These subtle references to Molly climax as Bloom sits and relives a love scene between himself and Molly in his mind and he explicitly defines \u201cMe. And me now\u201d (144), his \u201cdowncast eyes\u201d at present contrasting with his \u201cravished\u201d \u201cwild\u201d state in his memory with Molly. The love scene that he describes between himself and Molly is an extremely detailed sensory experience, and his retelling makes it evident to us as readers that the two of them once shared a very real connection that seems to have disintegrated over time. Passages such as these that embody Bloom\u2019s longing for his past relationship make earlier passages, such as Bloom\u2019s paused presence outside of Molly\u2019s door, even more poignant.<\/p>\n
Joyce manifests Bloom\u2019s description of \u201cme now\u201d in moments where other individuals ask him how his wife is doing and Bloom gives only surface level responses. When Nosey Flynn asks him, \u201cWife well?\u201d he only responds \u201cquite well, thanks \u2026 \u201c (141) and then changes the subject to his sandwich \u2013 these guarded replies contrast starkly with the sensory experiences that Bloom relays to us in his own consciousness, the \u201cme\u201d he seems to feel represents his true self. But of course no narration can ever be straightforward, so Bloom posits, \u201cI was happier then. Or was that I? Or am I now I?\u201d (137) and ultimately questioning whether or not the person he was during the peak of his relationship with Molly can actually be defined as \u201chimself\u201d.<\/p>\n
Regardless, though, Molly\u2019s constant presence in Bloom\u2019s internal narration helps us track him as a character and better understand his various thought processes. Just like Joyce continually references \u201ctrams passing one another\u201d (134) to give us a narrative constant and help us keep track of reality, he plants Molly in Bloom\u2019s internal narrative to remind us of one fundamental aspect of Bloom\u2019s personal narrative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In tracking various instances of storytelling and narration in episodes seven and eight, I was particularly drawn to instances where Bloom tells us stories about his relationship with Molly and gives us insight into the nature of their past together. Specifically in episode eight, such stories come about via Bloom\u2019s vivid flashbacks to his past, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}