We reached the end of chapter 2 (Nestor).
Mr. Deasy is still talking about the letter - on the cattle foot and mouth disease - that he had given to Stephen, who should try to get it published in local newspapers. The conversation between the two turn to jews with Mr. Deasy mouthing typical anti-semitic views that were already prevalent at the time ("England is in the hands of the jews.... And they are the signs of a nation's decay.") and Stephen quietly trying to put things into perspective ("A merchant, ..., is one who buys cheap and sells dear, jew or gentile, is he not?") Mr. Deasy's words make Stephen recall seeing some jews on the steps of the Paris Stock Exchange. He thinks of how they were dressed, what their eyes revealed to him: "Their eyes knew the years of wandering and, patient, knew the dishonours of their flesh." ( I find this a strange paragraph. How should one classify what Stephen reads in the eyes of these jews? These being his personal thoughts, own interpretations, what should we make out of such thoughts/interpretations?)
Stephen then utters one of the most quoted sentences from the book: "History, ..., is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." Mr. Deasy does not obviously follow Stephen's line of thinking, and says, - simply repeating expressions of Victorian faith - "The ways of the Creator are not out ways... All history moves towards one great goal, the manifestation of God." Precisely at that time, a great Hooray is heard from the sports field. Somebody has made a goal, prompting Stephen to play with the word, "goal", and say, "That is God."
Mr. Deasy has not yet finished putting his foot in his mouth! He makes "grand"statements: "A woman brought sin into the world." Such conversation does not seem to interest Stephen, who tries to move Mr. Deasy's attention back to the letters, telling him that he will approach the editors of Telegraph and Irish Homestead with the letters.
Soon Stephen leaves Mr. Deasy's office. The coins are dancing in his pocket. Passing through the gate, he looks at the lions couchant on the pillars of the gate. Stephen thinks of them as toothless terrors. Just like Mr. Deasy? Still he is going to help his headmaster in his fight against the cattle disease. Even at the cost of being labelled by Mulligan as the bullock befriending bard (alluding to Homer and Stephen's preoccupation with Thomas Aquinas, who was called 'dumb ox' by his fellow students at Cologne. Gifford 2.431)
Mr. Deasy runs after Stephen, wanting to tell him a joke: "Ireland, they say, has the honor of being the only country which never persecuted the jews. Do you know that?.. Do you know why?... Because she never let them in..."
Mr. Deasy laughs, coughs, laughs. An echo of the coming times.
Mr. Deasy is still talking about the letter - on the cattle foot and mouth disease - that he had given to Stephen, who should try to get it published in local newspapers. The conversation between the two turn to jews with Mr. Deasy mouthing typical anti-semitic views that were already prevalent at the time ("England is in the hands of the jews.... And they are the signs of a nation's decay.") and Stephen quietly trying to put things into perspective ("A merchant, ..., is one who buys cheap and sells dear, jew or gentile, is he not?") Mr. Deasy's words make Stephen recall seeing some jews on the steps of the Paris Stock Exchange. He thinks of how they were dressed, what their eyes revealed to him: "Their eyes knew the years of wandering and, patient, knew the dishonours of their flesh." ( I find this a strange paragraph. How should one classify what Stephen reads in the eyes of these jews? These being his personal thoughts, own interpretations, what should we make out of such thoughts/interpretations?)
Stephen then utters one of the most quoted sentences from the book: "History, ..., is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." Mr. Deasy does not obviously follow Stephen's line of thinking, and says, - simply repeating expressions of Victorian faith - "The ways of the Creator are not out ways... All history moves towards one great goal, the manifestation of God." Precisely at that time, a great Hooray is heard from the sports field. Somebody has made a goal, prompting Stephen to play with the word, "goal", and say, "That is God."
Mr. Deasy has not yet finished putting his foot in his mouth! He makes "grand"statements: "A woman brought sin into the world." Such conversation does not seem to interest Stephen, who tries to move Mr. Deasy's attention back to the letters, telling him that he will approach the editors of Telegraph and Irish Homestead with the letters.
Soon Stephen leaves Mr. Deasy's office. The coins are dancing in his pocket. Passing through the gate, he looks at the lions couchant on the pillars of the gate. Stephen thinks of them as toothless terrors. Just like Mr. Deasy? Still he is going to help his headmaster in his fight against the cattle disease. Even at the cost of being labelled by Mulligan as the bullock befriending bard (alluding to Homer and Stephen's preoccupation with Thomas Aquinas, who was called 'dumb ox' by his fellow students at Cologne. Gifford 2.431)
Mr. Deasy runs after Stephen, wanting to tell him a joke: "Ireland, they say, has the honor of being the only country which never persecuted the jews. Do you know that?.. Do you know why?... Because she never let them in..."
Mr. Deasy laughs, coughs, laughs. An echo of the coming times.
