Today we completed the episode 4, and started with the episode 5, stopping at "... earth is the weight." (Gabler 5.46) (Penguin 87.22)
Note: Related posts are in two parts: Part 1 deals with episode 4 & Part 2 with episode 5.
Part 1:
We get to know different facets of Bloom on these concluding pages of the 4th episode. We see him as a concerned father, as an affectionate father. We see him as a worried husband. We get to know one of the characteristics that is so typical of Bloom, a characteristic we shall notice again and again. This is his always trying to figure out causes/reasons of why things are as they are. It amuses us to realize that he really has forgotten quite a bit of physics, (natural sciences in general), he had once known. Finally we find Bloom reading the popular weekly paper, Titbits, while doing his morning act in the jakes*. We are also introduced in these early pages to the nursery rhyme, Sing a Song of Sixpence, which Joyce uses often in Ulysses.
Bloom has just finished reading Milly's letter. Twice. Bloom is concerned about Milly who is in Mullingar but tries to console himself saying that she knows how to mind herself. Well, all he can do is to wait in any case till it does (happen). Though he thinks of her with affection, his affection is troubled - he smiled with troubled affection at the kitchen window - and he is aware of the fact that though she is brave, she is also vain. After all he had caught her once in the street pinching her cheeks to make them red. Typical of the Bloom we are going to get to know better in the following pages, he thinks of why her cheeks were pale - Anemic a little. Was given milk too long. (As we know, too much of milk hinders the absorption of iron, and can lead to anemia!) Milly had mentioned in her letter of her friend Bannon, who sings Boylan's song about those seaside girls. (Read the lyrics and listen to the song here.)
The mentioning of Boylan makes Bloom think of the torn envelope upstairs, of the address (Mrs. Marion) on the envelope, of his wife lying in the bed, reading the letter, smiling. His thoughts are disjointed: Will happen, yes. Prevent. Useless. Lips kissed, kissing, kissed. The beginning of the next paragraph - Better where she is down there - gives us a plausible clue to understand these thoughts. So Bloom thinks that it is better that Milly is away in Mullingar, and not at home. Obviously he suspects that something is going to happen at home, and feels that it will be useless of him to try to prevent it. Of course, we do not know what that something is at this stage in the book!
Leaving the kitchen, he feels a gentle loosening of his bowels. Deciding to use the outside toilet, he picks up the paper, Titbits, and walks out.
On his way to the toilet, he notices the state of the garden and imagines that if he could reclaim the whole place, he can grow peas, lettuce, fresh greens... Sitting on the cuckstool (toilet seat), he unfolds Titbits. Reading that week's prize-winning story, Matcham's Masterstroke, Bloom dreams of writing a story himself and imagines seeing the story published, authored by Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Bloom. He could perhaps invent a story for some proverb. But which proverb? His thinking of the time when he used to jot down on his cuff what she (his wife) said dressing, hints to us that Molly, his wife, often uses proverbs. Bloom's thoughts turn to the bazaar dance he attended with Molly, where apparently she had danced with Boylan too.
Having completed his business in the toilet, Bloom gets out in the bright light outside. As he starts wondering what time the funeral is to be, the bells of George's church start tolling. It is quarter to.
* (a toilet, esp. an outdoor one)
Note: Writing about going to toilets, and describing the act on the toilet, was - to say the least - quite uncommon in the days Joyce wrote Ulysses. Erza Pound, who had in fact made it possible for Ulysses to be serialized in The Little Review in the US, had apparently penciled the paragraph starting with 'Quietly he read...', (Penguin 83.4) intending it to be deleted.
Note: Related posts are in two parts: Part 1 deals with episode 4 & Part 2 with episode 5.
Part 1:
We get to know different facets of Bloom on these concluding pages of the 4th episode. We see him as a concerned father, as an affectionate father. We see him as a worried husband. We get to know one of the characteristics that is so typical of Bloom, a characteristic we shall notice again and again. This is his always trying to figure out causes/reasons of why things are as they are. It amuses us to realize that he really has forgotten quite a bit of physics, (natural sciences in general), he had once known. Finally we find Bloom reading the popular weekly paper, Titbits, while doing his morning act in the jakes*. We are also introduced in these early pages to the nursery rhyme, Sing a Song of Sixpence, which Joyce uses often in Ulysses.
Bloom has just finished reading Milly's letter. Twice. Bloom is concerned about Milly who is in Mullingar but tries to console himself saying that she knows how to mind herself. Well, all he can do is to wait in any case till it does (happen). Though he thinks of her with affection, his affection is troubled - he smiled with troubled affection at the kitchen window - and he is aware of the fact that though she is brave, she is also vain. After all he had caught her once in the street pinching her cheeks to make them red. Typical of the Bloom we are going to get to know better in the following pages, he thinks of why her cheeks were pale - Anemic a little. Was given milk too long. (As we know, too much of milk hinders the absorption of iron, and can lead to anemia!) Milly had mentioned in her letter of her friend Bannon, who sings Boylan's song about those seaside girls. (Read the lyrics and listen to the song here.)
The mentioning of Boylan makes Bloom think of the torn envelope upstairs, of the address (Mrs. Marion) on the envelope, of his wife lying in the bed, reading the letter, smiling. His thoughts are disjointed: Will happen, yes. Prevent. Useless. Lips kissed, kissing, kissed. The beginning of the next paragraph - Better where she is down there - gives us a plausible clue to understand these thoughts. So Bloom thinks that it is better that Milly is away in Mullingar, and not at home. Obviously he suspects that something is going to happen at home, and feels that it will be useless of him to try to prevent it. Of course, we do not know what that something is at this stage in the book!
Leaving the kitchen, he feels a gentle loosening of his bowels. Deciding to use the outside toilet, he picks up the paper, Titbits, and walks out.
(Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/joyceimages-images/thumb/small_Titbits_1Guinea.jpg)
On his way to the toilet, he notices the state of the garden and imagines that if he could reclaim the whole place, he can grow peas, lettuce, fresh greens... Sitting on the cuckstool (toilet seat), he unfolds Titbits. Reading that week's prize-winning story, Matcham's Masterstroke, Bloom dreams of writing a story himself and imagines seeing the story published, authored by Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Bloom. He could perhaps invent a story for some proverb. But which proverb? His thinking of the time when he used to jot down on his cuff what she (his wife) said dressing, hints to us that Molly, his wife, often uses proverbs. Bloom's thoughts turn to the bazaar dance he attended with Molly, where apparently she had danced with Boylan too.
Having completed his business in the toilet, Bloom gets out in the bright light outside. As he starts wondering what time the funeral is to be, the bells of George's church start tolling. It is quarter to.
* (a toilet, esp. an outdoor one)
Note: Writing about going to toilets, and describing the act on the toilet, was - to say the least - quite uncommon in the days Joyce wrote Ulysses. Erza Pound, who had in fact made it possible for Ulysses to be serialized in The Little Review in the US, had apparently penciled the paragraph starting with 'Quietly he read...', (Penguin 83.4) intending it to be deleted.
