REPORT ON JAMES JOYCE'S ULYSSES

This episode begins the morning of Paddy Dignam's funeral (at about 11 o'clock Bloomtime). Martin Cunningham, Jack Power, Simon Dedalus, and Leopold Bloom are getting into the funeral carriage that is to accompany the hearse to the graveyard. As the procession moves forward, Bloom stares out of the window and notices an old woman peeking out of her lowered blinds. He thinks it's "extraordinary the interest [the neighbors] take in a corpse" (Joyce 87), and then he wonders who washes the body and cuts the hair and nails. Women do it, he decides, because the "job seems to suit them" (Joyce 87).

A few blocks later, Bloom spots Stephen Dedalus, which sets Simon Dedalus off on a tirade against Buck Mulligan whom he thinks is a bad influence on his son. Listening to Simon go on about Stephen makes Bloom recall his own son, Rudy, who died when he was only 11 days old. Bloom realizes how much he's missed not having had a relationship with his son, who was the last of the Bloom line, and remembers his own loss as a son whose father has died. While Bloom is busy with his own thoughts, Cunningham spots Blazes Boylan just as Bloom is thinking of him. Bloom dislikes Boylan and can't understand why the other men think so highly of him. While the other men greet Boylan, Bloom studies his nails and begins thinking about how his body is aging. When the conversation of the others turns to Paddy's sudden death, Bloom thinks it came about because Paddy drank too much, but that's not what he says. He comments that Paddy's sudden death was "the best death" (Joyce 95). The others stare at him not quite comprehending that he means that Paddy went quickly without suffering.

As they near the cemetery, Bloom spots the tiny coffin of a child and is again reminded of little Rudy. A conversation about death begins, and Powers comments that the worst death of all is "the man who takes his own life" (Joyce 96) because it disgraces the family. Dedalus says that a man who commits suicide is thought to be a coward. Bloom, however, thinks that people who die in this way should be shown mercy. He remembers that "they used to drive a stake of wood through [the suicide's] heart in the grave . . . as if it wasn't broken already" (Joyce 96). Unlike Power, the others all know that Bloom's father committed suicide.

When the carriage finally arrives at Glasnevin Cemetery (where the rest of the episode takes place), they see that Paddy's coffin has somehow arrived ahead of them. Bloom thinks, "Got here before us, dead as he is" (Joyce 101). As Father Coffey delivers the eulogy, Bloom's mind wanders over a myriad of subjects. He figures it "makes [the dead] feel more important to be prayed over in Latin" (Joyce 103) and is curious to know whether the priest finds the repetition of his job tiresome. Bloom wonders why only man buries his dead, and thinks that's the "first thing strikes anybody. Bury the dead" (Joyce 109). But then he thinks that, like Parnell, people eventually forget you: "Ivy day dying out" (Joyce 111).

The XI book of The Odyssey describes Odysseus' visit to the Kingdom of the Dead. This parallels Bloom's visit to Glasnevin Cemetery for Paddy Dignam's funeral. Odysseus is a little anxious about making the trip to Hades and says he "embarked in no happy mind" (Homer 124). Bloom isn't much looking forward to his visit to the cemetery either. On the way to the graveyard, the carriages cross four waterways, which correspond to the four rivers of Hades. Bloom's father's dog, Athos, who pined away after the father's death, is seen as a parallel to Odysseus' dog, Argos, who dies after seeing Odysseus again after so many years. Paddy Dignam is the Elpenor-figure because he had only recently died and "had not yet been buried in the earth" (Homer 125). When Odysseus asks how Elpenor came to be in Hades, he says he was bad to drink and fell off of Circe's roof. This is in keeping with Bloom's idea that Paddy died from alcohol abuse. Also, Elpenor's request that he not be forgotten is kin to the idea that Bloom thinks we are all, at some point, forgotten after death.

Just as Odysseus meets his mother again in Hades, so Bloom is brought face-to-face with his own deceased parent. Bloom's musings over all of the dead he can remember recalls Odysseus' meeting with all of "the company of the dead" (Homer 124). Martin Cunningham becomes like Sisyphus in that his life is one of futility. Week after week Martin tries to keep his family out of debts that are incurred by his alcoholic wife. Bloom's description of Father Coffey as "bully about the muzzle

. . . with a belly on him like a poisoned pup" (Joyce 103) perhaps puts Father Coffey in the position of Cerberus, the dog who guards the entrance to Hades.

Bloom becomes Odysseus in that he is seeking answers from the dead and is trying to find his way back to a place where he feels more comfortable. He is ill at ease at the funeral because the priest is speaking of the rebirth of the soul, and he doesn't believe in it. As far as Bloom is concerned, dead is dead.

Much of what is clear in Hades is Bloom's isolation from his fellow man, mostly it seems, because of religion. At the cemetery Bloom is excluded because he doesn't believe the most serious aspects of Catholicism such as the Resurrection. He imagines it as "every fellow mousing around for his liver and his lights and the rest of his traps" (Joyce 106). He goes so far as to joke to himself that when God called Lazarus to come forth, he came fifth and lost the job (Joyce 105). Bloom's Judaism keeps him isolated from his friends who consider themselves "true" Catholics since Bloom only converted to Catholicism in order to marry Molly. According to Richard M. McKain, Bloom has the "ethnic role as the archetypal Jew . . . and an archetypal Hungarian born in the year of Hungary's rebirth. In this dual role his experiences parallel those of Ireland: he has been exiled, dispossessed, tyrannized over by foreigners, [and] forced to conform to foreign religions" (61). Bloom doesn't adapt well; hence he is always the outsider.

One of the things Bloom recalls while standing around by himself in Glasnevin is that the last time he was there was for Mrs. Sinico's funeral whom he believes died from "love that kills" (Joyce 114). This connection to Mrs. Sinico becomes important since Bloom's father poisoned himself after he became grief-stricken over his wife's death. It is interesting to note that two of the characters in this episode, Martin Cunningham and Jack Power, are themselves "resurrected" from the story in Dubliners called "Grace" where they attempt to save the lost soul of their friend, Mr. Kernan. Perhaps Joyce intends for them to try to save Bloom next.

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. W. H. D. Rouse. New York: Times Mirror, 1937.

Joyce, James. Ulysses. New York: Vintage International, 1990.