REPORT ON JAMES JOYCE'S ULYSSES

EPISODE 14--THE OXEN OF THE SUN (383-428)

The scene opens at the National Maternity hospital on Holles Street with a Latin incantation: "Deshil Holles Eamus" (383) repeated three times in the manner of the Roman Arval Brethren whose purpose was to publicly honor the goddess of fertility and plentitude (Gifford 408). The midwife cry of "Hoopsa boyaboy hoopsa!" also celebrates the birth of a male child while she bounces his breath into stability (Gifford 409). The juxtaposition of the public ceremony in honor of the fertility goddess and the celebration of the male child's birth signifies the beginning of the confused and disordered evolutionary process of creation. Thus, the next few paragraphs reflect the nonsensical and unintelligible prose from the Latin linguistic origination to the modern language form. The text begins with the Old English style, or rather, an "alliterative Anglo Saxon flavor" as we see that Bloom stopped by the hospital to check on Mrs. Purefoy who is in labor (Blamires 147). Dr. A. Horn is in charge of the hospital, seventy beds, with the help of the sisters/nurses. One of them greets Bloom and lets him in the hospital, comments on his mourning clothes, and is reassured after he explains the cause of his dress. Bloom inquires about Mrs. Purefoy's condition, and the nurse says the "woman was in full throes now for three days" and that "she had seen many births of women but never was none so hard" (386).

Bloom is led into a room full of drunken students, is offered beer, but does not drink any of it. The students are arguing about making the decision, in the necessary situation, to save the life of the mother or the child; they agree to save the mother and ignore the "official view to the contrary" (Blamires 148). Here, Bloom meets Mulligan and Stephen, but is too concerned for Mrs. Purefoy's suffering to share in the revelry. Stephen proposes a toast to the Pope, gives a short sermon, and Punch Costello launches into a melody of "Staboo Stabella" (392). Thereafter, Stephen is teased about his abandonment of the ministry and his scandalous sexual adventures at college. Stephen continues his discourse on adultery and betrayal, the "usurper" theme, but is interrupted by a storm of thundering. He is frightened but tries to hide it in front of male company; however, Bloom notices and tries to comfort him to no avail. The thunder reminds Stephen of his mortality, and his "moral and spiritual condition is analyzed" (Blamires 150).

Buck Mulligan, on his way to the Maternity Hospital, runs into Milly Bloom's boyfriend, Bannon, and thus begins the progression to a more advanced style of prose, reminiscent of the eighteenth century (Blamires 151). Mulligan, acting as "le Fecondateur," begins the parody of fertilization and contraception whereas cloaks, umbrellas "were it no bigger than a fairy mushroom", and raincoats mock (sexual) protection (405). Nurse Callan comes in the room to ask the students to keep quite and as soon as she leaves she becomes the subject of their sexual desires, "the lustre of her own sex" (406).

Bloom reflects momentarily on the ugliness of Costello and becomes impatient with the crude and obnoxious manner in which the students are carrying on. He wonders how "frivolous medical students like these can be so quickly transformed into respectable practitioners" and subsequently, his right to question the students' sincerity is presented at a mock-board of eighteenth century design (Blamires 153). Bloom is bombarded by his past immoral and adulterous behavior; the jury concludes that he is a hypocrite, "stagnant, acid and inoperative," and thereby further discredited from moral judgments (409).

The announcement of Mrs. Purefoy's childbirth provokes conversation between the medical students on various aspects of obstetrics, such as "the prolongation of labour pains, the premature relentment of the amniotic fluid . . . artificial insemination by means of syringes, involution of the womb consequent upon the menopause . . . females impregnated by delinquent rape . . . multigeminal, twikindled and monstrous births" (410-411). Mulligan recites a tale of horror where he is the murderer of the Englishman Haines whose ghost stalks him in the form of a "black panther" (412). At this point, Stephen and Bloom reflect on their "observations about boyhood days and the turf, recollecting two or three private transactions" while a debate develops on the "epitome of the course of life" (417).

After the discussion dies out, they all congratulate the missing father, "One above, the Universal Husband . . . her dear Doady" (420-421). The room becomes quiet as the "'antechamber of birth'" establishes "the calm of shepherds and angels about the crib in Bethlehem" and is finally disrupted by Stephen's exhalation of "'Burkes,'" the name of a pub (Blamires 156). Stephen takes them out of the room and out to the street; Bloom remains behind for a minute to send congratulations to Mrs. Purefoy.

A celebration of fertility ensues as the group walks down the street in the form of intricate and succinct thoughts, words, and proclamations. At the pub, they order various beers and drinks, and their conversations become muddled symbolizing the slang and modern language of the Twentieth Century. They are at last expelled from the pub at closing time, and their numbers have increased to eleven members (the number present at the Last Supper). The closing imagery, indeed, suggests the final judgement: "sinned against the light and even now that day is at hand when he shall come to judge the world by fire" (428).

Once Odysseus and his men have encountered the Sirens and Scylla and Charybdis in Book 12 of The Odyssey, they find themselves near the coast of the land of Helios, the Sun God. They have been warned by Circe and Tiresias to avoid the island altogether and, most importantly, not to harm Helios' sacred cattle. Odysseus is hesitant to set on shore for fear his men may disobey the warnings, but they do not want to spend the night at sea and convince Odysseus that they will not touch the cattle. He assents and they land on the island. Hostile weather maroons them, their provisions run out, and they "forswear their oath, and slaughter enough cattle for a six day feast" (Gifford 408). Odysseus is outraged but can do nothing. The weather clears up and they set sail; however, Helios has appealed to Zeus for revenge and is awarded by a lightening bolt that destroys Odysseus's ship and kills all of his men. In despair, he ties the mast and keel together, suffers through the whirlpool of Charybdis, passes Scylla's rock, and is stranded on Calypso's island (Gifford 408).

The introductory Latin verses, the Maternity hospital, the nurses, and Dr. Horn are symbols of fertility which the oxen of the sun embody. Indeed, the name Dr. Horn closely suggests cow/oxen horned symmetry, and the watchful nurses represent the "daughters of Helios entrusted with guarding the sacred cattle" (Gifford 408). The crime against fertility is explored in this episode in various forms, such as contraception and the abnormalities of obstetrics; however, the basic conviction of crime is committed by the medical students whose drunken and boisterous behavior dishonors and slanders the maternity patients: "the ribald and riotous students in the Maternity Hospital commit a kind of sacrilege against the hospital's patients who, like the Oxen of the Sun, are symbols of fertility" (Blamires 146). The boardroom, where all of the discourse takes place, can be viewed as the island on which Odysseus and his men are stranded, and certainly the fierce thundering that Stephen fears exemplifies Zeus' thunderbolt that destroyed the ship.

ANALYSIS

Joyce's predominant defective, or failing, father theme is evident in this episode as he recreates the process of human evolution: "Bloom is the spermatozoon, the hospital the womb, the nurse the ovum, Stephen the embryo" (Ellmann 475). Indeed, Bloom's own son died soon after childbirth, and so upon meeting Stephen at the hospital, he adopts him as his own son. His failure occurs when he tries to console Stephen's fear of lightening during the storm. The father connection also closely parallels the father-son relationship between Telemachus and Odysseus: Telemachus sails in search of his missing father, since Stephen's own father has failed him, he searches for a father figure in Bloom, and since Bloom could not sufficiently soothe Stephen from the lightening he fears, he fails just as Odysseus fails Telemachus by his abandonment. Indeed, as Joyce states, the theme of Ulysses "is reconciliation with the father" (Ellmann).

The nine part creation mimics the nine months of pregnancy in which Joyce mocks his ability to become the ultimate father, to create a human form out of literature: "this progression is linked back at each part subtly with some foregoing episode of the day and . . . with the natural stages of development in the embryo and the periods of faunal evolution in general" (Ellmann 475). Thus the nine patterns of linguistic style and progression imitate the stages of human development. Joyce begins with Old English style alliteration, moves to seventeenth century prose, then eighteenth century prose, and ends in current modern dialogue. Harry Blamires explains that "The theme of embryonic growth is reflected in a series of often brilliant parodies (or pastiches) of English style prose from Anglo-Saxon days to the twentieth century. Formally there is a division into nine parts (like the nine months of gestation)" (146). Therefore by creating his own progeny, Joyce fulfills his desire for the father figure, reconciled and secured.

Joyce also amplifies the theme of betrayal, the "usurper," through adulterous and marauding behavior by the drunken students. The crime committed by Odysseus' men, killing the sacred oxen of Helios, suggests the parallel crime of treachery and debauchery committed by the students at the hospital. Contraception acts as a foil to fertility, and drunken obscene behavior despoils the innocence and beauty of birth. Blamires states that Joyce "expands the theme of the usurping adulterer who betrays . . . in the style of the Authorized Version of the Old Testament, echoing Lamentations and the Reproaches from the Good Friday liturgy. Overtones associate Molly Bloom with Ireland in adulterous betrayal" (149-150). Bloom, who abstains from drinking and obnoxious behavior and who is betrayed by Molly's infidelity, therefore becomes the complete human being, subjected to all the temptations and sufferings that life sustains. He fulfills his role as hero, father, and husband, thus becoming the prolific fledgling of Joyce's literary creation.

Blamires, Harry. The New Bloomsday Book: A Guide Through Ulysses. Third Edition. New

York: Routledge, 1996.

Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Gifford, Don. Ulysses Annotated. Berkley: University of California Press, 1988.

Joyce, James. Ulysses. New York: Random House, 1934.