I’m struck by the ambiguity of Bloom’s feelings about his wife that Joyce leaves us with. I can’t decide if Bloom is attracted to her or not.
Much has been written in literature about the atypical seductress, particularly in Russian literature. While the round-faced woman with a ski jump nose and ringlets will always be idealized, sometimes we find that a different and darker kind of beauty is depicted with the candor and favoring tone that implies glorification. The first example that comes to mind is the water nymph in Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time, a plain girl who seduces the protagonist, Pechorin, and then tortures him.
I wonder if Bloom is attracted to Gerty because she is flawed. I wonder if he resents his wife for her beauty and the ways in which she exploits it, and seeks a plainer woman.
“Jilted beauty. A defect is ten times worse in a woman. But makes them polite. Glad I didn’t know it when she was on show.”
This is the remark he makes to himself after he first notices Gerty’s lameness. Yet he is still tempted to masturbate.
However, I don’t think that we should assume that Bloom is attracted to his wife. I think it’s possible that he isn’t, that he’s repulsed by her poor taste and her heaviness. I think that he may be looking for a way out of his marriage, and disappointed at the limited options that surround him. I think he may take pleasure in Gerty’s weakness, because she represents, to him, the flawed nature of women that he implies throughout the novel.
3 comments:
I was also interested in the metaphorical reason for Gerty's lameness. I originally thought that Bloom might be attracted to Gerty because she is flawed, however, he doesn't fully realize this until the deed is done.
I thought her lameness might be extending the theme of impotence. Finally, Bloom reaches climax, but it is through masturbation, and his seed is spread on unfertile ground. This is brought to light again, in oxen of the sun, when Bloom is seen as hypocritical for reproaching the men's lewdness in reference to the miracle of birth.
As for Bloom's attraction to Molly, I think it is clear that he is attracted to her, especially when we go back to the lotus-eaters. Molly's inescapable scent lures Bloom to lurid intoxication. Also, until this point, he could think of no one other then Molly. He rejects Martha by tossing her pin on the ground; her pin will not prick him. However, in this episode his attraction does seem to wane a bit; he describes her perfume as "sweet and cheap; soon sour (374)." I didn't know quite what to make of that but what I do draw is that Bloom is no longer in the full clutches of desire; his sexual apatite has been somewhat satiated. Also, come to think of it, the scent described here is the perfume that she sprays on her pillow, a reminder of her when she is not present. Perhaps it’s not Molly's scent that turns sour, but the memory of her scent, which seems fitting after the events that have just befallen. I think your comment is interesting. I'd like to hear more of your view of Bloom's attraction to Molly.
Ivy
by the way, i didn't mean lurid intoxication, i meant languorous intoxication. oh words. what do they mean...
Although Bloom appears to notice Gertie's lameness after he has already masturbated, when she gets up and walks, he may have sensed it before. In his thoughts, he likens her both to Milly (in age)and, at one point, wonders if she is Martha - which seems unlikely indeed if she is as young as we assume. Her age, although she is more than 17, is a matter of some mystery.
Since Gertie is facially beautiful she is not a Jane Eyre-type heroine - famously plain. She sits still and says nothing - a sitting duck for the watcher, almost an object of meditation in the shooting gallery of moving things around Bloom. This allows him to take a creative role - another way to see the masturbation. Just as Gertie's beauty is something of a fabrication, Bloom may embellish it in his mind, or indeed create it in the manner of the artist. And this may be yet another step forward for Bloom the hero.
His memories about Molly are sexual but romantic - almost like love scenes from one of Molly's dirty books. There is more sentiment in them, I think. And he always seems to think of Molly as a "gluey" woman in some archetypal sense. She is full-bodied and womanly, as Gertie may not be yet (?).
Lameness is a fetish for some and may be so for the distinctly perverted Bloom. Or, as Ivy interestingly said, a mirroring of his own "lameness" or injured quality.
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