James Joyce's novel Ulysses - Essay Example

How is the theme of impotence raised and discussed in James Joyce's novel "Ulysses"? The book is often called the greatest literary masterpiece in the 20th Century. It is common to find that the size and scope of the author’s epics scare numerous readers, it is encouraging to peruse through the pages of the book to just get the first impression as Joyce takes you through his ideas that tickle down in form of episodes. Published in 1922, James Joyce’s Ulysses still vestiges as the most challenging and rewarding works associated with English Literature. It does not only narrow down the temporal focus to events that unfold in a single day, it also attempts to widen the scope to actively engage in the life of three main characters namely Molly Bloom, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus also including paying attention to the Dublin city. In terms of style, Ulysses is unique not because of the way it changes all complementary styles in each episode, but as a result of the narrative refusing to remain obedient to the story line. The themes increasingly shift away from the plot and diverts into independent raillery of the readers over the meaning of the characters. The story also shifts in a way that celebrates and appreciates humor, creativeness and definitions of exploration and thereby resembles other popular wanderers such as the Jews, Bloom and Odysseus and Bloom’s changing characters as an adulterous and faithful wife known as Molly (Derek 111). James structured the book Ulysses in a way that it corresponds with the events that take place in the Odyssey. The relationships created between the two main characters in Ulysses Stephen Dedalus who is a fatherless son and Leopold Bloom who is a sonless father makes parallels with the circumstances of Telemachus and Odysseus. However, this interpretation of this relationship between Stephen and Bloom does not clearly account for imperative themes of impotence and motherhood. Despite the ideas reflecting Stephen as a son in the quest for a father and Bloom is a dad looking for a son; both their desires go beyond those of a son-father relationship. James makes it clear that Bloom is in search of a son would play out as a mother to the son instead of a father. In addition, in Stephen’s case it is complex to define what he is really looking for either a father or a mother or whether he is making efforts to get away from maternal figures and ideas altogether (Bernard 167). Before one dives into the function of impotence in the care giving in the lives of Stephen and Bloom, it is vital to consider establishing motherhood as an effective and powerful theme in the book. In Ulysses, most of the women come out as unfaithful with Molly who is Bloom’s wife having an affair with one Blazes Boylan and Stephen is sure that Shakespeare’s wife known as Anne Hathaway practiced infidelity. In the play that Stephen also discusses called Hamlet, a character in the scenes named Gertrude betrays her male counterpart by sleeping with another man. Despite of all of these pessimistic images, James does not forget to speak about the significant role of motherhood. Bloom came to the realization that homes always seem to break down after the departure of the mother and he also believed that the role of the mother was protecting the son as long as it takes on earth and even after death. Bloom has the idea of keeping a traditional talisman that is a small potato a representation of her mother. Motherhood is an overpowering and an emotional turmoil for Stephen as he still dresses in black to signify his continued mourning of his mother who passed on a year ago. He also reflects on the mother of all creation who is according to the Bible, Eve. He adds that a child’s affection and a mother’s love for her son is the most and only true thing in the world in life (James 567). Bloom’s deficiency in masculinity as exhibited in his infertility adds highly to his femininity and this leads to his role as a mother. For over ten years, Bloom has not changed his impotent sexual relations with Molly and although this did not imply a decrease in his manhood. The rejection of birth control by Stephen and Bloom’s yearning to have a son and impotence suggests a lack of any traces of masculinity in Ulysses (Juliane 21). The emphasis paid to the Ulysses is another example and an indication of motherhood. However, (James 400) the main article in focus is the issue of impotency is some of the characters in the novel. Stephen shares his worries on the subject of souls that we impersonate and this is a sin in opposition of the Holy Ghost, God who is the sole giver of life. Mina Purefoy is a mother of numerous children and at the current state of labor she is in goes a long way to depict her husband as one who is performing his manly duties to completion and to success. He was a fountain of fecundity and in comparison to men like Bloom it turned out to be a disgrace as it was obvious that it was impossible for him to father a son or a child for that matter. The reference of Molly as a Marion of bountiful bosoms by an anonymous storyteller also pays tribute to the issue of fertility. The finality of impotency comes in when it comes in assessment in an analogy between women who is no longer fertile and death. It is only Molly who offers a diverse perspective concerning the lushness issue. Molly heavily condemns the conclusion that if only men knew the pain that women go through during child birth, and then they would take a softer line and think twice about constantly impregnating the women. One may falter and think that she is trying to say that she appreciates that there is a sense of impotence in her family although she goes on to have an affair with another man. It is not quite clear why she does this, one wonders if it is for the pleasure or whether she does it because she wants to get pregnant. She feels that men have no knowledge about what it takes to be a real woman and a mother if at all they were not cared for by another woman as infants (James 427). What relationship does this bear to the wider concerns of Modernist writing? These episodes have an adverse effect to many modernist writers and they are so into expressing the fragility of the psychological state of the human mindset in the twentieth century. Many authors envision the current state of affairs in the world as a wasteland where the land and the people have the inability to conceive and breed life. Many of the characters in the stories narrated and written by modernist writers are continually affected by aspects of sexual frustrations and they are unable to cope with the non-reproductive and reproductive sexuality. Instances such as the Fisher King are examples of representations of damaged sexuality and according to myths the land dried up and the crops withered as a result of his impotence. Tiresias is a demonstration of a confused and ambiguous sexuality and there are women chatting in A Game of Chess and this is an addition to the out of controlled sexuality. Modernist writers and authors present the World War I as an eradication of an entire generation of millions of young men across Europe and also led to a corruption and destruction of the land. Chemical weapons and trench warfare were the two chief methods employed during these warring times decimating plant life leaving behind miles and miles of traces of carnage and detritus. These effects are pretty diverse in influencing the way that they view the concepts employed during the 18th and 19th Century. This goes to show that they take the issue of impotence in people and that of land very importantly as productivity entirely depends on the fertility of individuals and the land. Trying to introduce an idea of how the speaker’s views make his or her mind infertile at the thought of bringing together the thoughts in way that does not compromise on what roles the narrator tries to perform (http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot/themes.html). In comparison, it is appropriate to indicate that there is a different influence on these contemporary affluences. Today, the influence that these past writers have on the current society is lesser in comparison to days in the past when considering works that are 500 years old. It is easy to point out that there are many books to read these days. One hypothesis to theorize why it is uncommon to find past works influencing present works tries to explain this trend by stating that there are various and diverse contents that people refer to as more indispensable in their research. The anxiety of influence is where the authors get understood in the context of their responses to canonical pre-cursors is increasingly becoming a concern of impotence. The past brings to bear a diminishing stylistic weight on the present as they write. They suggest that it is possible to explain the modernist movements where the authors reject all of their immediate stylistic precursors yet remember to remain part of a dominant association included in many of the contemporaries. There is a gradual diminish in the reference to past works and it is conclusive to conclude that these impressions have an interesting effect on modernist writing where it is difficult to settle on one article or form of writing due to the fact that the present is a competitive world that yearns for creativeness and innovativeness that means that people need not refer to other works. It is interesting to find that recent research reports that people are attempting to pay tribute to the past writers, but this is difficult as it is not certain that this trend will change any time soon (David & Kevin 368). Works cited Juliane Unganz, Telemachus - an Analysis of the First Chapter of James Joyce's 'Ulysses: GRIN Verlag, 2008. 80pages. James Joyce, Ulysses: Cricket House Books LLC, 2012. Derek Attridge, James Joyce's Ulysses: A Casebook, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 274pages. Andrew Gibson, James Joyce: Reaktion Books, 2006. 191pages. David Bradshaw & Kevin J. H. Dettmar, A Companion to Modernist Literature and Culture, London: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. 616pages. Martin Halliwell, Transatlantic modernism: moral dilemmas in modernist fiction, Edinburg: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. 264pages. Robert Deming, James Joyce. Volume I: 1907-27: Routledge, 2013. Bernard McKenna, James Joyce's Ulysses: A Reference Guide: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. 264pages. Read More

 

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