Feeling Bluem

In this chapter what I found to be the most pressing issues are Bloom’s loneliness and frustrations. Not only do we see Bloom frequently mentioning his loneliness, like “I fell so lonely Bloom” (287), but also he admits it to Martha in his letter. He writes (sort of), “I feel so sad today. La reee. So lonely. Dee” (280). While this is technically Henry Flower speaking, the fact his feelings of desperation have reached this height is upsetting. I think this neurosis develops because in this chapter he is constantly contrasted to with Boylan.

For one thing Bloom and Boylan are contrasted in how the barmaids react to them. Bloom on one hand is compared to the drugstore attendant, with his goggling eyes. On the other hand when Boylan enters the room Miss Kennedy “smiled on him. But sister bronze outsmiled her, preening for him her richer hair, a bosom and a rose” (265). Considering that we see many male characters flirt with the barmaids, the fact that one admires Boylan shows his virility. While I can’t find one of the specific moments when the barmaids’ breasts are admired, when Douce offers them to Boylan again shows the ladies’ admiration of him. In this difference of reactions another contrast is set up between the two, blue and red. Boylan is connected with the red rose in Douce’s bosom, and in the previous episode he takes the red flower from the fruit and flower shop. Multiple times in this chapter, and maybe earlier in the book, there are references to Bloom like “Bloom sighed on the silent bluehued flowers” (268). While I’m not sure if the connotations between blue and sadness were developed yet, it seems that this is the best way to interpret this contrast. Where Blazes is passionate and loved, Bloom is passive and ignored.

One final moment that Bloom is contrasted with Boylan is when he tries to write poetry/music for Martha. He tries to think of music as purely mathematical, but realizes that a lady would not be wooed with “seven times nine minus x is thirty five thousand” (278). This implies that semantics or artistic intent is important for writing music, that it is not just organizing “the ineluctable modality of the audible” (37). By wanting to write music for Martha, Bloom hopes to capture her like Boylan did Molly.
And by making Bloom seem so inadequate in this chapter, we really see how depressed these thoughts have made him. I see this coming to a suicidal point for Bloom. For example he quotes “to be or not to be” (280). And when thinking of Rudy Bloom mentions how it is “too late now” and “soon I am old” (285).

Connections:
I see a huge connection to the Proteus chapter in this section. The way that Bloom describes how music is just mathematical organization reminds me of the “ineluctable modality of the audible” (37). Further the Croppy Boy looks just like Stephen, in how he “once by the churchyard he had passed and for his mother’s rest had not prayed” (284). And one other strange parallel between this and the Proteus chapter is they both have a line that deals with the sounds of pissing. Bloom thinks of the music of Molly pissing (282), and Stephen thought of pissing in Proteus (49).

Questions:

I really like the opening of this chapter. I almost thought of it like the “score of sounds” that happen in the chapter. Does anyone else have any interpretations?

In this chapter Bloom is called an “unconquered hero” (264). In what way do you think Bloom is still unconquered? He is often derided and his wife has been usurped, that seems pretty conquered to me.