Molly Likes to Bang

I couldn’t help but wonder what a woman would think about this chapter. But in a way this curiosity, of the woman’s perspective, is essentially the last thing Bloom needs. In the end of the Odyssey Penelope and Odysseus reconvene at tell each other their stories. In Bloom’s case he has reunited with his son (Stephen), discussed a plan of attack (discussed philosophies, theologies etc.), and then retook his house (kissed Molly’s behind). While the two have a short discussion about their time apart, Molly’s stream of consciousness seem to be somewhere the Odyssey would never dare to go, into the woman’s perspective. But we find that Bloom has nothing to worry about, because there is something “immovable” about this bed. Part of this has to do with how critical Molly is of Boylan. The first thing is that Bloom, probably at Boylan’s age, is described as being just charming as the usurper. When Molly recalls the day that he proposed to her she thinks of his “grey tweed suit and his straw hat,” the same type of hat Boylan is seen with all day (782). And while we see Molly negatively think of Bloom’s undergarment fetish (745), she notices a similar trait in Boylan when he was “talking about the shape of my foot” (744). Last we know Bloom is silly, clumsy, and not exceptionally brilliant, but Boylan is made to look foul. He has “no manners no refinement nor no nothing in his nature slapping us behind like that on my bottom because I didn’t call him Hugh the ignoramus that doesn’t know poetry from a cabbage” (776).
The immovability of the Blooms’ bed is also found in the similarity of their thoughts. First is their respect for art and poetry, found in the quote above about Boylan. This makes them both have similar attitudes towards Stephen. One could read Bloom’s attraction to Stephen as sexual, but Molly thinks of it quite explicitly. She thinks “I’m not too old for him if he’s 23 or 24” and (I can’t exactly tell if it’s about Stephen) thinks about fellating him (775, 766). Also Molly worries about Bloom hanging out with the medical students, like Bloom does with Stephen. But of all these similar thoughts one stands out, how neither see each other separating. In this chapter Molly thinks, “Id rather die twenty times over than marry another of their sex of course hed never find a another woman like me to put up with him the way I do” (744). And there are probably few men who could tolerate Molly.