Fifty years after the world was introduced to Molly Bloom, Fr. But such interpretations seem to contradict her chaste religious and mythological parallels, the Virgin Mother Mary and ever-virtuous and faithful Penelope, to whom she can be reconciled with a little reader insight. Certainly she is often perceived to be the latter for much of the book, as Bloom seems perpetually obsessed by her body, her actions, her suitors, and her affair. Early readers called her “‘earth mother’ and ‘satanic mistress’” while 21st century readers called her “‘bitch,’ ‘slut,’ and ‘thirty shilling whore’” (Norris 217). Lindsey presents us with a seemingly easy grasp of difficult materials ranging Homer’s Odyssey through Joyce’s own works that precede Ulysses and with the linguistic pyrotechnics of Ulysses itself to contemporary criticism in order to perform a kind of feminist rehabilitation of Molly Bloom.įrom the dawn of Ulysses in 1922, the character of Molly Bloom has been under scrutiny, judged for her actions, implied or explicit, on one particular day. Lindsey Greer’s essay on Penelope in James Joyce’s Ulysses is both lucid and authoritative, a delight to read. The major assignment for this senior seminar on James Joyce was to illuminate something significant in Ulysses drawing on intensive knowledge of Joyce’s works and extensive knowledge of the large critical conversation about Ulysses. The Judgement of “Penelope”: A Day in the Life of Molly Bloom By Lindsey Greer '17
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