SCHWEIZER

Aesthetic Judgement and Theory: Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom as Artists
Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom in James Joyces Ulysses offer two sides of
exploring Joyces novel. Both Stephen and Bloom view the world in their capacity as artists
not in the sense that they are creating art, but they use aesthetic judgment to view the world
throughout their day on June 16, 1904. Furthermore, the sense of aesthetic judgment used by
each character depends in large measure on their attitudes towards women. Stephen views art as
a theory, not necessarily connected to apprehending beauty; he realizes that art and beauty are
different things, partly because of the loss of his mother, which has made it hard for him to see
beauty in the world. On the other hand, Bloom focuses on aesthetic judgment and finds beauty in
the world, particularly in women.
As Ulysses unfolds in the first three episodes, the main focus is on Stephen and how he
perceives art. Stephen is never actually said to be an artist, but there is plenty of Joyce criticism
that talks about Stephen being one. Stephens fulfillment of himself an artist is hindered by the
death of his mother, as throughout the book he is haunted by his mother. His mother hinders him
from truly seeing women, which makes it hard for him to see true beauty; he is uncomfortable
with women and with loss.
S.L. Goldberg explains Stephen Dedalus as an artist in a way that can be seen through
the aesthetic theory in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and how it is a dramatic
illumination of his ideals and attitudes (44). S. L. Goldberg explains that Stephens aim is to
preserve art from emotions and purposes that would disturb it, and so he defines art in terms of
beauty and the aesthetic emotion proper to ita stasis of spiritual contemplation in which the
physical or kinetic emotions of desire and loathing have no part (44). Alan Shepard
discusses Stephens search for the good life, and how Aristotle would see Stephens odyssey

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taking him from schoolboy innocence to artist and social dissidence (105). This explains
Stephens transition into an artist being difficult as he is thwarted by age and immaturity.
Shepard argues that Stephen also denies his community in a religious sense in order to
gradually affirm the value of life based on aesthetic principles, coming to trust in the wholeness,
harmony, and radiance of beauty (105).
In regards to Joyce and theory, Fran ORouke argues that Joyce purposefully misreads
Thomas Aquinas so that apprehension is most important to his theory, instead of every being,
inasmuch as it can be the goal of desire, has the quality of goodness; every being, insofar as it
can elicit pleasure when known, has the character of beauty. It is reality that is desirable, and
therefore good; it is reality that is the goal of knowledge, and therefore true; it is reality that
gives pleasure when known, and is therefore beautiful (104). Joyce did this so he could say that
his aesthetic theory is related to the three fundamental concepts of goodness, beauty, and truth,
which he believes describes aesthetics. His aesthetic theory as shown in his personal notebook
laying out this theory as it correlates to how Stephen in Portrait was actively engaged in the
building of an entire science of aesthetics as an artist (98). In Portrait, the central action of the
novel is concerned with the intellectual and spiritual growth of Stephen and how he grows
through aesthetics. Thomas Landess explains Stephens transformation into an artist through
Joyce, saying that, Stephen begins to build on his own aesthetic through a private system whose
meaning he partially shares with his fellow students, lesser intellects, incapable of grasping its
full significance (147). It seems as though Stephen spends most of Portrait trying to convey to
the reader his desire to transform the given world into something more pleasing. Thomas
Grayson informs us of Joyces artistic intentions for Stephen in Portrait and shows us how he
explains and sees beauty. Grayson says that Joyce makes Stephens artistic intentions different

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in Portrait and Ulysses. The author writes that Stephens esthetic image is an image useful in
filling the vacuum created when the voices of real people are driven from ones heart (312).
Following the first three chapters, the preponderance of the novel is occupied with
Leopold Bloom and his wanderings over the course of the day. Later in Ulysses, we actually
read that Bloom can be seen as an artist, but there is very little criticism in Joyce studies
discussing this. Bloom connects art and beauty, performing aesthetic judgment through his wife
Molly. In Wandering Rocks, Bloom is referenced as an artist, and explained to be a different
type of artist. In this episode, we see that Lenehan, one of the citizens of Dublin, can see
potential in Bloom, but he is unsure how to identify this and uses the words common or garden
to explain that he is not the typical artist. He is speaking to MCoy, another citizen of Dublin,
and says, Hes a cultured allroundman, Bloom is, he said seriously. Hes not one of your
common or gardenyou knowTheres a touch of the artist about old Bloom (10.581-3).
William Schutte comments on this scene, saying, It is difficult not to interpret it as a reminder
from the author that Bloom may in fact be something more than the common vulgarian that he
seemed to some early readers (121). Bloom as an artist is only mentioned very briefly here and
it is easy to overlook, but this short phrase proves that others do see Bloom as a potential artist.
Analyzing Bloom throughout Ulysses helps us makes the argument that Bloom is indeed an
artist, with his wife serving as his inspiration.
Stephen as an artist is discussed more thoroughly throughout Joyce scholarship, as
Schutte explains that most critics seem to have felt much more comfortable discussing Stephen
than Bloom (118). He says that critics feel more comfortable discussing Stephen because it
reminds them of how they thought out decisions before they made them when they were young,
conscious or not, to write about imaginative literature rather than create it (118). Stephen is

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described as Joyces youthful self who is immersed in aesthetic and scholarly problems
(118). This point makes it more understandable that critics lean towards Stephen, as his growth is
easier to relate to. Everyone would like to view young Stephen as an artist and they do not feel
Bloom needs to be addressed in the same way because he is a married adult. There is a lot more
to focus on in Stephen, as he is still developing into the adult character critics want to see him as,
so they can relate to his character more than they can Blooms.
Schutte believes that readers form a slow appreciation for Bloom as the day goes on,
something that Joyce implemented on purpose:
We have come somewhat more slowly to appreciate Leopold Bloom. Probably
this is as Joyce anticipated. Bloom was not to overshadow the others until the day
wore on. Whereas Stephen has all of the qualities attractive to the scholar and
literary criticintellect, learning, the ability to synthesize and generalize, and
more than a touch a pedantryBloom has none of these in any significant
quantity (118).
By the end of the day, the reader has formed a new appreciation for Bloom as an artist, and
comes to gather that Stephen and Bloom have a lot more in common than we originally believe.
Bloom as an artist is best described in Lestrygonians, as it is as close to a typical Bloom
episode as we have, says Schutte (120). He suggests that Bloom is an artist through his
appreciation for words: In Lestrygonians there is a surprising amount of commentary on
words and on their use. Most obvious, and most nave because they concern poetic technique, are
Blooms remarks on poetry called up by his observations of the gulls:
The hungry famished gull
Flaps oer the waters dull (Schutte 123).

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Blooms poetic impulse here shows his artistic talent (123). Schutte justifies his argument by
saying that in establishing Blooms artistic credentialswhat he says about words is far less
important than what he does with them, and calls him an incurable tinkerer with language
(124). The way Bloom uses poetics in Lestrygonians allows the touch of the artist to come
through. As we shall see, there are numerous instances where Bloom approaches the world
through an aesthetic lens, many of them informed by his relationship with women.
As noted earlier, in the first three episodes of Ulysses, Stephens perception of art is
looked at. Ulysses opens with a discussion of how Stephen and Buck Mulligan view art very
differently. Stephen spends a lot of time in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man explaining art
to us in the way he believes art should be seen. At the very beginning of Ulysses we get our first
glimpse into Stephens perception of art as he is explaining Irish art in relation to how he dresses
(1.134-53). Stephen says with bitterness, It is a symbol of Irish art. The cracked looking-glass
of a servant (1.146). This one line describes just how unique Stephen as an artist is when he
sees art in a servant through a cracked mirror. Buck Mulligan spends nineteen lines mocking
Stephen for how he is dressed, but instead of Stephen being embarrassed or responding with a
rude comment, he responds by explaining how he feels it is Irish art.
Buck Mulligan spends this entire passage making jokes and laughing at Stephen, and
does not care how Stephen feels. But Stephen spends this entire passage staring into this cracked
mirror until the last line when he is bitter and explains his thought process behind his attire and
the art and beauty behind it. This passage is supposed to be humorous, but then becomes
dramatic with Stephens response. This causes Buck Mulligan to apologize and show remorse to
Stephen after realizing they have a difference in opinion. The passage changes to a new subject
after Buck apologizes and Stephen says, He fears the lancet of my art as I fear that of his. The

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cold steel pen (1.152-53). This last line in the passage asserts that Stephen is painting a
picture of literary art in his head with a cold steel pen, as he fears that Buck Mulligan does not
understand what he perceives is true art. He does not question if maybe his view of art is wrong,
he just illustrates to the reader that his opinion on this art is how he is going to paint his own life
and Buck Mulligan cannot change that for him.
Stephens view of art is not wrong, just to him it is all about perception. This perception
Stephen has caused him to feel he has failed, but even so he sees the world in an artistic way. As
Proteus opens we read about Stephen walking along the beach thinking about the material
world, and about the differences between how the world exists and how he perceives it.
Stephens perception is skewed as he imagines himself one day being an artist but believes he
has stalled out:
Reading two pages apiece of seven books every night, eh? I was young. You
bowed to yourself in the mirror, stepping forwards to applause earnestly, striking
face. Hurray for the Goddamned idiot! Hray! No-one saw: tell no-one. Books you
were going to write with letters for titles. Have you read his F? O yes, but I prefer
Q. Yes, but W is wonderful. O yes, W. Remember your epiphanies written on
green oval leaves, deeply deep, copies to be sent if you died to all the great
libraries of the world, including Alexandria? Someone was to read them there
after a few thousand years, a mahamanvantara. Pico della Mirandola like. Ay,
very like a whale. When one reads these strange pages of one long gone one feels
that one is at one with one once (3.136-46).

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Even though to Stephen, he believes he has stalled out as an artist, the narrator thinks otherwise.
The narrator is putting poetry into Stephens mind, proving he can see the world in an artistic
way:
The grainy sand had gone from under his feet. His boots trod again a damp
crackling mast, razorshells, squeaking pebbles, that on the unnumbered pebbles
beats, wood sieved by the shipworm, lost Armada. Unwholesome sandflats waited
to suck his treading soles, breathing upward sewage breath, a pocket of seaweed
smouldered in seafire under a midden of mans ashes. He coasted them, walking
warily. A porterbottle stood up, stogged to its waist, in the cakey sand dough. A
sentinel: isle of dreadful thirst. Broken hoops on the shore; at the land a maze of
dark cunning nets; dryline with two crucified shirts. Ringsend: wigwams of brown
steersmen and master mariners. Human shells (3.147-57).
The description the narrator gives is very poetic. As you read about the grainy sand and the
trod of his boots over the crackling mast, the reader can imagine Stephen feeling the sand
beneath his feet and hear the squeaking pebbles beneath him. The senses that are developed
through breathing in the many aromas around him make it clearer the ways in which Stephen
might be able to make art of the world. By the narrator inserting art into Stephens mind, he
allows Stephen to perceive the world as an artist. Because of this, Stephen has actually not
stalled out at all, but is actually growing as an artist because of it. As Stephen is perceiving the
world as an artist he focuses on what he hears, using perception and imagination. We are
completely in his thoughts as he thinks in allusions and in different languages. When Stephen
opens his eyes, he notices two midwives, but to the reader it is unclear if this is still his
perception or his imagination:

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One of her sisterhood lugged me squeling into life. Creation from nothing. What
has she in the bag? A misbirth with a trailing navelcord, hushed in ruddy wool.
The cords of all link back, standentwining cable of all flesh. That is why mystic
monks. Will you be as gods? Gaze in your omphalos. Hello! Kinch here. Put me
on the Edenville. Aleph, alpha: nought, nought, one. Spouse and helpmate of
Adam Kadmon: Heva, naked Eve. She had no navel. Gaze. Belly without
blemish, bulging big, a buckler of taught vellum, no, whiteheaped corn, orient and
immortal, standing from everlasting to everlasting. Womb of sin. Wombed in
darkness I was too, made not begotten. By them, the man with my voice and my
eyes and a ghostwoman with ashes on her breath. They clasped and sundered, did
the couplers will. From before the ages He willed me and now may not will me
away or ever (3. 35-48).
Stephen imagines this woman had a miscarriage and is carrying her child in her purse with the
umbilical cord still attached. This symbolizes creation that is failed, similar to how Stephen
perceives himself. Then the narrator says, By them, the man with my voice and my eyes and a
ghostwoman with ashes on her breath. They clasped and sundered, did the couplers will (3.4547). This is a reference to why Stephen may think he has failed: he relates the creation back to
family and the loss of his mother. Sundered is echoed later in Scylla and Charybdis, when
Stephen relates art to Shakespeare, discussing how it means the breaking apart of a relationship,
which might lead to reconciliation, which is the source of much great art including
Shakespeares. His focus on relationships shows he understands the theory of what it means to be
an artist, and how relationships with others, particularly women, are important; he just cannot
fully comprehend it. This image of the ghostwoman with ashes on her breath goes back to

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Telemachus, showing us how his mothers death continues to haunt him in the same way
throughout the day.
Abigail Heiniger writes, Stephens changing relationship towards women and especially
the loathly lady is illustrated by the contrast between his source of inspiration in A Portrait and
his inspiration in Ulysses (318). She uses the example of the bird girl in Portrait to explain the
aesthetic muse there is replaced in Ulysses by the repulsive feminine imagine of Stephens dead
mother who comes to him, as well as other figures like the midwives, discussed above, and the
milkwoman, addressed below. Heiniger argues that his mother is the main art figure in Ulysses,
but Stephen fails to accept his mother as a potential source of artistic inspiration (319). She then
states, He cannot accept or surrender to the love of his mother or of Ireland. He cannot allow
these powerful but repulsive female figures to have sovereignty by yielding to their love, so he
fails to find complete satisfaction as an artist (320). Heiniger also argues that Stephen begins to
embrace the loathly lady as a potential source of inspiration as June 16th progresses. Loathly,
meaning ugly, is a traditional motif wherein an old woman appears unattractive but undergoes a
transformation upon being approached by a man; she becomes extremely desirable and it is
discovered that her ugliness was the result of a curse which was broken by the heros action
(315-6).
The first episodes explain how Stephen views art and the role of women therein, both
through the figures of the midwives in Proteus and the even more significant figure of the
mother in Telemachus. In particular, we see him view women as art objects through the lens
of a milkwoman symbolizing Irish art. Stephen sees a personification for Ireland in the
milkwoman (Gilbert 101). Gilbert explains that Stephen refuses to cringe to the narrow patriots
who surround him and to exploit the sentimentalism in favour with the Dublin literary group

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(101). Stephen may be trying to separate himself from the literary group of his time by viewing
art completely differently, and mocking ideas of traditional Irish art.
First, Stephen viewing women as art can be seen through the figure of the milkwoman in
Telemachus. He explains the milkwoman as pure and the symbol of Ireland. He may be
thinking of her in this way as he says, He watched her pour into the measure and thence into the
jug rich white milk, not hers. Old shrunken paps. She poured again a measureful and a tilly. Old
and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a messenger (1.397-400). As he is
watching her pour this milk for Buck Mulligan and himself, he wants to envision her so badly as
a symbol of Irish art, as she walks door to door for her job, literally doing what a woman during
that time may be doing, while also symbolizing Ireland. The milk is described as white, which is
seen as a pure color; describing it as rich helps us view the colors he may be using to describe
this painting he is envisioning. It seems as though he is writing about her as a literary figure
instead of an actual person.
Stephen goes on to say, Old and secret she has entered from a morning world, maybe a
messenger (1.399-400). This sentence is as if she just arrived from thin air at the door, in his
imagination as coming out of the clouds or a secret hiding spot. To him, she appears to be
secretive as though she has not yet revealed her true intentions, entering from a morning world
with a message, but in reality it is just milk. To Stephen, the milk needs to symbolize something,
it cannot just simply be milk; to him this figure is appearing to him with a message, to everyone
else she is a woman arriving with the milk. Continuing he says, She praised the goodness of the
milk, pouring it out (1.400). Why exactly is she praising it, is my question. Because we never
actually hear her speak; we only read what the narrator is telling us happened. The narrator plays
a vital role in determining our opinion of Stephen, as we often do not actually know Stephens

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true words and thoughts. When Stephens point of view is told through a narrator, it could be
said that the narrator is telling Stephens thoughts in a poetic manner. It seems as though Stephen
is personifying this milk through the milkwoman:
Crouching by a patient cow at daybreak in the lush field, a witch on her toadstool,
her wrinkled finger quick at the squirting dugs. They lowed about her whom they
knew, dewsilky cattle. Silk of the kine and poor old woman, names given her in
old times. A wandering crone, lowly form of an immortal serving her conqueror
and her gay betrayer, their common cuckquean, a messenger from the secret
morning. To serve or to upbraid, whether he could not tell: but scorned to bed her
favour. (1.400-407).
This seems to be more of a fictional story that Stephen is making up in his head, maybe even
writing down, forming a story as a poet. The milkwoman is not currently milking a cow in a
field, because she is inside a house with Stephen. The narrator wants us to see Stephen viewing
her as a literary art object and not a real person at all.
Stephen, through the narrator, is trying to connect his surroundings to art, but the
milkwoman does not depict art exactly how he wants because the milkwoman is real and not a
theory. Because of this, Stephen cannot truly identify her as art, but tries desperately to, saying,
To serve or to upbraid, whether he could not tell: but scorned to beg her favour (1.406-7). He
wants to enjoy this milk, as he wants to enjoy her symbolism. This may be offensive to him
because he is realizing not everyone views art like he does. Hainess views of Ireland are in
contrast to the milkwomans as she doesnt care about Ireland, demonstrated by her ignorance of
the Irish language, while Haines romanticizes it. Haines explains his view stating, If we could
live on good food like that, he said to her somewhat loudly, we wouldnt have the country full of

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rotten teeth and rotten guts. Living in a bogsswamp, eating cheap food and the streets paved with
dust, horesedung and consumptives spits (1.411-14). Stephen is so disgusted by Hainess
romantic views of Ireland and he spends a lot of time trying to justify his relationship with it. He
doesnt want to view Ireland as his master, nor as his home. Not everyone and everything needs
to depict art, but to Stephen it is a vital part of his existence. In this passage, he analyzes every
detail of the milkwoman trying to place her as a stereotypical Irish peasant, only to find out that
she does not even understand Irish. His disgust may be worse because he is almost jealous of the
attention that Buck is getting from this milkwoman.
Stephen turning the milkwoman into an art object, shows he does not understand women
and how other men speak so easily to women. He is very lonely as his mother has just passed,
and he wants everything in his life to revolve around art, but this is difficult for him because, in
Joyces conceptualization of his character, he equates women and loss. Maybe he cannot truly
grasp the fact that his mother has passed and that he is now alone at a young age, distraught
about life. Stephen tries to fill this feeling by ignoring the thoughts of his mother and using art
and aesthetic reasoning as his focal point in his brain.
The first time we see Stephen as unable to push aside the memory of his mother is in
Telemachus, as Buck Mulligan sings the song that Stephen sang to his dying mother: His
[Buck Mulligans] head vanished but the drone of his descending voice boomed out of the
stairhead:
And no more turn aside and broad
Upon loves bitter mystery
For Fergus rules the brazen cars (1.237-41).

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Stephen feels as though he is being haunted by his mother through Buck, as the narrator
explains:
A cloud began to cover the sun slowly, wholly, shadowing the bay in deeper
green. It lay beneath him, a bowl of bitter waters. Fergus song: I sang it alone in
the house, holding down the long dark chords. Her door was open: she wanted to
hear my music. Silent with awe and pity I went to her bedside. She was crying in
her wretched bed. For those words, Stephen: loves bitter mystery (1.2248-53).
As Stephen is haunted by this memory, we also begin to understand Stephens relationship with
his mother and how it was left. Fergus song is the last connection they make together while she
is alive, as she is crying in her bed. It is also a clear association between his mother and art, his
mother and poetry. This negative moment causes Stephen to be unable to avoid Bucks singing
and puts him further in his memory as he dreams of her coming to him, which we see again when
he is hallucinating, later, in Circe, and he cannot escape this memory. These memories trigger
Stephens sense of loss, showing us even when he tries to view women as art, he cannot fully do
so without his mother alive.
Stephen is seen hallucinating about his mother in Circe, where we find out that he
cannot move past his mothers death because he does not know if his mother blames him. This
hallucination is the only time we hear from Stephens mother and learn what happened during
their last few moments together:
STEPHEN: (Choking with fright, remorse and horror) They say I killed you,
mother. He offended your memory. Cancer did it, not I. Destiny.
THE MOTHER: (a green rill of bile trickling from a side of her mouth) You sang
that song to me. Loves bitter mystery.

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STEPHEN: (eagerly) Tell me the word, mother, if you know now. The world
known to all men.
THE MOTHER: Who saved you the night you jumped into the train at Dalkey
with Paddy Lee? Who had pity for you when you were sad among the strangers?
Prayer is allpowerful. Prayer for the suffering souls in the Ursuline manual and
forty days indulgence. Repent, Stephen (15.4185-98)
In this, the only time we hear the mother speak for herself, it is easier to understand the
relationship Stephen had with her. Even though Stephen sang to her at her bedside as she was
dying, his mother still feels as though he did not follow her last wishes. But his mother does want
to help him move on, by asking him to repent. Repenting here shows that even though Stephen is
being hindered by his mother, his mother is not actually trying to hinder him, but to help him.
Though his mother has just passed and died angry at Stephen, the motherly instinct in her wants
to help her son grow into the adult he can be:
MOTHER: (wrings her hands slowly, moaning desperately) O Sacred Heart of
Jesus, have mercy on him! Save him from hell, O Divine Sacred Heart!
STEPHEN: No! No! No! Break my spirit, all of you, if you can! Ill bring you all
to heel!
THE MOTHER: (in agony of her deathrattle) Have mercy on Stephen, Lord, for
my sake! Inexpressible was my anguish when expiring with love, grief and agony
on Mount Calvary. (15.4231-40)
Stephens mother tries to help him move past her death, but Stephen does not want to. Following
his mothers final sentence, Stephen breaks a chandelier:
STEPHEN: Nothung!

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(He lifts his ashplant high with both hands and smashes the chandelier. Times
livid final flame leaps and, in the following darkness, ruin of all space, shattered
glass and toppling masonry.) (15.4241-45).
At this moment, it can be determined that Stephen will never be able to move past the haunting
of his mother because he will never be able to get past this blame. The breaking of the chandelier
can symbolize him as an artist coming to a standstill, shattering into a million pieces after he has
worked so hard to get where he is. Mary Burgan explains how Portrait is the narrative of a hero
trying to get away from his mother, but in Ulysses Stephen is haunted by the ghost of the mother
he refused to comfort on her deathbed, as we see above. Burgan relates the motherly issues we
see in both novels back to letters that Joyce actually wrote to his own mother. Burgan suggests
that Stephens mother represents the womans entrapment in the ruck of daily life and the
illusions necessary for mindless servitude to it. In short, she represents the nightmare of
transcended history from which Stephen is trying to awake (182). She backs this example up
with the example of Buck Mulligan from Telemachus, when he causes Stephen to recall the
banal aspirations of domestic Dublin, as referenced earlier.
From the first three books we learn that Stephen has concrete thoughts that become more
abstract, leaving reality. This is significantly different from Bloom, who perceives detail in larger
context than himself, while staying in reality. Stephens thoughts are philosophical or aesthetic,
whereas Blooms thoughts are more curious and he answers his own questions with practicality.
The artist in them emerges differently, as Stephen is childish and focused on theory, whereas, as
we shall now see, Bloom is very focused on his wife and everything he can do for her to make
her happy. The effort he puts into pleasing his wife shows his maturity, as his wife is his
motivation to be an artist.

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Bloom spends a large portion of his early morning routine making sure his wife Molly
has breakfast. In Calypso, the narrator spends time explaining to the reader how much Bloom
cares about his wife and describes his adoration for her. Even though we learn about Blooms
affection and adoration for his wife early on, we learn that he also views other women in the way
they look, in a more sexual manner, which is different from Stephen, who does not view women
in a sexual manner at all. (Note that this is a change from Portrait, where readers will recall
Stephens visits to brothels.) As Bloom is waiting in line for a kidney to eat for breakfast, he
happens to be behind a woman whom he admires in line: He held the page aslant patiently,
bending his senses and his will, his soft subject gaze at rest. The crooked skirt swinging, whack
by whack by whack (4.162-4). As he is in line he expresses how he hopes he can watch her
walk home:
Mr. Bloom pointed quickly. To catch up and walk behind her if she went slowly,
behind her moving hams. Pleasant to see first thing in the morning. Hurry up,
damn it. Make hay while the sun shines. She stood outside the shop in the sunlight
and sauntered lazily to the right. He sighed down his nose: they never understand.
Sodachapped hands. Crusted toenails too. Brown scapulars in tatters, defending
her both ways. The sting of disregard glowed to weak pleasure within his breast.
For another: a constable off duty cuddling her in Eccles lane. They like them
sizeable (4.171-8).
Bloom here is viewing this woman as a sexual object. This is a counterexample of how he views
Molly. This viewing of women may be caused by sexual tension he faces with his wife Molly,
with whom he has not had sex since his son died eleven years earlier. Here, Bloom views women

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as sexual objects from a distance, focusing on appearance and staying in reality rather than
focusing on the abstract.
Elsewhere in the novel, however, we do see Bloom viewing women not as sexual objects
but as aesthetic objects. In contrast to the scene in the butcher shop, sexual desire is obscured by
literal art later in Calypso when we read about Bloom analyzing women as art objects through
a painting that is hung over his bed, which his wife is laying in. He is analyzing the painting as
he is explaining metempsychosis to Molly, using the work of art as an example. The painting is
called The Bath of the Nymph (4.369). Metempsychosis as Bloom describes is the transmigration
of souls (4.342). He explains it by saying:
The Bath of the Nymph over the bed. Given away with the Easter number of Photo
Bits: splendid masterpiece in art colours. Tea before you put milk in. Not unlike
her with her hair down: slimmer. Three and six I gave for the frame. She said it
would look nice over the bed. Naked nymphs: Greece: and for instance all the
people that lived then.
He turned the pages back.
Metempsychosis, he said, is what the ancient Greeks called it. They used to
believe you could be changed into an animal or a tree, for instance. What they
called nymphs, for example (4.369-77).
Bloom brings art and women together here, as he is explaining the painting to his wife while she
lays in bed drinking her tea. If Bloom did not have even a touch of an artist in him, as we learn in
Wandering Rocks, he most likely would not have tried to use a painting of nymphs to describe
metempsychosis to his wife.

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The touch of an artist in him is clearly shown to us at the end of Lestrygonians, as we

see exactly how Bloom views women as art objects. As noted earlier, Schutte sees Blooms
attention to language in this episode as important to our understanding of him as an artist; here I
will focus on how women play a role in that understanding as well. Throughout the first few
chapters of Ulysses, weve seen Stephens view of art, and its connection to women, but very
little of Blooms view of art. As Bloom eats lunch in Davy Byrnes pub, he explains his view of
women as art objects and as objects of beauty. He describes beauty as it curves, saying, curves
are beauty (8.920). Bloom spends most of this thought process, over the course of
Lestrygonians, identifying a womans body through pleasure. Bloom aesthetic judgment rests
on the apprehension of beauty, and women are essential to how he gets there. He thinks about
curves, and curves as beautiful, while also in the midst of recalling an early encounter with
Molly. He explains curves through her body, her smile, her kisses, her eyes, her lips, her
stretched neck, her breasts, her nipples, her tongue, and her hair (8.906-14). The way Bloom
breaks down a womans body part by part to explain how beautiful her curves are can be seen as
poetic. There is a long tradition in literature in which poetry does exactly this. This type of poem
is called a blazon. Bloom may be making a blazon to Molly, proving he does have a touch of the
artist in him, as Schutte pointed out earlier. It is refreshing to see how Bloom explains beauty not
just by her physical body curving, but such things as simple as her hair or her eyes. Some
descriptions are more sexual than others when he is explaining her beauty, but others are almost
innocent.
Bloom even goes as far as to use goddesses such as Venus and Juno to describe beauty.
He thinks, later in Lestrygonians, Shapely goddesses, Venus, Juno: curves the world admires.
Can see them library museum standing in the round hall, naked goddesses. Aids to digestion.

SCHWEIZER 19

They dont care what man looks. All to see. Never speaking (8.920-3). He explains beauty as art
in terms of actual museum art, tapping into classical and popularly accepted versions of aesthetic
appreciation. Bloom views art in a figurative sense, as he more or less conforms to social norms
of beauty, but takes it just a bit farther as to actually analyze women as art objects, particularly
his memory of Molly in Howth.
As Bloom describes a womans beauty he breaks down each and every part of her body,
analyzing every little detail as if it is a masterpiece. This is where Blooms artistic side shows up
more prominently. Now, Bloom could be so focused on this woman because it is his wife Molly,
but I do not think that particularly matters. He describes her so in detail that we almost forget he
is describing a real person, and instead one may view it as an art object in a museum or in a
picture. It is almost as if we are watching a film and the scene is becoming dramatic as the
climax is coming. He thinks, Screened under ferns she laughed warmfolded. Wildly I lay on
her, kissed her: eyes, her lips, her stretched neck beating, womans breasts full in her blouse of
nuns veiling, fat nipples upright. Hot I tongued her. She kissed me. I was kissed. All yielding
she tossed my hair. Kissed, she kissed me (8.912-8). I imagine this scene as a camera going
over Mollys body in slow motion. In this sense the camera is his eyes, as he analyzes a woman
as an art object.
Mollys role to Bloom and Blooms thinking as an artist is better described when an old
picture of her is found in Blooms pocket, in Eumaeus:
Carefully avoiding a book in his pocket Sweets of, which reminded him by the by
of that Capel street library book out of date, he took out his pocketbook and,
turning over the various contents it contained rapidly finally he.

SCHWEIZER 20

Do you consider, by the by, he said, thoughtfully selecting a faded photo which
he laid on the table, that a Spanish type? (16.1421-26)
Bloom poses this question to Stephen, asking him to regard the picture of Molly. The woman is
then described in detail by the narrator as Stephen gazes on the picture. This moment where we
see Bloom and Stephen together as artists allows us to see the two different types of artists they
are:
Stephen obviously addressed, looked down on the photo showing a large sized
lady with her fleshy charms on evidence in an open fashion as she was in the full
bloom of womanhood in evening dress cut ostentatiously low for the occasion to
give a liberal display of bosom, with more than vision of breasts, her full lips
parted and some perfect teeth, standing near, ostensibly with gravity, a piano on
the rest of which was In Old Madrid, a ballad, pretty in its way, which was then
all the vogue. Her (the ladys) eyes, dark, large, looked at Stephen, about to smile
about something to be admired, being responsible for the esthetic execution.
Mrs. Bloom, my wife the prima donna Madam Marion Tweedy, Bloom
indicated. Taken a few years since. In or about ninety-six. Very like her then
(16.1427-39).
Bloom responds to Stephen explaining that the faded picture in his pocket is his wife, his prima
donna. Bloom carrying a picture of his wife in his pocket shows how much he cares about her
and literally and figuratively wants to always have her by his side. Keeping her in his pocket
shows that Bloom is an artist because of his wife. The picture he carries is from eight years ago.
This may symbolize when Bloom realized he and his wife were no longer in the relationship they

SCHWEIZER 21

had at the beginning. Bloom carrying this photo for so long may remind him of the beauty he
sees in his wife, even if he does see other women as erotic or aesthetic objects.
Stephen cannot be an artist in the same way as Bloom; Bloom is more mature and has
had more experience, due in large measure to his wife Molly. However, in theory, Stephen
understands the value of that kind of relationship. During his Shakespeare argument in Scylla
and Charybdis he says, There can be no reconciliation, Stephen said, if there has not been a
sunderingWhat was lost is given back to him: his daughters child. My dearest wife, Pericles
says, was like this maid. Will any man love the daughter if he has not loved the mother? (9.397
& 421-24). Stephen believes Shakespeare must have had these feelings for his wife, and perhaps
that is what made him an artist. Stephen develops his theories about Shakespeare through at least
some idea about how a mature relationship with a woman is part of becoming an artist.
In James Joyces own biography, we see his struggle as an artist, similar to Stephen, and
how a woman played a role in that process. Joyces wife Nora has many similarities to Blooms
wife Molly. She is described as having a pungent expression, which Joyce enjoyed, as well as
being anti-intellectual, and she was attached to her husband in such a way as to not show her
affection up front (Ellmann 376). One thing that really bothered Joyce, which we see in Bloom,
is Noras refusal to recognize the difference between him and the other young men she had
known. Bloom observes this characteristic in Molly, but Molly manifests it independently as
well (Ellman 376). Joyces character of Molly may be inspired by his wife Nora, as he relates
his fictional character back to when Joyce asked Nora to marry him. Both Nora and Molly are
said to have not answered right away as they think about their past lovers, and whether Joyce
(and Bloom) deserves to go into a marriage not knowing about them.

SCHWEIZER 22

In developing the character of Bloom, Joyce spent the time going through people who
might fit his character, such as Christ, Faust, and Hamlet. None of these men fulfilled Joyces
criteria for the ultimate hero because they were either bachelors, too young, or had no home and
family. Joyces complete man in literature was Ulysses (Ellmann 435). He is reported to have
said, Hamlet is a human being, but he is a son only. Ulysses is son to Laertes, but he is father to
Telemachus, husband to Penelope, love of Calypso, companion in arms of the Greek warriors
around Troy, and King of Ithaca. He was subjected to many trials, but with wisdom and courage
came through them all (Ellmann 435). The family aspect of this hero character points to
Leopold Bloom, not Stephen Dedalus. This shows that Joyce wanted to create two characters out
of one hero. Stephen is the young and struggling artist side of Joyce; but Bloom is the mature
family man who is the ultimate hero because he has a wife and children. These two sides of
James Joyce come together as one, when we consider Bloom as an older, more mature version of
Stephenpossibly also a version of young James Joyce, and a version of Joyce as he matured
into the writer, and artist, he became.

SCHWEIZER 23

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Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 1982. Print.
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Joyce, James. Ulysses. New York: Vintage, 1986. Print.
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