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4 Calypso

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Summary

The narrative shifts abruptly. The time is again 8 a.m., but the action has moved across the city and to the second protagonist of the book, Leopold Bloom, a part-Jewish advertising canvasser. The episode opens with the line “Mr. Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls.” After starting to prepare breakfast, Bloom decides to walk to a butcher to buy a mutton kidney. Returning home, he prepares breakfast and brings it with the mail to his wife Molly as she lounges in bed. One of the letters is from her concert manager Blazes Boylan, with whom she is having an affair. Bloom reads a letter from their daughter Milly Bloom, who tells him about her progress in the photography business in Mullingar. The episode closes with Bloom reading a magazine story titled “Matcham’s Masterstroke”, by Mr. Philip Beaufoy, while defecating in the outhouse.

Important moments

Molly’s first words are ‘mn’

Bloom checks his pocket: “On the doorstep he felt in his hip pocket for the latchkey. Not there. In the trousers I left off. Must get it. Potato I have.” 4.72 Potato I have

  • We see the common motif of Losing items and the apparently important object of keys
  • The Potato is a talisman to Leopold possibly represents the irish culture as well as jewish identity

Bloom oogles a woman while waiting in line at the Butcher’s

  • Theme: Ogling at Women
  • He tries to follow watch for along as he can, he is interrupted by the butcher and can’t catchup after she walks away
  • “To catch up and walk behind her if she went slowly, behind her moving hams” (4.173)

The Turkish ad for tracts of land in Palestine

  • It reads “Agendath Netaim: planter’s company”
  • The ad suggests a fruitful marriage when one plants in the “promised land”
  • Olive trees are an option, but cheaper, thinks Leopold
  • The address of the firm is “Bleibtreustrasse 34, Berlin, W. 15”
    • A pun on “stay truest”

A cloud covers the sun

  • “A cloud began to cover the sun slowly, wholly. Grey. Far”
  • This leads to Bloom to think about waste and more bibically: the plague, disease, procesuciton of Jewish people
    • Poisonous foggy waters
    • “Brimstone they called it”
    • Sodom, Gomorrah, Edom
    • “Desolation”

Blooms picks up two letters

  • “Two letters and card lay on the hall floor. He stooped and gathered them. Mrs. Marion Bloom. His quickened heart slowed at once. Bold hand. Mrs. Marion.” 4.243 Bold hand Mrs Marion
  • Perhaps this is where he loses his hat
  • The one card is from Milly Bloom
  • The other is from Molly’s lover, Boylan
    • In addressing the letter as “Mrs. Marion Bloom” (reserved for widows) as opposed ot the traditional “Mrs. Leopold Bloom”, Boylan disrespects and insists himself on the family
  • “bold hand” also kinda sounds like “Boylan”

Molly asks Bloom about the word Metempsychosis

  • Bloom initially struggles to define it: “It’s Greek: from the Greek. That mean the transmigration of souls.” 4.341 transmigration of souls
  • Molly responds, “O, rocks
 Tell us in plain words” 4.343
    • Apparently we see this again on Pg 386
  • After more mind-wandering, Bloom figures it out: “Reincarnation: that’s the word.. We all lived before on the earth thousands of year ago or some other planet. They saw we have forgotten it. Some say they remember their past lives.”

Bloom reads his daughters letter and reminisces about her childhood

  • He recalls that she turns 15 yesterday
  • Their son died at 11 months - something that he hasn’t quite forgiven himself for
    • Since, they haven’t had sex
  • He also ponders how she is growing up - will start to explore boys sex
    • Concedes that she’s already kissed someone
    • Conceded that to prevent anything is “useless: can’t move” 4.448

Finally, Bloom goes to the loo

  • He brings reading material: Titbits paper
  • He reads some of the short stories: one of them Matcham’s Masterstroke
    • This is perhaps a nod to the real-life Tit-buts magazine that Joyce’s father frequently read, and to which Joyce submitted a short story, lost, but was allegedly copied for a future winning submission.
  • He tears a corner off the page to wipe his bum
    • Tearing paper theme
    • Both as convivence but also Joyce’s final revenge?

The bells go off

  • The same bells that Stephen hears
  • But Bloom thinks of them as funeral bells for the dead

Thoughts

Quotes

“Mkgnao!” 4.16 Mkgnao

“Mn” 4.58 Mn

4.72 Potato I have

“On the doorstep he felt in his hip pocket for the latchkey. Not there. In the trousers I left off. Must get it. Potato I have.” The Potato

Link to original

4.129 Cross Dublin without a pub

“Good puzzle would be cross Dublin without passing a pub. Save it they can’t.”

Link to original

“Sunburst on the title page” 4.100 Sunburst on the title page

Locations

Themes

  • Ogling at women
    • Girl at the butcher
    • Thinking of an old woman’s genitals
    • Large soft bubs
    • Daughters slim legs
  • “seaside girls”
  • Looking wistfully out at windows
    • “He smiled with troubled affection at the kitchen window”
    • (also when Stephen looks over the tower at the sea)
  • Losing items
    • Loses his keys
    • loses his hat

Terms

Important Objects

Graph View

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