Circe

This chapter is quite a mouthful. It isn't just long, it interacts pretty blatantly with every episode so far. A lot of ideas that appeared between the lines earlier in the book are voiced overtly in this chapter - almost to the point of vulgarity. Bloom's femininity is explicitly realized in one of the fantasies. His sympathy to animals, the flirtatious side of his acquaintanceship with Mrs. Breen, and his figurative impotence are also physically described where they were only hinted at before. The idea that Stephen is intentionally concealing his talents emerges in Zoe's oblivious jeer ("The bird that can sing but won't sing"). Stephen's guilt about his mother literally flies up out of the ground in what may be the only fantasy that is actually experienced by either Stephen or Bloom.

At first I was disheartened that Joyce started shouting what seemed like secrets before. But with these exposures, a new level of subtlety appears. We get some pretty contradictory messages. Bloom sways between birthing children and receiving penetration from a masculinity woman to callously critiquing Bello's appearance. The fantasies towards the beginning of the episode portray Bloom as soft and pathetic. But this episode is also the climax of Bloom's heroism. He takes charge of Stephen's money. His insight into other points of view saves Stephen from an arrest. Bloom's cowardice and empathy give way to patience and compassion. We're tempted to read Bloom as hallucinating and lost in his shameful desire, but he is actually quite lucid - at least when Stephen needs him. The fantasies divide him into different people: Bloom in various points of his life, the weak cuckolded Bloom, Virag who is Bloom's hyperlogical alter ego, and Henry Flower. But Bloom has never been more put together. Most importantly, Bloom is no longer an idle thinker or a wanderer. He is an agent; without his agency having to compromise his sensitive, empathetic character.