Penelope (close reading)

“I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that as why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only look out over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know

(643: 1574-1582)

I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will

Yes.”

(643: 1602-1604, 644: 1605-1609).

Just as Bloom recalls the seedcake exchange earlier in Lestrygonians, Molly recalls it now (“Me. And me now.”), only she places the scene more specifically in time—“16 years ago.” She nearly “lost [her] breath,” when Bloom said she was a “flower of the mountain,” implying not only her physical beauty but also her inner beauty as natural, like the beauty of a flower. She recalls Bloom telling her “we are flowers all a womans body,” eliminating the boundaries between men and women and uplifting a “womans body” as something lovely from which we all come into existence. Although Molly says, “yes that was one true thing he said in his life,” she touches on the aspect of Bloom that we have come to know him so well by—his empathy. She says, “yes that as why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is.” I love how she begins with “understood” (sympathy) and then suggests that he not only “understood what a woman is,” but “felt” it as well (true empathy). Molly loves Bloom for his ability to “feel” and not just “understand” her perspective, which is ultimately what snags her heart.

But Molly’s monologue then moves away from Bloom’s ability to empathize with her, as she thinks, “I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only look out over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know,” suggesting that despite Bloom’s ability to view the world through her eyes, she can “always get around him,” and there are still “so many things he [doesn’t] know.” “[Giving] him “all of her pleasure,“ Molly “[leads] him on” until they are about to have sex, or “till he asked [her] to say yes.” But Molly does not respond at first, still thinking of what Bloom [doesn’t] and possibly will not ever know—the complete opposite of falling in love with his empathy. While Bloom may be a paragon for empathy, Molly makes it clear that he cannot be omniscient.

She then thinks, “well as well him as another,” asking him “with [her] eyes,” so without words, a true test, to “ask [her] again.” Bloom could be asking for Molly’s consent to marriage or sex, or both, because language opens up this duality of possibilities. (And I think it is most likely that she is contemplating both, especially since this scene is happening “16 year ago”). But there is, in my opinion, a third reading of Molly’s words—“[her] now,” or her in the present moment, because that is where this monologue is taking place. When Molly “[puts] her arms around him yes and [draws] him down to [her] so he could feel [her] breasts all perfume yes his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will / Yes,” she appears to be talking about the past, but there is room in her words to take her re-experiencing the past as her present recommitment to Bloom.

I love this beautiful moment as the ending, because it is so much more complex than it appears. It is messy, stuck in the past, imperfect, but it is also powerful and tender and understanding of misunderstanding and coming together because yes love is never perfect but that is not to say it is not beautiful :).