“Guilty Bloom: Hallucination Technique Reveals Leopold Bloom’s Unconscious in Ulysses”
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published 05/10/2007
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Summary
A hallucination typically connotes a bad meaning for the character who admits to having one; either the person is mentally unstable or he experiences a hallucination from the consumption of illicit drugs. However, in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses there is a different meaning to the word all together. The main character, Leopold Bloom, experiences a wide range of hallucinations in the Circe episode, but not from the intake of drugs or because he is mentally unstable. Instead, Bloom experiences hallucinations from the atmosphere of Dublin’s Red Light District, named Nighttown, which is the setting for the episode. It is in this area that belief is suspended and fantasy takes over. Nighttown allows Bloom’s mind to wander and delve into great detail about the masochistic hallucinations he experiences. There are numerous hallucinations that Bloom endures, but for the sake of brevity two will be discussed: the first, when Bloom stands trial for writing adulterous letters to women, and the second occurs when he is dominated by the whore mistress Bella Cohen. It is in these specific instances that reveal the unconscious character of Leopold Bloom. The stream-of-conscious technique or even a straight narrative format with character monologues would not be able to clarify as well as the technique that Joyce uses. The hallucination technique is the sole means of opening up Bloom’s unconscious that reveals a man with feelings of sexual guilt.
Table of Contents
- A hallucination typically connotes a bad meaning for the character who admits to having one
- In the Circe episode, Bloom hallucinates that Mary Driscoll, Mrs. Yelverton Barry, and Mrs. Bellingham come forth with accusations about Bloom writing letters to the women eliciting sex.
- On page 741, Bloom begins another hallucination, this time about the whore mistress Bella Cohen transforming into a man ‘Bello' Cohen.
- With such despicable acts detailing Bloom's unconscious sexual identity, it would prove all the more logical that these hallucinations would have effect in the present time within the novel.
- In the appendix to Ulysses is Joyce's schematic for the novel. There lists the title of each section, scene, and among others, the technique.
- The hallucination technique in the Circe episode of Ulysses illustrates Bloom's unconscious guilt.
- It is only in this area of town where Joyce can explicitly investigate Bloom's unconscious sexual guilt; the reader learns more about Bloom than he would like them to know.
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