Week 6 Seminar Paper

I did enjoy the chapter and although it was very difficult to understand there were particular moments which I found very funny like when several women came forward claiming that Bloom had in appropriately written to them and after the many women had spoken the first and only thing Bloom could say was “I love the danger!”

I think this shows how Bloom’s character is similar to Freud’s idea of the ID, his lust for women seems to be uncontrollable, he shows his affection through photos and gestures and he is constantly seeking danger and sexual pleasure despite the fact that he’s married. The ID’s animal nature also comes across when he wishes to be ‘horsewhipped’. He does not appear to have a Super Ego or Ego as he rarely does anything right within the society he’s living in and I don’t think that James Joyce’s writing has a particular ‘Ego’ either, there seems to be no reality and a lack of structure with constantly changing scenes and clothing.

The way Bloom’s character is shown would be approved by Reich, he thought that we should have sex all the time and this would make us free however by what happens in the book such as Bloom going to court it sides with Freud showing that being so ‘free’ is dangerous for us.

I believe that there is a use of phallic symbols in the writing, both for the audience to see and for Bloom’s character. For example “I took the splinter out of this hand, carefully, slowly...” could be seen as Bloom making the action of removing the splinter sexual towards Mrs Breen” and (Tenderly, as he slips on her finger a ruby ring)” this is aimed more towards the reader, giving them an image in their head which Freud believes the ID would recognise as being sexual.

When in court J.J. O’Molloy defends Bloom saying “the young person was treated by defendant as if she were his very own daughter” and later says “my client would be the last man in the world to do anything ungentlemanly which injured modesty...”
The first comment to a modern reader seems very wrong, just like Freud’s Oedipus complex – it is difficult to understand why anyone would wish to sleep with their father! Where Joyce writes “my client would be the last man in the world to do anything ungentlemanly which injured modesty...” it makes me think that perhaps Joyce agrees with Freud’s ideas by suggesting that sleeping with your daughter is not ungentlemanly.