English Literature

James Joyces Ulysses is fairly regarded as the bright example of professional talented modernism. A complex combination of various literary and non-literary elements, Ulysses as if is being written and read at the intersection of artistic and routine features of the human life. Episode 15 Circe is as unique as it is also difficult to understand. It is written as a reflection of numerous hallucinations which intersect and interact, and which, as soon as they are understood and analysed, present a completely different picture of the two characters that used to present their vision of the world through the fourteen preceding chapters. In many aspects, the hallucinations, the psychological, and modernistic insights presented in Circe create a complex picture of the human life as influenced by both inner anxieties and external circumstances and events. In Circe, Bloom and Stephen have to go through a series of hallucinations but the modernist character of Joyces writing is not in that humans can have hallucinations, but in that their hallucinations intersect and interact in ways that bring them closer together and change their perceptions about life and about each other.

James Joyce, Ulysses, and Modernism
    That Joyces Ulysses is a unique example of modernistic writing is difficult to deny, but the complex language and complex interactions between reality and illusions are not the only features of early twentieth centurys modernism that can be found in Circe. Rather, Circe, as well as Ulysses in general, is modernistic to the extent, which asks questions that are unanswerable by nature, which positions stream of consciousness as the central element of the human being, which combines and emphasises the conflict between particularity and universality in Blooms and Stephens lives, and which turns their hallucinations into a force that brings them closer to each other. Bloom and Stephen have to become closer, and it is clear from the very beginning of the novel, but these are the hallucinations in Circe that make such proximity possible, desirable, and even inevitable. The ways in which Stephens and Blooms hallucinations intersect simply leave them no chance to be further separated from each other. The Mabbot street entrance of nighttown, before which stretches an uncobbled transiding set with skeleton tracks, red and green will-o-the-wisps and danger signals (Joyce 1922, p. 351)  everything that Bloom sees on his way is so dangerous and even menacing, that he is confident he has to protect Stephen from the emerging threats. However, if traditional non-modernist writers would seek to present this quest for the unknown as the direct pathway to tragedy and death, such quest for Joyce paves the way to hallucinations as the only opportunity to answer the questions that are regularly asked by both Stephen and Bloom no matter, whether their hallucinations are caused by the so-called epilepsy or the alcoholic influence of absinthe, they offer a unique chance to understand inner urges and hidden desires and to resolve the anxieties that rule Blooms and Stephens lives.

    However, and this is another modernist feature of Joyce story, the answers Bloom and Stephen are likely to get through the hallucinations are not as important as the process of thinking and rethinking them. Neither question opens up a space for a question to expand and metamorphose into a quest. It would see that self-imposed and self-evident enigmas cannot generate and sustain purposive mental or narrative movement (DiBattista 2008). These enigmas are as self-imposed as they are also important to see the stream of consciousness as the critical element of the human being. My spines a bit limp. Go or turn And this food Eat it and get all pigsticky. Absurd I am. Waste of money. One and eightpence too much.  Strange how they take to me. Even that brute today. Better speak to him first. Like women they like rencontres. Stinks like a polecat. Chacun son gout. He might be mad. Fido (Joyce 1922, p. 365). These disrupted thoughts and associations actually reflect what is going on in readers minds when they face similar situations or experience similar conflicts between their inner perceptions and external events. Joyce modernism is unique in a sense that it positions this mixture of realism and modernism as one of the basic modernist features of his writing. Also, this modernism shows Bloom and Stephen as both general and unique, and such reconciliation of material particularity with the universal by way of chaos (Horowitz 2006) confirms Circe as one of the central representatives of high modernism.

In the context of the modernistic writing in Circe, gazing stands out as the most important means of understanding the human soul and inner anxieties. In Circe, gazing prevail over other forms of self-identification and self-investigation Bloom gazes ahead reading on the wall a scrawled chalk legend Wet Dream and a phallic design (Joyce 1922, p. 364) in the presence of Zoe, Bloom gazes in the tawny crystal of her eyes, ringed with kohol (Joyce 1922, p. 377) he gazes far away mournfully and gazes at the veiled mauve light (Joyce 1922, p. 398). In his discussion of Joyces novel, Gordon (2004) shows gazing as the basic prerequisite for making hallucinations active, productive, and useful for the analysis of Blooms anxieties (p. 158), but it is also clear that gazing resembles a test, which both Bloom and Stephen have to pass in order to confirm their predisposition to hallucinations and in order to make sure that they can use these as an instrument of self-analysis. This is a form of interaction between the material and the aesthetic, a form of physiological (gazing) justification for the psychological (hallucinations) ability to resolve personal and social anxieties, although the resolution itself does not mean anything against the process of investigating the truth (if there is any). What seems more interesting, however, is the role which these hallucinations play in bringing Bloom closer to his psychological portrait  hallucinations make it extremely easier for the reader to understand the meaning of the fetishist and masochistic urges, with which Bloom is bound to live his life.

    These masochistic signs become visible at readers facing the meaning and significance of Blooms correspondence with Martha in earlier chapters, but it is through Blooms being beaten by Bella (Bello), and his being fascinated and nervous about Bellas (Bellos) lingerie that make Blooms psychological features more understandable to the reader The door opens. Bella Cohen, a massive whoremistress enters. She is dressed in a threequarter ivory gown, fringed round the hem with tasselled selvedge, and cools herself flirting a black horn fan like Minnie Hauck in Carmen. On her left hand are wedding and keeping rings. Her eyes are deeply carboned. She has a sproutling moustache (Joyce 1922, p. 404). Since this moment, Bloom cannot turn his eyes away from her dressing and her fan  the two objects of Blooms fetishism. Here, finally, Joyce reveals his profound psychological thinking which is a part of his modernistic vision he shows Bloom as the one who has a fraught sense of masculinity and power and a man who also experiences an increasing sense of guilt of what is going on in his life (Faulkner 1977). He does realise the meaning of his fetishist desires, and that Bella ultimately turns into Bello and abuses Bloom also emphasises his own impotence and the lack of masculine power.

    As any modernist writer, Joyce could not limit his investigations and strivings to underlining the masculine impotence of Bloom rather, he had to look deeper into how individuals (in general and in particular) seek to resolve these inner conflicts. As such, Bello for Bloom is both his punishment and his reward. Coffman (2002) is correct in that the beating and abuse by Bello is a unique and convenient way to fetishise Bloom, and this fetishisation brings the masculine phallic power back into Bloom and makes him feel stronger You will be laced with cruel force into vicelike corsets of soft dove coutille with whalebone busk to the diamondtrimmed pelvis, the absolute outside edge, while your figure, plumper than when at large, will be restrained in nettight frocks, pretty two ounce petticoats and fringes and things stamped, of course, with my houseflag (Joyce 1922, p. 409). Again, it is not clear and probably it is not very important whether the phallic power which Bloom acquires through Bello will resolve his anxieties. As a modernist writer, Joyce is increasingly concentrated on the process of consciousness and analysis itself. The more important is the role these hallucinations play for both Stephen and Bloom.

    As the reflection of his modernist strivings, Joyce uses Bloom and Stephen as the two most common representatives of the Dublins crowd, and their usualness (commonness) contributes to the overall chaotic nature of his novel, but the hallucinations in which Stephen and Bloom engage in Circe also show how important they can be for their lives. On the one hand, Stephen wants to promote his own professional and intellectual independence My centre of gravity is displaced. I have forgotten the trick. Let us sit down somewhere and discuss. Stuggle for life is the law of existence but modern philirenists, probably the tsar and the king of England, have invented arbitration. But in here it is I must kill the priest and the king (Joyce 1922, p. 438). At this very time, Bloom tries to protect him from the consequences of his wording and to some extent, he exemplifies the caregiver and a true father to Stephen, whom he considers to be his lost son He said nothing. Not a word. A pure misunderstanding (Joyce 1922, p. 441). Although at the very end of the chapter Bloom is the one to support Stephen in his unconsciousness, the real modernism is in that Joyce makes it possible for the hallucinations of the two different people to intersect and even to interact in ways, which bring their real lives together and change their perceptions about each other.
   
    James Joyces Ulysses is one of the brightest examples of the modernist writing. The modernist character of Joyces novel and its fifteenth episode is in that, by taking the two casual and common people from the Dublin crowd, the writer seeks to investigate their inner worlds. His investigation and the hallucinations which he uses in Circe are nothing else but the convenient tools of knowledge and a good means to position the stream of consciousness as the basic element of the human being hallucinations are used as a literary technique and as an instrument of psychological investigation. That Stephen and Bloom are the two usual representatives of their society makes them equally particular and general, and turns modernism into a unique manner of reconciling the generality and particularity of these characters. The blurred line between reality and illusion makes Ulysses and Circe, in particular, even more modernistic. However, the real modernism in Circe is not in that individuals can experience hallucinations, but in that their hallucinations interact and intersect in ways that bring them closer to each other and change their real perceptions about their lives.