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MonkeyNotes-Ulysses by James Joyce
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The barroom setting, the flirtations with the bar-maids, the
genial confusion and the wealth of witty conversation accurately
catch the gay and hectic atmosphere of a Dublin tavern. The
universally sentimental response to the songs touchingly
represents the unifying force of the pathetic in Irish song and
legend. Bloom, we may notice, leaves while the others are
transfixed. The characters incongruously gathered around the
piano find, in music, some inner harmony and beauty in the
midst of their oppressively drab lives. At the height of Ban
DollardÂ’s fine song, Miss Douce and Bloom exchange
meaningful glances in the mirror. After Bloom leaves the bar,
he encounters a wretched street-walker and recognizes her with
momentary horror.
"Sirens" is the chapter in which the possibility of renewed
communion is recognized. What has been separate starts
towards convergence: Stephen and humanity, Bloom and Molly.
The much-argued musical form of the prelude can be viewed as
the first symbol of this convergence in the chapter. Bloom
recognizes his inevitable paternal role ("kismet, Fate"), as he
moves toward a new harmony. The fragments are drawn
together into a cohesive pattern. In this we comprehend
precisely the coherence of inner and outer music. The music of
the blood sounds as a sea ever renewed in a shell. It is like a
Hebraic melody chanted from father to son, or in the silence of
love.
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