Chapter 18

Penelope Summary

Molly Bloom lies in bed thinking over her day and the visit of Blazes Boylan. Various scenes from her past life crowd into her mind. She thinks of Leopold Bloom in particular. Bloom has asked for breakfast in bed next morning. Molly is amazed, for he has never asked for such a thing since the old days when he used to act sick to try to waken Mrs. RiordanÂ’s sympathies. Molly was unsympathetic to Mrs. RiordanÂ’s Puritanism. But she admits approving of her husbandÂ’s kindliness to her, as to all old ladies, waiters and beggars. She suspects that he has had an affair during the day. She thinks that his account of his movements was a pack of lies. She had caught him two days ago concealing his letter to Martha and suspects that it was a letter to some poor girl he was deceiving. She does not much mind, as long as he keeps her out of the house. She remembers the embarrassment of his affair with Mary Driscoll, their maid. But she has entertained her lover, Boylan, in the house. Bloom suspects something, she feels.

Molly feels some revulsion against the sexual act. She remembers the difficulties of making confession of carnal acts. She wonders if Boylan is lying awake thinking of her. She had fallen asleep after he left, to be awakened by a clap of thunder. She thinks over her affair with Boylan. She broods over the physical disadvantages of women. Mrs. PurefoyÂ’s annual pregnancies are a clear manifestation. She recollects her last visit there, a "squad of them falling over one another and bawling you couldnÂ’t hear your ear supposed to be healthy." She thinks of Mrs. Breen who had once been jealous of her and furious at Bloom. But she remains impressed by her husbandÂ’s refusal to be provoked into rage. Bloom, after all, is a better catch than poor, mad Breen.

The noise of a trainÂ’s whistle turns her thoughts to the power of the locomotives and the life of the train drivers in their "roasting engines." The oppressive heat of the night summons up images of hot days in Gibraltar, particularly the hot, dull days just before she left. She tosses on the bed, trying to get comfortable. She laments the drabness of her present life. She recalls at length the romantic attachment she had had as a girl on Gibraltar to Lieutenant Mulvey of H.M.S. Calypso. She remembers also other flirtations of distant days with idealized young men such as Lieutenant Gardner who was killed in the South African war. The noise of the train brings her thoughts back to reality. She is again furious with Bloom for his unromantic presence, sleeping beside her "with his cold feet on me."

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