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Chapter 6 - Dignam: One of the crazy things about Hades, is the character of Paddy Dignam himself. WHo knows Dignam?? Certainly these four don't really know him. THey are rather too jovial in the cab to have really felt for him. His figure is just as mysterious as M'Intosh. And later we'll see the appearrance (or rather siting) of his ghost. I'll try to keep up my postings. THanks, bod
Good point about Paddy. Bloom seems more aware of what he was like than his companions when he reflects that he died of drink, not the euphemistic heart failure that the others claim. Young Patrick Dignam has vivid memories of his father that brings him before us in a lively way but Patrick seems not to have been a very bright child. Perhaps he is not very old: his feelings are shallow and he seems to be making a great effort to recall his father. His recollections are touching for us but they are not likely to have a lasting effect on Patrick. Gerty MacDowell remembers that Paddy was a singer and that he sang with her father, another hard-drinking ne'er-do-well whose wife takes the occasion of Paddy's death to warn her husband against the evils of drink. The great effect of Paddy's death is the breakup of the family despite the effort of his friends to exact quasi-legally money from the insurance company. Father Conmee - to oblige Martin Cunningham - will help place Patrick in a trade school. The friends of the deceased plan to see if they can get the girls into convent schools. In depressed Ireland the death of either parent spells the end of family life. Joyce deliberately does not characterize Paddy. He is the equivalent of the sailor who met his death and whose spirit begs Odysseus to see to his funeral rites so that he can enter the kingdom the dead. The name that comes to mind is Elpenor. It seems appropriate that I should have difficulty remembering his name. Homer was no more vivid about his unfortunate than Joyce was about Paddy. Bob HOME! |