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Chapter 6 - The Funeral: Bob and Bod I read your posts after I read through the chapter, Hades. You have seen some things which I had not. I will come back to your comments after I say what is in my mind about this chapter on funeral. May be in a separate post if this one gets too long. The one thing that strikes me most in this chapter is the disrespectfulness. It really matters to nobody here that Dignam is dead. Whenever I read something about death, I am reminded of the first sentence in a Kannada novel called 'Alida mele = After Dying (death)' by Shivaram Karanth, one of the most beloved writers of Karnataka (India). And this sentence is: "Everyone should lead such a life, that after one dies, atleast one or two, who hear of it, shed a few tears." And here nobody sheds any tears. In the coach Bloom is worried about the piece of soap on which he is sitting. In the church at the funeral service, he spreads his newspaper carefully before sitting on it. Later (and this was the last straw, for me) he thinks: "Lots of them lying around here: lings, hearts, livers. Old rusty pumps: damn the thing else. The resurrection and the life. Once you are dead you are dead...." The disrespect for the dead continues later during the burial too. The caretaker telling the joke about the two drunks and the statue of the saviour wrt that of Mulcahy. Of course, Martin says, 'That is all does with a purpose. It's pure goodheartedness..." There is another nice joke about Macintosh. That passage is one of the nicest ones in the chapter. Sure, once you are dead you are dead. But if there is no feeling of loss for Poor Dignam, why did these people and many others attend the funeral? And as Bod said nobody really knows the deadman. What is the importance of this chapter to Ulysses on the whole? If importance is wrong word, let me ask, what role does this chapter play in the book? Bob, you make an important point when you say that to trace the connection of the details of this chapter to Hades is amusing, but does not bring much in understanding. Still, this is one chapter in which I can see the connections. The four rivers, the hats, ... And there is this one other thing: When they 'mourners' meet Stephen, he has just started out for his walk on the beach. When Bloom has been dreaming of kidneys and other gizzards, Stephen has this early morning conversation with Mulligan, Haines, and the old lady. When Bloom is out on his walk, picking up his letter, dropping in the church, etc, Stephen was teaching the boys history, and later has this talk with Mr. Deasy. Now Bloom is off to take part in the funeral, and is busy thinking his thoughts though he is in the company of other people, Stephen is going on his solitary walk, also thinking. So far Mr. Bloom comes across like a happy -go-lucky fellow, who does nothing even if he knows that his wife is going to betray (I don't agree with the use of this verb, if he knew it anyway, it is no betrayal) him later, so he is kind of a weak character. Stephen on the other hand is a tortured character. Well, that is all for now. The one thing I had missed in my reading, and which Bob mentioned was about the personality of Martin Cunningham. Will have to read the chapter once again! Nice weekend, Chandra
Death is part of this book. As the book opens we are quickly told that Stephen has lost his mother. Bloom has lost a Father and a Son. These thoughts are with Bloom throughout the day. In this section death is for Dignam "breakdown . . . heart" (Parnell like) The small coffin they pass remind Bloom of his dead son. "A dwarf's face, mauve and wrinkled like little Rudy's was. Dwarf's body, weak as putty, in a whitelined deal box. Burial friendly society pays. Penny a week for a sod of turf. Our. Little. Beggar. Baby. Meant nothing. Mistake of nature. If it's healthy it's from the mother. If not from the man. Better luck next time." (tristam shandy? anyone?) Mr Powers talks of the disgrace of suicide.(Blooms father killed himself) This gets him to thinking about a passage in Hamlet. Hamlet is another big theme in this book. Hamlet will pop up again with the grave diggers talking. During the funeral Bloom analyzes the process from an outsiders point of view. (Bloom is ALWAYS an outsider)Bloom's Jewish parentage makes him an outsider to the Catholics in the cab/funeral. And The soap is a theme in the book. see http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Bistro/9161/soap.html for more info.
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