Parent and child themes8in Ulysses focus around issues of continuity,
meaning, in part, a sense of belonging to a community that transcends time and the vicissitudes of the present. Like Irish politics and colonialism, the ideal of continuity involves adaptation to change and, in the end, survival. The individual, himself or herself, stands as symbol of the adaptability and the survival of his or her ancestors. By adapting and changing, the individ- ual also makes a gesture to the future. Importantly, not all the characters in
Ulyssesmake such a gesture to the future, nor do they all come to terms with their past in a way that enables them to better survive in the present. Some characters, including Stephen, see their past and their culture’s past and fu- ture, in whole or in part, as a calcified presence or possibility, unchangeable and immutable. Joyce traces the search for a sense of continuity through numerous characters, including not only Stephen but also Bloom, Molly, Dignam, Deasy, and others. Joyce also focuses on themes of religion and na- tion as they stand for images of the parent or of the child.
A study of a variety of parent and child themes in Ulysses reveals a diver- sity of relationships and perspectives. Those that offer promise focus on adaptability and change. After Stephen and Bloom, one of the primary fa- ther/son metaphors involves Stephen’s theory regarding Shakespeare and Hamlet. One aspect of Stephen’s theory presents Shakespeare using his art to establish a connection with his dead son, which indicates that Shake- speare creates a continuity through artistry that real life had severed. His uses art to revise circumstance. Another aspect of Stephen’s theory indi- cates that artistry can give voice to a sense of severed continuity. In giving voice to the broken connection, art imaginatively reestablishes that sev- ered contact. Specifically, Shakespeare and his wife, Stephen’s theory sug- gests, experienced difficulties. By giving voice, through Hamlet, to a sense of tragedy and loss involving betrayed love, the play becomes a living, speaking, and breathing vessel of lost relations, imaginatively compensat- ing for lost physical contact and emotional intimacy. The story of Reuben J offers a contrast to Stephen’s theory of Shakespeare and Hamlet. Reuben J failed to see his son as a living presence. Reuben J’s son’s near-death meta- phorically stands for the father’s rejection. Moreover, the father negates his
son’s resurrection by treating him as a priceable commodity. In another ex- ample of father/son relations, Bloom’s and Cunningham’s efforts to give Dignam’s son a sense of a secure financial and educational future indicate that they attempt to establish a living legacy of the father in the future pros- pects of his surviving child. In terms of Molly’s relationship with her father, she recalls her father’s life and military service, linking it to her memories of Gibraltar and to her early memories of romance. She weaves her father into her ever-changing reminiscences, making him a continuing living presence in her life. However, Molly initially struggles with the image of her daughter, in part, seeing Milly as a sexual rival. Ultimately, Molly links Milly to her memories of developing sexuality, allowing for a sense of conti- nuity. Artistry, imagination, and memory have the potential to ensure continuity by demonstrating adaptation through literal and imaginative progeny.
Stephen’s imagined and actual relationships with his paternal figures of- fer a far less promising vision of adaptability and continuity. In relation to his mother’s memory, to his personal spirituality, and to female images of Ireland, Stephen cannot grow beyond a sense of loss and severed connec- tion. Throughout Ulysses, memories of his dead mother haunt Stephen. He does not wash, avoiding water since her death. Moreover, his sense of guilt, associated with his actions at the time of her death, continually obscures his thoughts. Stephen refuses to embrace the memory of his living mother, only thinking of her suffering and dead, even to the point of imagining her rotting corpse coming before him. By associating water with her memory, Stephen metaphorically rejects life and the possibility of purgation of guilt. He cannot reach beyond the reality of her absence to embrace himself, the symbol of the continuing presence of her life. He neglects himself physi- cally, intellectually, and emotionally, giving his body and spirit a dead real- ity to mirror his mother’s corpse. Moreover, because Stephen refuses to pray at his mother’s deathbed, he links not simply his lost Catholic faith but also any spirituality to the memory of his lost mother. Specifically, Stephen per- sists in rejecting an emotional engagement with his spirituality. He does embrace the intellectual elements of his religion, using Jesuit-taught logic and reason to battle Mulligan and others. Ultimately though, his personal spirituality fails him just as his thoughts become clouded on Sandymount Strand. Significantly, Stephen in this episode also tries but fails to write a poem, thinks of, but then rejects the idea of visiting his mother’s family, and misperceives cockle pickers as midwives carrying a misbirth. Moreover, Stephen also experiences a sense of betrayal when he comes to terms with an allegorical figure representing Ireland. He feels slighted by the milk
woman, who treats his rivals, Haines and Mulligan, with deference. Ste- phen, obviously, wants more from her than she can or will give him. Rather than deal with someone who is essentially a stranger to him on polite terms, Stephen judges her harshly for failing to give him what he thinks he needs from her. He cannot see beyond himself and, within himself, discovers only pain and loss. Stephen persistently refuses to grow beyond his mother’s death, freezing his emotional and creative development and contributing to the deterioration of his physical condition.
Likewise, Stephen rejects a series of father figures, refusing to grow be- yond a sense of betrayal. Specifically, Stephen accurately recognizes the myriad of his father’s failures. Simon Dedalus relinquishes his paternal and financial obligations to his family. However, Stephen cannot overcome or grow beyond his father’s failures. He cannot live his life without his father’s behavior haunting him. Stephen decides not to visit his mother’s family, in part because he imagines his father’s ridicule. Further, he cannot sing or play music without thinking to adopt his father’s mannerisms. Similarly, Stephen, while perceiving the failings of other father figures, like Deasy, re- mains under their influence. Stephen recalls Deasy’s words about money, models his anti-Semitism, and delivers his letter to the paper. In fact, Ste- phen uses the bottom of Deasy’s letter to write his attempt at a poem, juxta- posing both of their creative works. Just as he physically separates himself from his father, Stephen physically removes himself from Deasy’s presence by resigning. However, just as Stephen remains haunted by his father’s presence, he remains haunted by Deasy’s presence. Stephen continues his pattern of rejection with Bloom, even though the elder man offers poten- tial compensation for Stephen’s failed father figures. Specifically, Bloom offers Stephen a home and the potential for financial security. Bloom also offers the possibility of having Stephen pursue teaching and his artistry through singing. In rejecting Bloom, Stephen demonstrates that he rejects the possibility of growing beyond the limited paternal examples of his fa- ther and Garrett Deasy. Stephen marks his relationships with paternal fig- ures with acts of rejection. He physically separates himself from his father, Bloom, and Deasy. However, in separating himself, Stephen actually em- braces the limited voice of his two negative father figures while spurning the potential for growth offered by Bloom.
In sharp contrast to Ulysses’ representation of Stephen Dedalus’s failed efforts to come to terms with his paternal figures, the novel offers a Leopold Bloom, who can come to terms with the sudden deaths of a father and a son.
Ulyssesalso offers a Bloom who comes to terms with these losses by embrac- ing possibilities for future growth. Bloom’s father’s suicide has the potential
to destroy a paternal sense of continuity. Indeed, the trauma consequent of his father’s death haunts Bloom, calcifying the memory of the father for Bloom. However, Bloom overcomes the difficulties related to his father’s absence by embracing two symbols of paternal inheritance, his heritage as a Jew and being the son of an immigrant. Bloom’s Jewish heritage has the possibility to limit him, casting him as an outsider and making him vulner- able to prejudice. Certainly, Bloom encounters prejudice and is excluded. However, he compensates for his exclusion and for being the object of deri- sion by embracing his heritage and by integrating it into the more main- stream, for Ireland, Christian tradition. Bloom preaches a gospel of love and points out that Christ was a Jew. Bloom does the same with his immi- grant heritage, transforming what many use to isolate him into a source of pride. Bloom aligns himself with Arthur Griffith, who looked to the land of Bloom’s ancestors, Hungary, for a model for Irish sovereignty. Conversely, Bloom does let the death of his son haunt him. Rudy’s loss inaugurates a prolonged period of sterile relations between Molly and Bloom. He, essen- tially, rejects the promise of future life, freezing his creative-sexual produc- tion at the time of his son’s death. However, with Stephen, Bloom embraces life, making a gesture of vulnerability and openness. Even though Stephen ultimately rejects him, Bloom imagines a future as a steward of Stephen’s growth and potential. Bloom imagines a place where Stephen can develop his talents. In this imaginative gesture, even though it may not come to fruition, Bloom opens his mind to a possible future that had been sealed with Rudy’s death. Bloom also changes his attitude toward his daughter. As the novel progresses, Bloom begins to see Milly more and more as his heir. Ironically, Stephen’s anti-Semitic song further raises the possibility of Milly as heir in Bloom’s mind as the song engages Bloom’s em- pathy for his daughter. Ultimately, Bloom overcomes his sense of rupture, consequent of his son’s and father’s death, by imaginatively embracing a potential future with Stephen as a filial figure and by coming to terms with Milly’s presence.
Ulyssesoffers two models of parent/child relations. On the one hand, the story of Reuben J’s and Stephen’s failed relationships with their paternal figures indicates that the sense of continuity inherent in mother-child and father-child relations can be rejected if tragedy and loss become the focus of relationships. Stephen and Reuben J, essentially, reject their life in their various acts of paternal rejection. Conversely, Molly and Bloom struggle with loss and rejection but eventually overcome these negative tendencies and embrace the life-giving potential inherent in imaginative and literal regeneration. Ironically, Stephen too intellectually understands his
life-giving potential; he attempts a poem and tells the story of Shake- speare’s compensations. However, Stephen cannot act to save himself.