Ulysses Sex Quotes

As Bloom passes the Irish Times, he remembers that he put an ad in the paper for a lady typist. That is how he met Martha Clifford with whom he is now carrying on an illicit (though relatively tame) correspondence. What does it say about Bloom that he lives out his sexual life through written letters? Does language itself become sexualized for Bloom? In what ways is he repressed and why?

In this scene, Bloom has just finished masturbating to Gerty MacDowell. How does Joyce stylistically capture the down feeling after an orgasm? Hint: notice sentence length. Also, Bloom has just finished masturbating in public. Is he a disgusting man or is this a forgivable act? Has he disrespected Gerty? If so, how?

Mary Driscoll, an ex-servant of the Bloom's, is one of the first women to testify against Bloom as a lewd man in his masochistic court fantasy. To an extent, her story is later corroborated by Molly. In general, it seems that the imaginary charges brought against Bloom are mainly a result of his guilt over his sexual desires. Why do people in general (and Bloom in particular) feel guilty about their sexuality? What is there to feel guilty about, if anything?

Here, Bloom imagines that he is on trial for lewd conduct, and that Dr. Dixon has just announced (in his imaginary court) that Bloom is pregnant with eight children. A few lines later, Bloom actually gives birth. What does the book seem to say about men's relation to the sexual process? Are men envious of motherhood and the pains of birth? Do they feel estranged from the creation process? If you know anything about Freud, how does this turn the good doctor on his head?

Here, we get a glimpse of Bloom's masochistic fantasy while he is in Bella Cohen's brothel. Bloom imagines Ms. Cohen like an evil circus master. She has become masculine and he has become feminine and she is abusing him and treating him like a prostitute. How strange is Bloom's fantasy? Meaning, does everyone think about what it would be like to be the opposite sex and just not talk about it? What does Bloom's masochistic fantasy say about his own sexual confidence? Is it just a case of him empathizing with the prostitutes?

Here, we are in Bloom's masochistic fantasy in Bella Cohen's brothel. He is imagining Boylan and Molly having sex, and he is outside cheering them on. How is this dream/nightmare a way for Bloom to deal with the fact of his wife's affair? Is it further confirmation of his impotence or does it somehow show an effort to be involved in the sexual act, if only peripherally?

Here, the narrator explains why Bloom is envious of Boylan. In short, Bloom's envy stems from Boylan's sexual vigor. Yet, the narrator explains the sexual act in cold and mechanical terms. To what extent is this true of sex without love? To what extent does it just shield Bloom from his envy (by imagining the interaction between Boylan and Molly as mechanical instead of passionate)?

In blunt terms, Molly Bloom here describes how unsatisfying sex with her husband would be. (This is, of course, if they had had sex in the past ten years.) How is sexual desire negotiated and managed in a marriage? Does each partner have an obligation to satisfy the other sexually? If they are not satisfied, do they have an obligation to keep mum about it? What happens if you are in love with someone but find that you are sexually incompatible?

For the record, this gets much more graphic. Here, we have Molly thinking back on sex with Boylan as she lays in bed next to her husband. It was sentences like this that led the first readers of Ulysses to think that Molly Bloom really wasn't much more than a prostitute. If we want to approve of and accept Molly as a character (which we do), then how can we reconcile her blatant sexual desire with her role as a mother and a wife?

We here learn that not only does Molly suspect Bloom of a number of indiscretions and not only have they not had sex in ten years, but Bloom isn't even physically affectionate with her. What role does their son Rudy's death play in their sexual relationship? Why might it have taken the pleasure out of sex for them? Does Bloom's behavior justify Molly's decision to have an affair?