Fireworks on the Beach

This episode is named for Nausicaa, the Phaeacian princess who, while playing ball with her maids-in-waiting, discovers the naked Odysseus washed up on the shore of their island. Though she desires to marry our hero, she and her parents help facilitate Odysseus's safe return to Ithaca.

As with the previous episode, we again find the chapter narrated from a specific perspective, this time that of a young woman, Gertie MacDowell. Unlike the pessimistic narrator of "Cyclops," who has a tendency to deflate and reduce, Gertie's voice is that of a sentimentalist, one who tends to soften and romanticize reality. The contrast between the language and style of Gertie and that of Bloom - whose consciousness we reenter halfway through the episode (p. 367) - is stark indeed. The episode makes great use of a series of other ironic contrasts: Gertie's love vs. Bloom's lust, the Virgin Mary vs. the temptress Gertie, the spirituality of the religious ceremony vs. the materialism and fireworks of the Mirus bazaar, to name but a few.

Note also a few other interesting aspects of this chapter. The beach on which Bloom is walking is the same stretch of beach Stephen walked on that morning during "Proteus"; Bloom may find Stephen's poem on p. 381. Also, note that it is now 8:00 at night. For the first time in the book, a significant stretch of time has elapsed: we're missing two or three hours in between "Cyclops" and "Nausicaa," which apparently involved a visit of Bloom to the Dignam house. Another curious point involving time is that Bloom's watch has stopped at 4:30 ... likely the time Blazes Boylan and Molly got it on. Another point of interest involves Bloom's masturbation; not only is this yet another taboo bodily function (along with defecation, urination, menstruation, and copulation) not often presented in so-called realistic novels, but it is also proof positive that there is nothing wrong with Bloom "down there." Bloom can indeed "get it up." Finally, here we are over 300 pages into the novel and Joyce continues to provide the reader with expository information, including finally (on p. 357) a physical description of the novel's protagonist! Of course, nailing down Bloom (or, for that matter, any human being, Joyce seems to suggest) is as difficult as completing the cryptic message Bloom leaves for Gerty in the sand: "I. AM. A."