1. Notes on Molly’s Monologue
from Ulysses
by James Joyce

2. An extreme example of interior monologue
On first looking at the text → evident deviations from common narrative language:
No punctuation
No paragraphs
Incorrect spelling
No apparent logical connections
An extreme example of interior monologue

3. Content
Molly’s half-conscious thoughts
from the present (night)
to the immediate future (following day)
a specific episode in the past (16 years ago, the time of Leopold’s marriage proposal)
her past youth in Gibraltar
Memories are intertwined and seem to melt into each other at the end

4. the past, and in particular her experience in Gibraltar, looks more attractive
landscape
intensity of experience

5. repeated at least 8 times in the passage
FLOWERS
Word flower(s)
repeated at least 8 times in the passage
All sorts of shapes and smells and colours
And fields of oats and wheat, primroses, violets, rhododendrons, figtrees, rosegardens, jessamine, geraniums, cactuses

7. Connected with
the house
herself, all women (woman’s body)
nature
Gibraltar

8. Exotic atmosphere recreated through an accumulation of images:
GIBRALTAR
Exotic atmosphere recreated through an accumulation of images:
different people (Spanish girls, Greeks, jews, etc., Moors)
details of landscape and colours (flowers, impetuous nature, red sea at sunset)
elements of places (posadas, the boat at Algeciras, wine shops, governor’s house)
noises/sounds (girls laughing, torrent, castanets, clucking, games)

9. Lots of references to sensory experiences, connected with all the senses:
smell
taste
touch
sight
hearing

10. thoughts and impressions are connected by AND
(Molly thinks through images following one another)
overlapping of memories
association of different thoughts and impressions: created by similar sounds or recurring words
SUN
FLOWERS
YES

11. End of the passage:
crescendo in rhythm brought about by the closer and closer repetition of YES → a list of images of Gibraltar followed by the recollection of when she made love for the first time and of when she answered ‘Yes’ to Leopold

12. Molly’s character → womanhood, femininity
enthusiasm for life
amorality
genuine sensuality
YES
a way to review her thoughts and memories before going to sleep
her answer to Leopold’s marriage proposal and to the boy in her past
a symbolic openness to and acceptance of life

13. actress Niamh Cusack describes Molly Bloom

14. Yes ?