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SBufo - Molly's monologue
[author: Sara Bufo - postdate: 2008-01-02]

Task: answer the questions

OBJECTIVES
Cultural: study/analyze the final section of "Ulysses"
Intertextual:/
Linguistic:improve writing skills

 

Text

MOLLY'S MONOLOGUE

How is the exotic atmosphere of Gibraltar recreated?

Gibraltar is the land where everything conveys. Molly describes it enlisting all sorts of nationalities (Spanish, Greeks, Jews, Arabs, people coming "from all the ends of Europe, Moors), animals (fowl, donkeys), places (fowl market, Larby Sharon, old castle, shop, posadas, wineshops, sea, gardens, roads, houses), colors (white, crimson, pink, blue, yellow) and flowers (rosegardens, Jessamine, geranium, cactuses). As a result, Gibraltar is chaotic and full of life. The little streets contribute in giving such an impression. Furthermore, Gibraltar bursts with sensuality: the Spanish girls laugh, the Moors are handsome and "the old window of the posadas glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron".

In conclusion, in Gibraltar there is everything, and the country is an icon of love. No land is better than Gibraltar, where passion lives and thrives day by day.

Why is Molly attracted to her future husband?

Molly Bloom has a very strong personality. She seems to want her man to do whatever she wants, and likes to be the center of attention.  Therefore, she is attracted by Leopold because she is aware that he would do anything for her. Molly herself thinks: "that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him".  She somehow plays with him as a predator does with its prey , and is fully aware that her sensuality has ensnared him. Therefore, she uses it as the perfect tool to make him do whatever she likes. Moreover, sensuality is part of Molly's personality. After 16 years, she still remembers their long kiss, and the romantic words her husband said: "the sun shines for you". Such words reveal that, according to Leopold, it isn't just him, but the whole world and beyond that  serve Molly. Everything seems to exist for her.