TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

From Ulysses: PENELOPE

 

Sequences

Structure and layout of the text do not suggest a biunique organization of the text. However it has been possible to consider various sections of it according to a theme communicated.

In the first lines, Molly’s getting up in a morning is told. The woman imagines different people at that moment (Chinese people, a priest, some nuns, the person next door) and, while looking at the flower-patterned wallpaper in the room, she thinks of flowers. The thought is a stimulus for a rich mind-travel in time and space. Firstly flowers remind the woman she has to do some shopping during the day in order to decorate her house for a possible visit of his husband’s friend (some flowers to put about the place in case he brings him home tomorrow). Secondly they make her reflect about how to wear (I wear a white rose). In additional she reflects about her love for flowers (I love flowers Id love to have the whole place swimming in roses), consequently the woman deeply thinks about Nature’s beauty, variety and vitality (theres nothing like nature). Nature becomes a pretext for pondering about religion and atheists, who do not recognize divinity in world and are not sure about the sun rising every day (they might as well try to stop the usn from rising). Sun is a second activating element. It makes the character recall a past memory (the sun shines for you). She remembers the day, when her husband proposed him to her (the day I got him to propose to me) in a precise setting (among the rhododendrons … sixteen years ago). Fundamental memories are the passionate kiss they had (that long kiss, how he kissed me) and the reason why she knew he was the right man for her (we are flowers all a womans body). She liked him because he demonstrated her that he understood or felt what a woman is. The memory is evocated as an epiphany because it was a manifested flash of awareness (that was why..I knew I could), perception (all the pleasure) and insight (I was thinking of so many things). She then reminds other men, who he did not known (he didn’t know of Mulvev and Mr Stanhope and Heester and father and old capitan), probably her lovers. After that she recalls a past cruise (boat, sea), an exotic travel, in which they saw various people from all the ends on Europe. At the end of the text she concludes the previous recollection of the proposal day considering the importance of flowers (I was a Flower). She surely decided to marry him (I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes .. yes I said yes I will yes), she now remembers their passion and complicity (I put my arms around him .. drew him down Jo me so he could feel my breast all perfume … his heart was going like mad).

 

Time

Various dimensions of time are presented:

-       Present time: early morning (unearthly hour)

-       Future time of sudden decision or plans: during the day (Ill, tomorrow)

-       Past time recollected: sixteen years ago

They are all at the same layer, so that it is created parallelism between past, present and future. Chronological time does not matter, since the simultaneous concept of time is evocated.

 

Space

Different spaces are evocated:

-       The place she is in: her bedroom

-       Far place: China

-       Places in her city: streets and shops (Lombard street, Lambes there beside Findlaters, shop at 71/2d)

-       Vital nature (mountais, sea, country with fields, rivers, lakes)

-       European countries (all the ends of Europe)

Mainly, space is virtual, both with reference to past memories and to nature itself. There are also concrete places, named with reference to the present.

 

Characters and characterization

Characters appearing in the text are:

- “I”: Molly

The readers knows Molly trough her thoughts, past memories and future plans, evocated directly in her mind, which present her sensual nature, her original personality, her elegance and what she likes

- “he”: Molly’s husband or his friend

The readers knows them according to Molly, whose perspective is given

- Mulvev and Mr Stanhope and Heester and father and old capitan: secondary characters just named

 

Language

1)   Graphetic level: absence of conventional signs for contract form;

2)   Syntax: absence of any form of punctuation;

3)   Lexicon: key-word is flowers and natural elements are widely present

Flowers are linked to:

-       pattern in wallpaper;

-       wallpaper shops;

-       element of decoration in house;

-       natural presence in fields and country;

-       rhododendrons and location recalled;

-       woman’s body according to the character’s husband;

-       the character’s idea of being a woman;

-       symbol for femininity;

-       symbol for passion and sensuality;

-       symbol for the character’s personality

 

Narrator and narrative techniques

The narrator is eclipsed in the protagonist’s point of view (“I” refers to Molly) and directly presents her perspective.

Flux of consciousness is always present in the text, activated by different sensible or abstract elements and connected to past recollections and future plans involving the protagonist’s mind-travel both in time and space.

 

Effect on the reader

The reader first feel dis-oriented for the apparent dis-organization of the text. Commitment, sensitivity and flexibility together with willing of interpretation sensitivity are necessary elements for going deep into the complex, rich and involving text and appreciate it.