PENELOPE (ANALYSIS)

Penelope is the last part of the eighteen chapter of Ulysses by James Joyce. This part is composed by an interior monologue of Molly Bloom, the wife of the main character Leopold Bloom. Joyce uses the narrative technique of the stream of consciousness: he represents Molly's thoughts as they come to her mind without a logical order. The innovation introduced by James Joyce is the lack of punctuation and of subdivision in paragraphs and it makes more difficult for the reader understanding the story. The thoughts expressed aren't in a chronological order: while she tries to sleep, molly's thoughts shift from the present ( she makes consideration about time: she imagines what people are doing in China); then thoughts shift to the future ( purpose to adorn her house for Steven Visit); to the present again (consideration about the price of same tools); to the past (memory of her husband declaration of love).
So past, present and future events exist at the same time.
The text is full of sensual decrypting details: Joyce uses a language to impress all the sense (touch, hearing, sight, taste and sense of smell). Thoughts aren't in a logical order because they come to the mind like a flow: the associations between different thoughts or impressions are created by similar sounds. Their order seems to be at random but it has a circular structure, with references to the perfection : they began with the world "yes" and they end with the same world.