9 - The ultimate symbol

Summary

The ultimate symbol of Ulysses is Molly's ‘yes’ and the memory to which it refers – a memory of shared sexual joy, of a marriage proposal, and above all of a kiss. Bloom has earlier recalled the same kiss. As he sips his lunchtime burgundy in Davy Byrne's pub he senses a ‘secret touch telling me memory’ (U 175). The scene which comes back, with the young lovers ‘Hidden under wild ferns on Howth’ and the sweep of bay underneath, is startlingly sensual and vivid. Both Molly and Bloom recall that he ate a piece of seedcake, ‘sweet and sour with spittle’ (U 176), from out of her mouth. Both recall a full bodily contact, the first time (presumably) that Bloom had felt Molly's breasts. And Bloom's memory includes a curious moment of goatish irrelevance:

Pebbles fell. She lay still. A goat. No-one. High on Ben Howth rhododendrons a nannygoat walking surefooted, dropping currants. Screened under ferns she laughed warmfolded. Wildly I lay on her, kissed her; eyes, her lips, her stretched neck, beating, woman's breasts full in her blouse of nun's veiling, fat nipples upright. Hot I tongued her. She kissed me. I was kissed. All yielding she tossed my hair. Kissed, she kissed me.

(U 176)

This should remind us of the later occasion when the Blooms made love as a result of Molly's excitement at seeing a pair of dogs copulating in the street.