James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses is a reworking of one of the most classic and foundational plots in the Western canon, Homer's Odyssey. The novel is divided into eighteen episodes, which take place on June 16, 1904 in Dublin. Joyce fills the long novel with bathetic mythical parallels and displays mimesis with his main protagonist, Leopold Bloom, "different" in every sense from his classifications of Jew and cuckold whose wife, Molly Bloom, "consumes" an affair with “four o’clock.” clock'.[1] This essay will aim to discuss the positive representation of women within this modernist epic. As Callow cites in her work "Joyce's Female Voices in 'Ulysses'", Joyce's relationship with "feminism" remains undeniably "problematic", receiving criticism from critics such as Carolyn Heilbrun and Mary Ellmann.[2 ] This argument will focus on the deviation of Leopold and Stephen's narrative during the episodes "Nausicaa" and "Penelope". Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"? Get an original essay Not only his novels, but Joyce himself, have been criticized by feminist theory, with Suzette A. Henke even claiming that Joyce had “distributed” femininity to its “sexual aspects” with Molly Bloom.[3] However, reading the entirety of “Penelope” and deducing only the sexual aspects of Molly's character can only be part of a radical feminist opinion on sexuality. Her governess and sexual agency affirm her as one of the primary vehicles that advance the plot of the novel, she is by no means passive. The absence of a strong female voice in literary history has led feminist literary theory to seek to examine older texts in the literary canon from a new perspective. Anette Kolodny, a theorist of feminist interpretation, asserts that it is “her right” to choose the features of a text that she considers “relevant”.[4] Within the framework of this notion of feminist literary theory, this essay will analyze the content of the two female-narrated episodes of Ulysses, “Nausicaa” and “Penelope.” Joyce granting Molly Bloom, the novel's initial dark object of desire, contrasts crowds of male-dominated canon novels, which leave their female subjects voiceless seen only through a limiting male narrative. Second, as Hugh Kenner notes, "Penelope" is the only episode in which Joyce does not "interrupt."[5] This idea of ​​her interrupted monologue working in contingency with the form of the episode, "outside the fixed language of androcentricism", evolves in stages towards an empowering feminine language that alludes to the feminist theory of women's writing of 'Hélène Cixous, refutes Henke's criticism of the representation of Molly. Flowering.[6] Gerty McDowell is the object of Bloom's attention within Nausicaa, her autonomy cannot be denied because it is her perspective and her interpretation of the rest of the episode which, even on the surface, makes her go from a passive character to an active character, because she is the one who guides her. readers.Contained in Molly's infamous final monologue, the flow of the narrative highlights the ephemeral nature of emotional processes as they occur, deviating from conventional narratives with afterthoughts. Without punctuation, Molly's ideas and thoughts progress naturally, without interruption, with her mind free of constraints. She finally has a say in her own actions and subsequent events, in which she ruminates that Leopold must have "come" somewhere because of his "appetite".[7] Her story sums up her husband, subjects her to her owncritiques and also gives her autonomy by fleshing her out as a person, no longer limiting her character by the observations made by the men in the book. The writing style is linked to notions theorized by French feminist Luce Irigaray, who assumes that "feminine" writing is "always fluid".[8] The fluidity of "Penelope", with its lack of punctuation and formless stylization, fuels feminine writing, a previously mentioned theory cited by Henderson, "anticipates" Irigaray's feminist theories.[9] Feminine writing is a theory associated with French second-wave feminism and is concerned with the "inscription" of the female body and the difference between text and language, to cite Showalter's definition.[10]Henderson continues to theorize that this anticipation of women's writing deconstructs the patriarchal structures, formally established in the novel. Molly's ramblings flesh out her character, and although sexuality underlies much of her thinking, she is always in control, exploiting her physicality to become the controller of situations, such as the one with Lieutenant Jack Joe Harry Mulvey, whom ' she teases. opening her blouse while denying him permission to touch her anywhere. In comparison to "Nausicaa", which presents a complex narrative, with some critics like Arthur Power inferring that nothing happened between Leopold and Gerty MacDowell, this essay will reject this idea because it undermines Gerty's female voice and assumes the events, place the episode in a patriarchal structure. Gerty MacDowell, influenced by Victorian popular culture, reflects some of the "libidinal desires" of Flaubert's Emma Bovary. This can be seen in her pleasure from Leopold's infamous masturbation at Sandymount. Emma Bovary and Gerty MacDowell are two women whose situations are determined by the position of women in their respective times. Gerty, although physically lame and vulnerable, also occupies a vulnerable position in early 20th-century Dublin, where she is female, single, and poor. She comes from a low-income social background which limits her mobility within society, coupled with her disability following an accident on "Dalkey Hill", places Gerty's position in society.[12] The two women, Molly and Gerty, feel the effects of their patriarchal society which dictates to them the specific roles of mother and wife. Notably, both women fail in both their roles, which deconstructs the Victorian feminine ideal of an angel in the attic, a literary trope criticized by feminist Virginia Woolf. Gerty is single and childless, while Molly is adulterous with a dead child, whom she refuses to let upset her further during "Penelope". Victorian popular culture has a considerable influence on Gerty's "Nausicaa", with much of her interior monologue focusing on such, showing how Victorian culture shaped her behavior, conditioned her perception on chastity and obsession with sex. 'picture. “Nausicaa” can be interpreted as a critique of how Victorian society wronged its women, shaping Gerty in such a way that she is pliable and accepting of Leopold's sexual perversion. In “Prostitution, Incest, and Venereal Diseases in Ulysses,” “Nausicaa,” citing the shocking juxtaposition of Gerty's section to that of Bloom, suggests a parallactic perspective—a common motif throughout Ulysses—that acts as a “satirical” view of femininity. and masculinity.[13] Molly also shares Gerty's "penchant" for the "romantic", as observed in her final thoughts about how Leopold considered her "the flower of the mountain". Molly's soliloquy ends with rumination’