Another Bloomsday has come and gone.
There's a lot in Joyce's masterpiece, but something I think is too often missed is the very sad story at the heart of it. If you focus on this story, you'll 'get it' more than if you just get carried away with the literary skill, accurate descriptions of Dublin etc, as wonderful as all that is.
Leopold Bloom has had some terrible setbacks. His father committed suicide, his infant son Rudy died (11 years earlier from memory). The death of his son has had the effect of making sexual intercourse with his wife impossible for Bloom. Bloom is unfaithful, as is his wife Molly. The situation brings some joys for both, some jealousies for both, a great deal of deception and a great deal of wishing it was otherwise.
Stephen Dedalus is a son trying to escape. He doesn't want to become his father, the clever but dissolute and self-important drunk Simon, who takes himself and his family on an endless cycle of poverty. Escape is not easy. It involves Stephen in refusing to pray for his mother as she lays dying. The Irish Church's obssession with sex is a major cause of Irish poverty. There is also a terrible scene where Stephen refuses to give his younger sister money for food - such is his desperation to rise above the poverty. Escape also takes on a broad mantle. History itself is a nightmare from which Stephen is trying to escape.
Stephen is also trying to escape being pigeon-holed as a smart bohemian or a clever scholar. He refuses to believe even his own theories - especially the methodologically solid but obviously crazy theory about the relationship between Hamlet, Shakespeare and the ghost. Escape is not easy because he is too easily drawn into the drinking culture of medical students, journalists etc. Stephen is looking for authenticity the only escape from all that is false around him. Without discovering that authenticity he can never be happy or become the artist he wants to be. Ultimately, authenticity involves a celebration, and acceptance, of the everyday and a rejection of myths, scholarly theories and the rest of the nonsense that distracts it.
Leopold is the hero of authenticity in this tale, he knows about life, it's tragedies and sadnesses, but he embraces it all as best he can. He copes with the hostility and suspicions of Dublin's many bigots. He is the 'father' that Stephen might learn from in his quest for a way to be in the world.
Although Joyce is best remembered as unconventional, shocking etc the endorsement of poldy as hero to be admired, perhaps emulated is amazingly conventional.
In the famous last chapter, the Penelope episode, Molly's soliloquy as she lies in bed she at one point becomes vehement in defending Poldy against the criticisms she knows that are made of him by many Dubliners. Molly says with strong pride that he looks after his family and doesn't waste his money getting drunk like many do.
This is no accident. The central event of the day is poor Paddy Dignam's funeral. Dignam was one such drunkard whose sudden death has left his wife and children in a precarious position. Bloom is more concerned about this than the other mourners and sundry barflies. He makes a donation to the wido Dignam of a size that he clearly can't really afford, causing one observer in the book to comment favourably on the 'Jew's generosity'.
The redemptive moment in the sad story of the Bloom marriage, blighted by the death of an infant son, comes at the end when it is made clear that they are still committed to each other and they will continue on tomorrow - despite everything.
I know the idea of Joyce as defender of family values sits oddly with the general view of many, but its another reason to read it closely for yourself.
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