“STEPHEN: (Cracking his fingers impatiently) Quick! Quick! Where’s my augur’s rod? (He runs to the piano and takes his ashplant, beating his foot tripudium) (Joyce 468).
Here we have the one of the ample examples of how Stephen’s ashplant is an extension of the man himself, and of one of the many uses it holds in his life. In this piece, we see a familiar reference of Joyce’s universe, in which Stephen refers to his ashplant as an “augur’s rod”, which was a magical tool in used by Roman powers in divination (The Joyce Project).
The augur’s rod would be used alongside the practice of bird watching to mark their directions of flight and noises in order to make predictions of war and future. Stephen makes this reference to his “augury” practices at the end of Syclla & Charybdis (Joyce 179). As a consequence of this evocation of the ashplant as a magical tool, we soon see Stephen’s old Professor Goodwin show up, through the boy’s imagination, as a glorified bird – with “his hands fluttering” (Joyce 469).
This is just one of many of the ashplant’s uses throughout the Circe chapter, and the book as a whole. It’s later used as a dancing prop, a magical sword (Nothung!), and a chandelier destroyer. Stephen does the latter, using the ashplant as a vehicle, right after the disturbing and guilty hallucinations of his dead mother whose religious callings he adamantly rejects – screaming “No! No! No! Break my spirit, all of you, if you can!” after she asks the “Divine Scared Heart” to “save him from hell” (Joyce 475.)
The ashplant is just such a great object to keep track of throughout the novel, as it shows up right from the beginning of the book in Telemachus, acting as Stephen’s best companion when he wants to get away from Buck Mulligan and Haines.
He treats the object like his friend, and it continuously acts as a show of his imagination and intelligence through his various personifications of it.
Fiona Bardhoshi
Works Cited
The Joyce Project, n.d. < http://www.joyceproject.com/notes/030145augursrod.htm>