By Vivian Yuxin Wen/
Given the extensive dialogue between the Nymph and Bloom in the middle section of “Circe” (Joyce, 444-451), it is curious that Don Gifford’s annotations only devote a flat one-liner description for “the Bath of the Nymph:” “Source unknown; probably fictional.” (Gifford, 78) Perhaps “the Nymph” represents one of the symbols and images of no concrete historical reference in Ulysses, which nevertheless amplifies the illusionistic and disorienting quality of the “Circe” chapter in particular. While the “Bello/Bella” in the brothel, who finds his/her direct Homeric parallel as the enchantress Circe in The Odyssey, the peculiar Nymph makes its first appearance in the “Calypso” chapter of Ulysses:
“The Bath of the Nymph over the bed. Given away with the Easter number of Photo Bits: splendid masterpiece in art colours. […] Three and Six I gave for the frame. She [Molly] said it would look nice over the bed. Naked nymphs: Greece: and for instance all the people that lived then.” (Joyce, 53)
Reappearing in “Circe” as a talking subject, “the Nymph” confirms its own origin as a photo hanging over Bloom’s “marriage couch” in her own words while blaming Bloom, almost comically, for “boring [her] away” by framing her in “oak and tinsel.” (Joyce, 445). The Nymph thus implicitly functions as one object that links Bloom from the Nighttown back to Eccles Street, suggestive of his preoccupation with his home. Furthermore, it evokes the theme of immortality both in “Calypso” and in “Circe,” albeit with different focuses. In a more serious tone, “Calypso” articulates explicit references to the ancient “Greece” and the concept of “metempsychosis,” namely, the transgression of soul into “an animal” or “a tree” “called nymphs” (Joyce, 53). On the other hand, “Circe” plays with and mocks the idea of immortality by complicating it with the theme of artificiality and stasis, as the Nymph emphasizes the fact that she only exists and lives in the cheap photo frame, while lamenting over being buried in “cheap pink paper” and “surrounded by” other mundane popular culture materials such as “ads for transparencies” and “proprietary articles” (Joyce, 445) According to Gifford, “transparencies” refer to “a piece of transparent material with a picture or design that is visible when light shines through it.” (Gifford, 507). The long list of manufactured pop culture materials given by the Nymph interestingly locates the readers and Bloom in the physicality of the modern time for all the disorienting chronology and geography of the “Circe” chapter.
With the extensive utterances that Joyce generously offers the Nymph, the “probably fictional” (Gifford, 78) object simultaneously speaks of multiple themes that are difficult to put under one umbrella yet remain intriguing: For example, situated in the bedroom of Bloom, the Nymph may also be seen as a witness for Bloom’s troubles and mistakes in putting him on trial: “What have I not seen in that chamber? What must my eyes look down on?” “Worse, Worse!” (Joyce, 446) Or as a witness for the passage of time and the voice of exasperation towards the modern age: “We immortals, as you saw today, have not such a place and no hair there either. We are stonecold and pure.” (Joyce, 449) Or after all, a symbol of (feminine) beauty, an object of worship, as Bloom “kisses [her] long hair” and “classic curves” (“classic” might allude to “classical” Greece), while the Nymph condescendingly replies Bloom with “During dark nights I heard your praise.” (Joyce, 445) Just like the potato and many other objects, the Nymph entails the mysterious dual significances of both immortality and the passage of time, beauty and stasis, the spiritual quest and the material reality.
Works Cited
Gifford, Don & Seidmann, Robert. Ulysses Annotated. (Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988)
Joyce, James. Ulysses: The Corrected Text. Ed. Gabler et al. (New York: Random House, Inc., 1986)
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