Joyce: Master of Prose

As the footnote (#1 on page 1165) indicates, the beginning of James Joyce's Ulysses was written in a style meant to mimic that of 19th century sentimental women's fiction. This fiction was typically overly descriptive, yet leaves out shameful, inappropriate details (such as Gerty's lame foot).

For example, Joyce, in describing the opening scene, exclaims: "Many a time and oft were they wont to come there to that favorite nook to have a cosy chat beside the sparkling waves and discuss matters feminine" (page 1165). One can see some of Joyce's mockery with phrases such as "nook" and"cosy chat." This style continues in his description of the three girls; Cissy Caffrey is described as "a truerhearted lass never drew the breath of life, always with a laugh in her gipsylike eyes and a frolicsome word on her cherryripe red lips, a girl lovable in the extreme" (page 1166).

After about halfway through the chapter, Joyce switches points of view from Gerty to Leopold Bloom, the gentlemen who had been watching the three girls. At this point, the sentimental fiction style also does not continue, but rather one of a more free association-type, as we follow Blooms thoughts.

This change--along with the feminine-modeled style--is utilized by Joyce to contrast the different ways in which men and women are physically attracted to each other. Throughout the first half of the chapter, Gerty described the man on the beach (Bloom) in terms that she found attractive in a husband. She imagined him "embrac[ing] her gently, like a real man, crushing her soft body to him, and lover her, his ownest girlie, for herself alone" and saw him as her "dreamhusband" (page 1174). Gerty also claims that "even if he had been himself a sinner, a wicked man, she cared not" (1174); this contrasts with, when Bloom discovers Gerty is lame, he claims "a defect is ten times worse in a woman" and "glad [he] didn't know" before (page 1180). This suggests the different viewpoints of men and women (at least the stereotypical ones) that women are more attracted to those who they view as suitable husbands, while men are more attracted to those they see as physically attractive.