Molly’s Sexual Quest: Sexuality and Perversity in the ‘Penelope’ Chapter of Ulysses

Abstract

This article aims to make a thorough analys is of the theme of sexuality in the “Penelope” chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses . By analyzing this last chapter’s exhaustive “stream of consciousness” monologue, I’ll be looking at the love triangle established between Molly Bloom, Leopold Bloom, and Blazes Boylan as a great example of how sexuality is of great importance to the full comprehension of this novel. To corroborate my point, I shall employ the use psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud, Krafft - Ebing and Havelock Ellis) and studies on sexuality to fully characterize this presence in the last chapter of Ulysses . Ultimately, I aim to show how sexuality in the novel can be seen as fundamentally perverse and how this affects the narrative by looking at the previously referred three character’s drives. In bringing together the necessary tools to analyze the presence of sexuality, I will b e able to make an interdisciplinary approach that brings together the fields of psychology, psychoanalysis and literature, thus creating a path towards a better interpretation of Joyce’s novel.