Empathy, Cuckoldry, and the Helper’s Vicarious Imagination in Ulysses

Abstract

Although Leopold Bloom is probably Joyce’s most well-known and fully realized character, his position as a cuckold in Ulysses has not been fully understood. Critics have attributed personal and thematic reasons for Joyce’s historical reversal of the cuckold’s position, such as his obsession with infidelity and his explorations of tolerance, progressive sexual views, and changing male identity. Yet discussions of Bloom as a cuckold have not been able to account for him as a compositional resource for Joyce. I argue that Bloom’s position as a cuckold vitally integrates the form and content of Ulysses . Joyce elevates the cuckold’s status because this character’s secondary position facilitates narrative developments, particularly ones made possible by empathy and altruism. Bloom comprehends and tries to facilitate Molly’s and Stephen’s desires because he is sensitive to them, and he thus represents a space of potentiality for others in Joyce’s narrative.

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