Chapter Thirteen, Nausicaa: lines 188-217

Innocence and isolation inform a search for mutuality within Chapter Thirteen, Nausicaa. Leopold Bloom's tired and familiar isolation and loneliness become acquainted with the urgent longings of virginal Gerty MacDowell. A crippled and uninitiated young woman, Gerty is associated with the Virgin Mary, yet this particular passage emphasizes less of her innocence and more of the frustration provoked by her loneliness and desire. Having just described her apparel, inspired by romantic superstition, Gerty appears full of grace and hope. "And yet &endash; and yet!" punctuating her resolve with objection, Gerty twists our impression of her with what is beneath her well-chosen appearance.

Opening with a repetitive exclamation, the reader turns to look at "That strained look on her face!" Although her clothing is carefully immaculate, save the butterfly bow of silk that was "slightly shopsoiled," Gerty wears a distorted expression. The mirror may provide her with a "lovely reflection," but her eyes cannot conceal a constant sense of sorrow and apprehension. Wishing that alone in her room she could cry, the motif of the mirror returns. "[G]iving way to tears, she could have a good cry and relieve her pentup feelings though not too much because she knew how to cry nicely before the mirror." Throughout Ulysses, mirrors have amplified the assigned personalities of various characters, while, also, holding religious associations. At the opening of the novel, Buck Mulligan balances a razor and a mirror upon a bowl of lather, and raises it in parody of the Catholic Mass. This action exposes Buck's grandiose character through reference to the Catholic Church. Later associations to Oscar Wilde provoke a debate on Buck's sexuality. This argument calls one to reexamine the grandiose display affected earlier. A linked action along these same lines could be applied to Gerty as she is initially depicted as a composed, young woman, full of grace. However, what is displayed in the mirror is merely a link to the uncertainties that quiver below the surface.

With her soul in her eyes, Gerty's silent desires articulate themselves outside the realm of verbal language. In futility, the mirror says, "You are lovely, Gerty," however the mirror's trite and empty words cannot smooth her "infinitely sad and wistful," face. For Gerty, who lives in her dreams, verbal language is an empty alternative to the direct language of bodies. Like Gerty, Leopold is a character of the body, whereas Stephen is a character in fear of the body. It could be said that it is Leopold's lapse of sexual performance in relation to his wife and Gerty's deformed physical state contribute to this higher awareness of the body. Yet it cannot be forgotten that is not just the body which speaks. The mirror is animated with the ability to communicate as are the "weddingbells ringing for Mrs. Reggy Wylie T. C. D." Nevertheless, as these objects recount inaccurate messages, the body becomes valorized as a true indicator of sentiments and emotions.

Ringing in false hopes, the "weddingbells" denotes Gerty's impossible daydream of courtship and subsequent marriage. This winding narrative dresses Gerty in "a sumptuous confection of grey with expensive blue fox" which "was not to be." In response to the fallible reading of clothing, Gerty immediately remarks, "He was too young to understand. He would not believe in love, a woman's birthright." Love, possibly the most puissant emotion of all, is connected to the act of birth, perhaps one of the female body's most intimate actions. From this acknowledgement of the privileged status of the body, goes on to reminisce upon the kiss Reggy Wylie stole from her. This story culminates in her remark that "who would woo and win Gerty MacDowell must be a man among men." A "man among men" is one who would, dismissing all pretenses of "lay[ing] a rare and wondrous love at her feet," express his understanding of her through his actions.

What Gerty dreams of is not an idealist's romantic vision of love, but a lustful engagement with another human being. He would understand the immediacy of her needs and speak with "the strength of his deep passionate nature" and "a long long kiss." This communion is not one of souls, but of bodies. Unlike the Virgin Mary, Gerty is impatient and longs for physical comfort "from this to this day forward." This complicated portrait of a young woman, confined by the limitations of her body, presents an appropriate companion for Leopold. Their impotent "relationship" emphasizes the characteristics and quirks that keep them from sexual and emotional satisfaction.