Nausicaa: 281-302

This half-page segment, artificially extracted from the textual corpus of Nausicaa, alludes to the chapter's themes through the language of Catholic liturgy. The allusions, however, are never one-dimensional nor one-way. They are better described as a web of intersubjective meaning, in which the hierarchical relationship between the allusion and the alluded is collapsed into overlapping signification. In this segment, the Virgin Mary is not a simple symbol for Gerty MacDowell, but rather, the two characters mutually create one another. A close reading of this segment will demonstrate this complex process.

Gerty MacDowell is seated on the Rocks of Sandymount Strand, outside the Catholic Church of Mary, Star of Sea, day-dreaming of romance. She is aware of the "gentleman" sitting across from her, but has yet to engage him in eye contact. The allusions in this segment, then, take place in a state of presumed innocence. From her seat, Gerty can hear the exchange from within the church: "And then there came out upon the air the sound of voices and the pealing anthem of the organ. It was the men's temperance retreat conducted by the missioner, the reverend John Hughes S. J., rosary, sermon and benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament." The ceremony evokes a chain of associations for both Gerty and the reader. Gerty recalls her own father's alcoholism, while the reader has been prepared by earlier imagery to construct a Gerty=Virgin Mary reading.

Gerty recognizes the voice of Reverend John Huges S.J., a resident in the Presbytery House of the Church of St. Francis Xavier on Gardiner Street Upper, conducting the temperance retreat. Gerty's associations are dominated by her father. The language and narration reflect Gerty's self-perceptions, but are mouthed by an intimate third person: "How sad to poor Gerty's ears! Had her father only avoided the clutches of the demon drink, by taking the pledge or those powders the drink habit cured in Pearson's Weekly, she might now be rolling in her carriage, second to none." Here, taking the pledge refers to a religious vow to abstain from alcohol. The Pearson's Weekly was a sensational and morally instructive penny magazine. In 1904, health gimmicks -- such as TO CURE DRUNKARDS -- were popular advertisements. If only her father could avoid alcohol, Gerty sadly muses, she could be "rolling in her carriage," a proud member of respectable society. These details -- catholic vows, cheap magazines, carriage dreams -- are not neutral observations: they actively mold the narrative through Gerty's worldview and experiences.

Meanwhile, the reader is made aware of a deeper current in thematic meaning through the "unconscious" juxtaposition of Gerty and the Virgin Mary. The qualities of patience, forgiveness, and innocence are shared between Mary and Gerty. Inside the church, "they were... kneeling before the feet of the immaculate, reciting the litany of Our Lady of Loreto, beseeching her to intercede for them, the old familiar words, holy Mary, holy virgin of virgins." When this recitation is immediately followed by the plight of an alcoholic's virtuous daughter, the reader cannot avoid connecting the imagery.

This sacred comparison of Gerty and the Virgin Mary, however, is already destabilized from within. Certain words act as "triggers" to question the simplicity of virgin innocence. In the opening line of this paragraph, the word "organ" (used in the context of a church organ) immediately recalls Bloom's love of various animal organs (fried, cooked, or sizzled), and secondly, stimulates the reader's carnal imagination. Moreover, the liturgy of "kneeling before the feet" is problematic when applied to Gerty. The Gerty=Virgin Mary association cannot be divorced from its sexual energy: the sacred adoration for the Virgin Mary is profane when transferred to the adoration of Gerty.

The religious ceremony engaged by the men's temperance retreat holds a particular allusive quality. The men are reciting the litany of Our Lady of Loreto, a prayer of supplication to the Virgin Mary, in the course of the Benediction ceremony. In this ceremony, the Blessed Sacrament is revealed for worship, accompanied by hymns. The celebrant then places the host within the monstrance, and makes the sign of the cross over the participants. Real communion, however, does not take place: the body of Christ is only adored from afar. Thus, a parallel between personal adoration of Gerty's flesh and symbolic adoration of the Christ's "flesh" (in the form of a host) also emerges. Both are exposed, and neither can be taken.

Finally, this segment plants allusive cluesfor one of the central mysteries in the chapter: do Gerty and Bloom share a true, albeit fleeting, connection, or do they mutually engage in pathetic and fruitless emissions? The liturgy of the Benediction is an intimate connection between the supplicant and the Virgin Mary. Everything, save the final act of communion, is shared. The lack of communion does not indicate failure or unfulfillment, but an intense adoration. After all, the Virgin Mary is being celebrated for her sacred mystery of immaculate conception, and not for her fulfilled desire of penetration. The act of "conception" between Gerty and Bloom does not require physical proximity or shared understandings. Their benediction -- the laying on of hands -- is not desire unfulfilled, but a mysterious (and awkward) unity of searching spirits: Bloom masturbates, and Gerty "conceives" immaculately.