Summary
Episode Fifteen takes the form of a play script with stage
directions and descriptions, with characters’ names appearing above
their dialogue. The majority of the action of Episode Fifteen occurs
only as drunken, subconscious, anxiety-ridden hallucinations.
Near the entrance to Nighttown, Dublin’s red-light district, Stephen
and Lynch walk toward a familiar brothel. The focus switches to
Bloom, nearby. Bloom has attempted to follow Stephen and Lynch to
Nighttown, but he has lost them. He ducks into a pork butcher’s
to buy a late-night snack. Bloom immediately feels guilty about
the expense, and a hallucination begins in which Bloom’s parents,
Molly, and Gerty MacDowell confront Bloom about various offenses.
Next, Mrs. Breen appears—she and Bloom briefly renew their old flirtation.
In a dark corner, Bloom feeds his meat purchases to a
hungry dog—this suspicious-looking act engenders another hallucination in
which two nightwatchmen question Bloom, who responds guiltily. Soon,
Bloom is on public trial, accused of being a cuckold, an anarchist,
a forger, a bigamist, and a bawd. Witnesses such as Myles Crawford,
Philip Beaufoy, and Paddy Dignam in dog form appear. Mary Driscoll,
the former housemaid to the Blooms, testifies that Bloom once approached
her for sex.
The nightmarish scene ends as Bloom is approached by
prostitute Zoe Higgins. Zoe guesses that Bloom and Stephen, both
in mourning, are together. She tells him Stephen is inside. Zoe
playfully steals Bloom’s lucky potato from his pocket, then teases
Bloom for lecturing her on the ills of smoking. Another fantasy
ensues, in which Bloom’s smoking lecture escalates into a campaign
speech. Soon Bloom, backed by Irish and Zionists, is coronated as
leader of the new “Bloomusalem.” The nationalist hallucination turns
sour when Bloom is accused of being a libertine—Buck Mulligan steps forward
and testifies about Bloom’s sexual abnormalities, then pronounces
Bloom a woman. Bloom gives birth to eight children.
The hallucination ends with the reappearance of Zoe.
Only a second of “real time” has passed since she last spoke. Zoe
leads Bloom inside Bella Cohen’s brothel, where Stephen and Lynch
are socializing with prostitutes Kitty and Florry. Stephen is pontificating
and playing the piano. Florry misunderstands Stephen and assumes
he is making an apocalyptic prophecy. An apocalyptic hallucination, Stephen’s,
ensues. Another hallucinatory sequence, Bloom’s, begins with the
arrival of Lipoti Virag, Bloom’s grandfather, who lectures Bloom
about sex.
When Bella Cohen herself enters the room, a long hallucination begins—Bella
becomes “Bello,” proceeding to master and violate a feminized Bloom,
while taunting him about past sins and Boylan’s virility. Bello
suggests that Bloom’s household would be better served without him,
and Bloom dies. The hallucination continues—perhaps in Bloom’s “afterlife”—with
the pristine nymph (from the picture in the Blooms’ bedroom) humiliating
Bloom for being a dirty mortal. The spell ends only when Bloom confronts
the nymph with her own sexuality.
