Chapter 15 of James Joyce's Ulysses is a pretty strange bit of reading. It is the largest chapter in the book but has the smallest time scale in which everything happens in. It is also written like a play with stage directions. This makes it even harder to understand, especially when Bloom and Stephen hallucinate, it is hard to tell when this is happening. Joyce also said that he wants people to be talking about it and to never really understand it. I have looked over a few different websites to get a deeper in look as, whilst reading I found it hard to understand what was going on. I hope to give a quick and simple over view of what happens in this chapter.The majority of what happens is in the form of hallucinations from Stephen or Bloom. However all of Blooms hallucinations happen in a couple of seconds in 'real time' and his hallucinations don't affect him in any way whereas Stephen has an apparition of his dead mother which is in real time and affects him in a hard and difficult way.
Blooms hallucinations focus on sexual guilt and have a persecutory tone or have elements of wish involvement. Such as his hallucination with Josie Breen, a woman that has a history of flirting with Bloom.
Stephens hallucinations focus on elements of his day and of Blooms day too. This makes it hard to understand who is having which hallucination. Both their hallucinations also have parts of each others day in, which they wouldn't already know about. This means that the hallucinations are emanating from the characters and from the novel itself.
Throughout the whole chapter Bloom is trying to look after Stephen, from following him to Nighttown, to the Brothel, to looking after his money and giving him back the extra he put down to following him out of the Brothel and trying to calm down the situation he creates with the British Army Private. I felt bad for Stephen in this part as he is obviously letting out some anger he wouldn't normally if he wasn't drunk. The British Private could also be a symbol of England looking and beating down Ireland. This was a time in history that Ireland wanted to get out of Englands grasp so this may be a symbol of that in the book.
Stephen also names Lynch, "Judas," for leaving him when he gets knocked out. Stephen has many people leave him and this may have been the reason for naming him Judas. His mother died less than a year ago, resulting in his feeling of being abandoned by people but this chapter does bring Bloom and Stephen closer as friends. I think that this helps Stephen, Bloom is a constant friend and looks after Stephen throughout this chapter and I think that that is what Stephen needs, especially after his appartition of his dead mum.
The scene in which Stephen has an apparition of his mum is one of the most important scenes in the chapter. In this scene we are shown how Stephen feels and now his friends know too, as well as Bellas prostitutes. This scene deals with Stephen feeling guilty for not following Christianity any more. He knows that his mum thinks he is going to Hell if he doesn't follow the religion but he says that he would rather go to Hell than live by someone elses (Gods) rules.
When Bloom is stood over Stephens body it is very symbolic of a father and son. This then leads to Bloom hallucinating about his dead son, Rudy. This then also has the tone of wish fulfillment for Bloom. This theme of wish fulfillment runs throughout the whole chapter. That is what Bloom mostly hallucinates about. His wishes coming true and allowing him to lead another life next to his reality. A life that he would want, his son back and some flirting with an old flame.
Sources:
My own reading of Ulysees and Seminar discussions
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