Sexuality
and Religion
Clearly the Church has been an integral part of Molly’s lifestyle, as well as a major influence over her society. To Molly, religion and sex are inexorably linked. Because the former restricts the latter, it as if the two feed off each other in a bizarre cycle of denial and indulgence. The struggle for piety and pleasure erupts in Molly’s views of other women. On one hand, she condemns Mrs. Riordan (line 4) for her religious devotion. On the other, she despises Mary for being a “slut” (line 57). Molly seems pressed into judging women in one of these two ways by her religious upbringing. Molly’s sexual relationships are most likely influenced by this religious scrutiny. Her desire for covert relationships, rather than engaging in religiously “legal” inter-marital sex with Bloom, may be partly in defiance to the strict morals of The Church.
The most striking example of the close association of sex and religion begins as Molly ponders the idea of seducing a young boy for sport (line 85), apparently a fantasy aimed at recapturing the seductive , powerful feelings she experienced in her youthful first encounters with men.
“Id
confuse him a little alone with him if we were Id let him see my garters
the new ones an make him turn red looking at him seduce him I know what
boys feel with that down on their cheek…”
From this musing, she is reminded of a sexual incident she has confessed to a priest, who probes her for details.
That confession when I used to go to Father
Corrigan he touched me father and what harm if he did where and I said on
the canal banks like a fool but whereabouts on your person my child on the
leg behind high up was it yes rather high was it yes, where you sit down
The priest seems to be questioning her more for voyeuristic purposes, rather than clarification. At this moment, she is confronted with both guilt, shame, and sexual advances. The act of confession, in some senses, is not unlike a naïve sexual encounter. Molly is in the hands of the confessor. In a sense, it is the opposite action. He is drawing from her the details of the experience, deriving guilt where there was once pleasure.
Molly is a derivative of “Marion,” and Marion is a derivative of Mary. By naming this character in such a way, Joyce is entrusting her with the legacy of religion and sexuality which originated at the Immaculate Conception. Sex becomes and inherently masochistic act in that it is tied to the pain she feels as a result of Rudy’s death. Because of this, she engages in mostly fruitless sex, sex that does not align with any notions of procreation. This is most accurately demonstrated when she remarks, “he came on my bottom” (lin4 86). The only sexual affection she allows Bloom is the opportunity to masturbate on her buttocks. At once, she is both demonstrating her power over Bloom and her power over her sexuality.
Molly’s sexual identity is also tied to fetishism, another way in which the material enters the realm of her sexuality. As she considers showing the young boy her garters, she is substituting physical elements to evoke arousal for material items. Likewise, Bloom’s worship of her undergarments reflects the desire to substitute intercourse for a type of sexual pleasure that allows no opportunity for procreation. Once again, the link between the material, the religious, and the sexual is formed. The Church’s insistence that sex be reserved for procreation spawns the inherent guilt Catholics associate with sex. The pain of procreation which Molly experiences as a result of Rudy’s death becomes an impetus for her to use material items or non-sexual body parts (feet, for example) to attract admirers. Hence, material items take on a sexual meaning as a result of the religious influences of Molly’s life.
Joyce’s ability to represent the plurality
of meaning in this chapter transcends all that has come before him in the
arena of language. Though these few examples do not even begin to tap the
enormous complexity of Joyce’s style, the do illustrate his efforts to
account for the layers of meaning which exist in the human consciousness..