Faubourg Saint Patrice - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

"Rum idea: eating bits of corpse. Why the cannibals cotton to it" (5.353). Moreover, as
the priest kneels before the altar, he reveals "a large grey bootsole from under the lace
affair he had on" (5.370-1). The contrast between the priest's "grey bootsole" and the
"lace affair" which adorned the cleric's attire appears to encapsulate Bloom's perception
of the ornate superficiality of the ceremony.
Similarly, in a thought he would repeat throughout the day, Bloom contemplates
the use of Latin rather than vernacular during the service: "Good idea the Latin.
Stupefies them first" (5.350); in "Hades": "Makes them feel more important" (6.602); in
"Sirens": "Latin again. That holds them like birdlime" (11.1035); and, in "Nausicaa," as
Bloom hears the Litany of our Lady of Loreto: "Pray forus. And pray for us. And
pray for us. Good idea the repetition. Same thing with ads" (13.1122-3; Thornton
306). When the priest switches to vernacular at the end of the service, he curiously
reads the closing prayer off a card (5.419). Bloom interprets this switch from Latin to
English as a means of further seducing the worshippers: "Mr. Bloom put his face
forward to catch the words. English. Throw them the bone" (5.421-2). Even the
ceremonial music is viewed as "narcotic": "Some of the old sacred music splendid.
Mercadante: seven last words. Mozart's twelfth mass: Gloria in that" (5.403-4). Later,
in "Nausicaa," Gerty MacDowell will demonstrate Bloom's theory as she becomes
entranced by the sounds of the retreat ceremony: ". . . and to hear the music like that
and the perfume of those incense they burned in the church like a kind of waft" (13.409­
10). Ironically, while he recognizes the hypnotic effect of the ceremonial language and
music, the phrases which Bloom hears during the ceremony emerge, albeit incorrectly, in
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