earticle

영어

This paper investigates the thematic ironies of cuckoldry in relation with the subtle dynamics between Leopold Bloom’s domesticity, Jewishness and his doubted manhood. Traditionally, the betrayed husbands are willing to revenge against their rivals. However, Bloom, the cuckolded husband in James Joyce’s Ulysses, chooses not to do so. In fact, Bloom connives at the cuckolding plan of his wife intentionally. A large number of studies attempted to explore the possible reasons for that. But they overlook the fundamental factors like Bloom’s profound domesticity and ethnicity as a Jew concerning this theme. The Dublin male society severely excludes and looks down on Bloom whose father is a Hungarian jew. Additionally, they stereotype Bloom as a feminine male merely based on his distinguished love of home and ethnic background. A man’s love of home is the last thing to find in Dublin; A jew is the last person to be welcome in this city. However, those traits of Bloom ultimately mirror Dublin’s patriarchy in name only. Thus Bloom, a competent cuckolded husband, rather highlights the Irish males’ imagined masculinity along with their self-controversy.