Two Men in Black at Two Irelands’ Wake - Reviving the Pre-Christian Ireland in Ulysses

Two Men in Black at Two Irelands’ Wake

  Stephen and Bloom, both in black, mourn the death of two different Irelands: the Catholic and the pre-Christian Irelands. The Catholic Ireland has died as Stephen rejects the faith or the church of his dead mother, who represents the Catholic Ireland under English rule. On the other hand, the pre-Christian, pagan Ireland has long been dead since the double colonization of Ireland by the Roman Church and the English. The death of the pagan Ireland is signified by the dead marriage between Bloom, who embodies the mythic lord of Ireland, and Molly, who personifies the goddess of Ireland. Stephen, as the artist of the Catholic Ireland, can neither completely deny the Catholic identity of the country by burying the dead, nor approve the identity by awakening the dead. In contrast, Bloom, the Jewish-Irish ad-canvasser, is capable of viewing the defunct marriage in a new perspective and bringing it to life, that is, reviving the pre-Christian Ireland.