Ethical Conflicts In The Marital Relation Of Ulysses

This thesis attempts to make deep-going textual analysis of James Joyce's stream-of-consciousness novel Ulysses in terms of marital relation. Western studies on Ulysses virtually touch on every perspective of literary criticism while Chinese researchers seem to be more interested in stylistic study and writing techniques. So far there has been little systematic study on marital relation and marital ethics in Ulysses. Therefore, guided by Heidegger's concept of"aletheia"(meaning"uncovering"), this thesis attempts to probe into the ethical conflicts in Bloom and Molly's marriage, and the way Joyce uncovers them in Ulysses.Following Boheemen's conclusion that the ending of Ulysses is frustrating and ambivalent, this thesis explores the subverted marital model in Ulysses as compared with that in The Odyssey and comments on the subversion. The subversion in marital model results in the couple's ambivalence in Ulysses: Molly is both a sufferer and a sinner; Molly has physically betrayed her husband yet spiritually she favors Bloom most; Bloom feels disgraced about his wife's adultery, but he still cares for her and takes pride in her beauty and sweet voice; the couple are surrounded by commodification, yet they still cherish their faith in romantic love.Then this thesis elaborates on the ethical conflicts hidden in the different layers of ambivalence: the conflicts between pleasure and conscience, justice and self-sacrifice. This thesis further analyzes these two pairs of conflicts with the aid of the ethical theories of Aristotle, Sartre and Frankena's.