Come On, Bloom

Philip Kitcher opens "Hades" in the carriage on the way to Paddy Dignam's funeral, and on the two greetings Martin Cunningham uses to call men into it: "Come along, Simon," and "Come on, Bloom." The difference in tone is the first theme of the episode. Leopold Bloom rides with Simon Dedalus and characters out of Dubliners, men who meet in pubs, stick together, and are suspicious of anyone different. Bloom knows their wives; most of them barely know one another's. An anecdote about a Jewish moneylender, a cold snub over a crumpled hat, and the sight of Blazes Boylan out for a walk make his position plain.

The second theme runs in parallel. The Irish mourners hold a vague, sentimental hope of reunion in the hereafter. Bloom's view of death is disintegration and nothingness, being in the soil and being eaten. Kitcher connects that to the child's coffin the carriage passes, to the son Bloom lost in infancy, and to what that loss did to his marriage.