Molly's Soliloquy: Oak Lawn Analysis for Human Agents

 

Molly's Soliloquy: Oak Lawn Analysis for Human Agents 

(From Joyce's Ulysses - Molly Bloom's final monologue) 

### **INDIFFERENTS (Externals - Not Up to Us)** 

**Geographic/Environmental:**

- Natural phenomena: mountains, sea, waves, fields, cattle, rivers, lakes, sunsets

- Specific locations: Howth head, Gibraltar, Ronda, Algeciras, Duke street

- Weather/timing: sun rising, leapyear timing, morning auctions

- Architecture: old castle, posadas windows, Moorish walls, colored houses 

**Other People's Actions:**

- Leopold's words: "sun shines for you," "flower of the mountain" 

- Past figures: Mulvey, Mr Stanhope, Hester, father, Captain Groves

- Cultural groups: Greeks, Jews, Arabs, Moors, Spanish girls, sailors

- Leopold's proposal behavior, atheists' arguments, priests' responses 

**Physical/Sensory Experiences:**

- Bodily sensations: kiss, breath, heart beating, physical contact

- Sensory details: perfumes, colors, sounds (castanets, clucking), visual beauty

- Past physical events: seedcake sharing, rose in hair, embrace 

**Temporal Events:**

- Past occurrences: 16 years ago proposal, missed boat, specific conversations

- Historical duration: "thousands of years old" castle 

### **UP TO US (Internal Rational Activity)** 

**Molly's Actual Choices:**

- "I thought well as well him as another" (rational evaluation)

- "I asked him with my eyes to ask again" (deliberate action)

- "yes I said yes I will Yes" (conscious assent/decision)

- Current reflection and memory organization (present rational activity) 

**Value Judgments She Makes:**

- "there's nothing like nature" (assent to external-dependency)

- Religious reasoning about creation vs. atheism

- Evaluation of Leopold's understanding of women 

### **FALSE VALUE IMPRESSIONS TO REFUSE** 

**Core Diagnostic Question Applied: "Is this making externals seem necessary for happiness?"** 

**YES - Refuse These Impressions:**

- Natural beauty as inherently meaningful ("nothing like nature")

- Geographic locations as sources of fulfillment

- Sensory experiences as required for wellbeing

- Others' romantic validation as necessary for worth

- Physical/sexual experiences as inherently significant

- Past events as determinative of present happiness 

**NO - Safe for Assent:**

- Leopold's capacity for understanding (factual observation)

- Her own decision-making process (rational activity)

- Chronological facts about past events 

### **VIRTUE OPPORTUNITIES FOR OAK LAWN PRACTITIONERS** 

**Using this text as training material:** 

1. **Impression Management Practice:** Each romantic/sensory detail offers opportunity to apply core question

2. **Temporal Boundary Training:** Notice how Molly collapses past/present - practice present-moment focus

3. **External Dependency Recognition:** Identify how conventional consciousness makes happiness depend on circumstances

4. **Waiting Stance Maintenance:** Use text's external-focused stream as contrast to alert readiness for impressions 

### **INFORMATION ORGANIZED FOR ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING** 

**No ethical decisions required regarding:**

- Literary historical facts about Joyce's technique

- Chronological details about the characters' past

- Geographic accuracy of Spanish/Gibraltar references 

**Ethical decision opportunities:**

- Whether to assent to impressions that natural beauty is inherently meaningful

- How to respond when others claim external experiences are necessary for fulfillment  

- Whether to value romantic/sexual validation as genuine goods

- How to handle nostalgic temporal impressions that make past events seem determinative 

**The text serves as comprehensive catalog of external-dependency thinking** - useful for Oak Lawn practitioners as training material for distinguishing indifferents from genuine goods and practicing systematic refusal of false value impressions about externals.