Alone Of All Her Sex Analysis

As demonstrated in various artistic triptychs of the High Renaissance, the colour blue has been reserved for the Virgin Mary’s iconic mantle, based on notions that blue signifies purity, heavenliness, and “calmness” (Natasha Eaton 146). Marina Warner, in her book, Alone of All Her Sex: the Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary, explicitly states that “blue is the color of the Virgin” (xx). Because the Virgin Mary’s Perpetual Virginity is an aspiration, Warner hypothesizes that such a social construct damns womankind to everlasting inferiority (12), thus making delicate female virginity highly coveted. Regarding Warner’s hypothesis, I argue that Gerty MacDowell’s virginal façade acts as proxy in… it implies that women are only revered or respected

This emphasises the expectation that women are to remain virginal for them to be considered worthy of being salvation/ In the section “Nausicaä,” the sexual encounter where Leopold Bloom openly masturbates to the faraway figure of Gertrude MacDowell who is clad in blue, and juxtaposed with the supplications to the Virgin Mary by a men’s temperance retreat in the Star of the Sea Church. The alternating between the two emphasises the irony in that Gerty has to display her virginal status in an act that greatly arouses Leopold Bloom, as if she is mocking the Virgin Mary. However, this is more so geared towards women than men, because during the encounter, the young woman does nothing but reveal herself and display her feminine wiles, allowing Leopold Bloom to openly masturbate to the scene. This alienates women especially because Gerty has to wear the

I will argue that the character of Gerty MacDowell serves as a medium in which Joyce satirizes the social construct of female virginity, and how its menial and contradicting nature places an unnecessary burden on women to appease men. I will argue that Gerty MacDowell’s character serves as a medium to emphasise the hypocritical nature of the sexual expectations placed upon women, especially how Gerty is dressed in the Virgin Mary’s blue, but her corrupt and sexual behavior contrasts with the supposed piety, because this is what is expected of women: they must uphold values of chastity while appearing