Ulysses

One image pattern more than any other in "Hades" epitomizes Bloom's sad state: the motif of the nails. At the start of the episode, Bloom muses that the nails of corpses are clipped and kept in an envelope (another "dead" letter, like Martha's?). Then later, when the three other men are praising Boylan, Bloom can do nothing but look at his nails. Also, Bloom wonders if Dignam's body would bleed if it were to fall out of the casket and be cut by a nail. Thus the nails have definite Christocentric significance. Bloom is clearly crucified in "Hades," and his death is no more palatable because it comes through the agency of well-meaning friends. He is cut off from the present by the ravine that separates him from the others. His future is most unattractive: Bloomsday, his day, marks the beginning of Molly's affair, and his thoughts return constantly to the past, to the death of his father, Rudolph, and to the death of his son, Rudy.