Molly Bloom facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Marion (Molly) Bloom
Ulysses character
Molly Bloom's statue in her fictional home in Gibraltar
Created by	James Joyce
Information
Nickname(s)	Molly
Aliases	Marion Tweedy
Occupation	Singer
Family	Major Tweedy (father) Lunita Laredo (mother)
Spouse(s)	Leopold Bloom (m. 1888)
Children	Millicent (Milly) Bloom (b. 1889) Rudolph (Rudy) Bloom (b. 1893 – d. 1894)
Religion	Roman Catholic
Nationality	British
Birthplace	Gibraltar
Birth date	8 September 1870

Molly Bloom is a made-up person in the 1922 book Ulysses by James Joyce. She is the wife of the main character, Leopold Bloom. Her story is a bit like Penelope's in the old Greek story, the Odyssey.

Molly's real name is Marion. She was born in Gibraltar on September 8, 1870. Her father was Major Tweedy, an Irish army officer. Her mother was Lunita Laredo, who was from Gibraltar and had Spanish family.

Molly and Leopold got married on October 8, 1888. They had two children. Their daughter, Milly Bloom, was 15 years old and had left home to study photography. They also had a son, Rudy Bloom, who sadly died when he was only 11 days old. In Dublin, Molly was a well-known opera singer.

Molly Bloom's Famous Soliloquy

The very last part of Ulysses is often called "Molly Bloom's Soliloquy". This section is very long and has almost no punctuation marks. It shares all of Molly's thoughts as she lies in bed next to Leopold. It gives readers a deep look into her mind.

Who Inspired Molly Bloom?

James Joyce based the character of Molly Bloom on his own wife, Nora Barnacle. The day the novel takes place, June 16, 1904, was actually the date of their very first meeting. This day is now celebrated as Bloomsday by fans of the book.

Nora Barnacle's own letters often did not use capital letters or punctuation. This style might have influenced how Molly's final thoughts were written in the book.

Some experts also think that another person might have inspired Molly. This was Amalia Popper, one of Joyce's students. He taught her English when he lived in Trieste. Amalia Popper's father was a Jewish businessman named Leopoldo Popper. He worked for a company that had been started by Adolf Blum. Leopold Bloom, Molly's husband in the book, was named after Adolf Blum.

Joyce used ideas and images from a manuscript called Giacomo Joyce in his famous books, Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

See also

In Spanish: Molly Bloom para niños