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in political orientation, Deasy worries that the Jews keep a
firm hand on England and destroy her: “In all the highest
places: her finance, her press. And they are the signs of a
nation’s decay. Wherever they gather they eat up the nation’s
vital strength. . . . Old England is dying” (28). Despite being a
colonial subject, Deasy is deeply concerned about the Empire’s
impending doom rather than Ireland’s long-term subjection. At
the end of the episode, he says playfully to Stephen that
Ireland never persecuted the Jews because “she never let them
in” (30). His statement, inaccurate though it is, reveals his
deep-rooted anti-Semitism and bigotry. By keeping the Jews at
bay, he seems to suggest, Ireland can be free from the
contamination brought about by the degenerate and
destructive race. In this respect, Deasy does not differ much
from his ideological opponent: his support of a powerful
Empire and anti-Semitism points to his inclination toward
racial purity, whereas MacHugh’s celebration of the Hellenistic
and condemnation of the Roman, as well as his acclaim for
Taylor’s speech, suggests his accentuation of cultural purism.
A counterpart to the professor, the headmaster is also
ideologically similar to the lawyer, Menton. While Menton
reveals his chauvinism by regarding women as sex objects,
Deasy displays misogyny when lecturing Stephen. “We have
committed many errors and many sins,” he declares, and these
errors and sins can be imputed to women:
A woman brought sin into the world. For a woman
who was no better than she should be, Helen, the
runaway wife of Menelaus, ten years the Greeks made
war on Troy. A faithless wife first brought the
strangers to our shore here, MacMurrough’s wife and
her leman, O’Rourke, prince of Breffni. A woman too
brought Parnell low. (Joyce, 1986: 29)
Men err and sin, according to Deasy, on account of women,
and vices and corruptions would not have come into existence