Previous
Martha Clifford
The imposing, elegant mistress Bella Cohen owns the brothel that Leopold Bloom, Stephen Dedalus, and Vincent Lynch visit in “Circe.” She briefly transforms into “Bello” to fulfill Bloom’s fantasy of being dominated and feminized. Later, she collects payment from Stephen and Bloom, then kicks the men out of her brothel after Stephen breaks her chandelier.
Bella Cohen Quotes in Ulysses
The Ulysses quotes below are all either spoken by Bella Cohen or refer to Bella Cohen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Episode 15: Circe Quotes
BLOOM: (mumbles) Awaiting your further orders we remain, gentlemen,…
BELLO: (with a hard basilisk stare, in a baritone voice) Hound of dishonour!
BLOOM: (infatuated) Empress!
BELLO: (his heavy cheekchops sagging) Adorer of the adulterous rump!
BLOOM: (plaintively) Hugeness!
BELLO: Dungdevourer!
BLOOM: (with sinews semiflexed) Magmagnificence!
BELLO: Down! (he taps her on the shoulder with his fan) Incline feet forward! Slide left foot one pace back! You will fall. You are falling. On the hands down!
BLOOM: (her eyes upturned in the sign of admiration, closing, yaps) Truffles!
(With a piercing epileptic cry she sinks on all fours, grunting, snuffling, rooting at his feet: then lies, shamming dead, with eyes shut tight, trembling eyelids, bowed upon the ground in the attitude of most excellent master.)
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Ulysses LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Bella Cohen Character Timeline in Ulysses
The timeline below shows where the character Bella Cohen appears in Ulysses. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Episode 15: Circe
...and meets Zoe Higgins, a young prostitute, who reports that Stephen and Lynch are inside Mrs. Cohen ’s brothel. Zoe asks if Bloom is Stephen’s father—he says no—and then sticks her hand...
(full context)
The “massive whoremistress” Bella Cohen enters the room, wearing an elegant gown and holding a large handheld fan. She...
(full context)
Bella demands Bloom’s praise, then forces him to walk on all fours like an animal. (For...
(full context)
Bella rides Bloom like a horse, and he mutters, “not man […] woman.” She comments that...
(full context)
Bella starts taunting Bloom by reminding him that “a man of brawn” (Blazes Boylan) has taken...
(full context)
...confident, then cracks open and lets out “a cloud of stench.” Next, Bloom turns to Bella and insults her viciously. (Among other things, he points out her double chin and suggests...
(full context)
Bloom takes his potato back from Zoe, who has been hiding it in her stocking. Bella approaches Stephen at the pianola, and with excessive deference and politeness, he repeatedly pays her...
(full context)
...and twirling around, drunk. Stephen starts talking about Noah getting drunk on the ark, and Bella tells him to stop. Lynch clarifies that he has just come back from Paris. Impressed,...
(full context)
Lynch tries to contain Stephen, while Bella calls for the police. Stephen runs out the door, and Bella demands that Bloom pay...
(full context)
