The Role of Elijah in Ulysses's Metempsychosis

Beginning with the earliest, most overt references to metempsychosis in the novel "Ulysses," by which the novel's three main characters are linked from the start, Schell demonstrates how Elijah functions in both Jewish and Christian traditions as an image "of both eternal life and transfiguration." Schell examines Ulysses's numerous references - both overt and oblique - to Elijah's traditional role as "a figure of both eternal life and transfiguration," as well as his "historical connection with thunder," which "suggests Stephen's potential to become an artistic figure. In Ulysses, 'Elijah the Thunderer' signals the new Vichean cycle, which leads to the death of Bloom in his present form in chapter seventeen, his reincarnation in the divine mind of Molly, and the potential transformation of Stephen."