ULYSSES

BY JAMES JOYCE
I.

AUTHORS DESCRIPTION

James Joyce was born on February 2, 1882 in Dublin,

Ireland. He published "Portrait of the Artist" in 1916 and
caught the attention of Ezra Pound. With "Ulysses," Joyce
perfected his stream-of-consciousness style and became a
literary celebrity. He died in 1941. Born James Augustine
Aloysius Joyce on February 2, 1882 in Dublin, Ireland, Joyce
was one of the most revered writers of the 20th century,
whose landmark book, Ulysses, is often hailed as one of the
finest novels ever written. His exploration of language and new literary forms showed
not only his genius as a writer but spawned a fresh approach for novelists, one that
drew heavily on Joyce's love of the stream-of-consciousness technique and the
examination of big events through small happenings in everyday lives.
II.

SUMMARY

Ulysses demonstrates most of the notable characteristics of the modern novel. As an

exploration of consciousness or the inner life, it inspired Woolfs injunction that the novelist
should consider the ordinary mind on an ordinary day. [3] For Joyce this entails a preference
for an anti-hero, or at any rate a hero who does not resemble the heroes of earlier novels, as
well as an exploration of subject matter that, while a part of ordinary consciousness, is often
taboo in art, such as defecation and masturbation. As a notable experiment in the rendering of
time, Ulysses displays a modernist skepticism about the linear or sequential arrangement of
events into traditional plots. In contrast with the earlier tendency to make the prose of novels
generally referential, Joyce was particularly self-conscious about the literary quality or style of
novelistic language he used; he experimented with narrative devices and combined the realist
representation of the world with esoteric symbolism. Finally, Ulysses called attention to its own

status as fiction and to relationship between fiction and history, the question of the novel as a
modern form of epic.
The Homeric references in Ulyssesraise a number of critical issues. The use of parallels with
one of the great classical epics to describe the humdrum and sordid marital affairs of a
reasonably intelligent but not otherwise remarkable lower middle-class hero can be understood
as a form of mock epic, in which high style is applied to low matter. Joyces attitude would then
be seen as satirical, like Eliots attitude towards such characters as Sweeney and the typist
inThe Waste Land. More frequently, however, readers have seen Joyce as trying to represent
what Baudelaire called the heroism of modern life.[6] Bloom, who appears merely comic at the
beginning of the novel, seems to become more heroic, more like Odysseus, as the narrative
progresses.
Another debate concerns how much weight readers should place on the schemas in which
Joyce outlined the mythic parallels. Eliot praised Joyces mythic method, but many critics
disagree with Eliot and see the parallels as a kind of scaffolding, not essential to the structure of
the work, and interpret Joyces purpose as less unifying than Eliot suggests. In other words,
they see Joyce not as a high modernist, but as the first postmodernist, discarding the unifying
myths that Eliot wanted to maintain. The reality is complex: both Joyce and Eliot did seek myths
that could make sense of contemporary history, but they both also recognized that, to be
compelling, these modern myths must be complex, ironic, and multifarious. The seeds of
postmodernism are present in the highest of high modernist works.
III.

SETTINGS
Dublin, Ireland, and its surrounding suburb.

IV.

CHARACTERS

Leopold Bloom - A thirty-eight-year-old advertising canvasser in Dublin. Bloom was

raised in Dublin by his Hungarian Jewish father, Rudolph, and his Irish Catholic
mother,Ellen. He enjoys reading and thinking about science and inventions and
explaining his knowledge to others. Bloom is compassionate and curious and loves
music. He is preoccupied by his estrangement from his wife, Molly.
Marion (Molly) Bloom - Leopold Blooms wife. Molly Bloom is thirtythree years old,
plump with dark coloring, good-looking, and flirtatious.

Stephen Dedalus - An aspiring poet in his early twenties. Stephen is intelligent and
extremely well-read, and he likes music. He seems to exist more for himself, in a
cerebral way, than as a member of a community or even the group of medical students
that he associates with.
Malachi (Buck) Mulligan - A medical student and a friend of Stephen. Buck Mulligan is
plump and well-read, and manages to ridicule nearly everything.
Haines - A folklore student at Oxford who is particularly interested in studying Irish
people and culture. Haines is often unwittingly condescending. He has been staying at
the Martello tower where Stephen and Buck live.
Hugh (Blazes) Boylan -The manager for Mollys upcoming concert in Belfast.
BlazesBoylan is well-known and well-liked around town, though he seems somewhat
sleazy, especially toward women
Millicent (Milly) Bloom -Molly and Leopold Blooms fifteen-year-old daughter, who
does not actually appear in Ulysses. The Blooms recently sent Milly to live in Mullingar
and learn photography. Milly is blond and pretty and has become interested in boys
she is dating Alec Bannon in Mullingar.
Simon Dedalus - Stephen Dedaluss father. Simon Dedalus grew up in Cork, moved to
Dublin, and was a fairly successful man until recently. Other men look up to him, even
though his home life has been in disarray since his wife died. Simon has a good singing
voice and a talent for funny stories, and he might have capitalized on these assets if not
for his drinking habit. Simon is extremely critical of Stephen.
A.E. (George Russell) - A.E. is the pseudonyms of George Russell, a famous poet of
the Irish Literary Revival who is at the center of Irish literary circle, circles that do not
include Stephen Dedalus. He is deeply interested in esoteric mysticism. Other men
consult A.E. for wisdom as if he were an oracle.
Richard Best - A librarian at the National Library. Best is enthusiastic and agreeable,
though most of his own contributions to the Hamlet conversation in Episode Nine are
points of received wisdom.

Edy Boardman - One of Gerty MacDowells friends. Gertys uppity demeanor annoys
Edy, who attempts to deflate Gerty with jibes.
Josie (ne Powell) and Denis Breen - Josie Powell and Bloom were interested in each
other when they were younger. Josie was good-looking and flirtatious. After Bloom
married Molly, Josie married Denis. Denis Breen is slightly insane and seems paranoid.
Looking after her dotty husband has taken its toll on Josie, who now seems haggard.
Cissy, Jacky, and Tommy Caffrey - Cissy Caffrey is one of Gerty MacDowells best
friends. She is something of a tomboy and quite frank. She looks after her younger
toddler brothers, Jacky and Tommy.
Martha Clifford - A woman with who Bloom corresponds under the pseudonym Henry
Flower. Marthas letters are strewn with spelling mistakes, and she is sexually daring in
only a pedestrian way.
Bella Cohen - A conniving brothel-mistress. Bella Cohen is large and slightly mannish,
with dark coloring. She is somewhat concerned about respectability, and has a son at
Oxford, whose tuition is paid by one of her customers.
Martin Cunningham - A leader among Blooms circle of friends. Martin Cunningham
canbe sympathetic toward others, and he sticks up for Bloom at various points during
the day, yet he still treats Bloom as an outsider. He has a face that resembles
Shakespeares.
Garrett Deas - Headmaster of the boys school where Stephen teaches. Deasy is a
Protestant from the north of Ireland, and he is respectful of the English government.
Deasy is condescending to Stephen and not a good listener. His overwrought letter to
the editor about foot-and-mouth disease among cattle is the object of mockery among
Dublin men for the rest of the day.
Dilly, Katey, Boody, and Maggy Dedalus - Stephens younger sisters. They try to keep
the Dedalus household running after their mothers death. Dilly seems to have
aspirations, such as learning French.

Patrick Dignam, Mrs. Dignam, and Patrick Dignam, Jr. - Patrick Dignam is an
acquaintance of Bloom who passed away very recently, apparently from drinking. His
funeral is today, and Bloom and others get together to raise some money for the widow
Dignam and her children, who were left with almost nothing after Paddy, used his life
insurance to pay off a debt.
Ben Dollard -A man known around Dublin for his superior bass voice. Ben
Dollardsbusiness and career went under a while ago. He seems good-natured but is
perhaps rattled by a past drinking habit.
John Eglinton - An essayist who spends time at the National Library. John Eglinton
isaffronted by Stephens youthful self -confidence and doubtful of Stephens Hamlet
theory.
Richie, Sara (Sally), and Walter Goulding - Richie Goulding is Stephen Dedaluss
uncle; he was Stephens mother, Mays, brother. Richie is a law clerk, who has been
less able to work recently because of a bad back a fact that makes him an object of
ridicule for SimonDedalus. Richie and Saras son, Walter, is skeweyed and has a
stutter.
Zoe Higgins - A prostitute in Bella Cohens brothel. Zoe is outgoing and good at
teasing.
Joe Hynes - A reporter for the Dublin newspaper who seems to be without money often
he borrowed three pounds from Bloom and has not paid him back. Hynes does not
know Bloom well, and he appears to be good friends with the citizen in Episode Twelve.
Corny Kelleher Mina Kennedy and Lydia Douce - The barmaids at the Ormond hotel.
Mina and Lydia are flirtatious and friendly to the men who come into the bar, though
they tend to be scornful of the opposite sex when they talk together. Miss Douce, who is
bronze-haired, seems to be the more outgoing of the two, and she has a crush on
Blazes Boylan. Miss Kennedy, who is golden-haired, is more reserved.

Ned Lambert - A friend of Simon Dedalus and other men in Dublin. Ned Lambert is
often found joking and laughing. He works in a seed and grain warehouse downtown, in
what used to be St.Marys Abbey.

V.

PLOT

Ulysses is best known for its stream-of-consciousness style, where Joyce forces
readers to become intimately familiar with his characters' thoughts no matter how
fragmentary and disoriented they may be. But style is also extremely flexible in the
novel, giving Joyce the power to alter his form to fit his content. Hence, a chapter set in
a newspaper office is broken up with newspaper headlines; a chapter set in a maternity
ward is written in styles ranging from Old English verse to contemporary Dublin
vernacular, as if language itself were going through a gestation period and being
prepared for delivery; a chapter set almost entirely in Leopold's Blooms fantasies and
nightmares is written out as a play script. Famously, Ulysses is structured on Homer's
Odyssey, with each of the eighteen episodes in Joyce's book corresponding to a given
episode in Homer's work. Joyce makes his hero, Leopold Bloom, a sort of modern-day
Ulysses (called Odysseus by Homer). He casts Bloom's wife, Molly, as Penelope, and
casts the aspiring artist Stephen Dedalus (first encountered in Portrait ) as Telemachus.
What is Joyce doing? Here, he might be trying to modernize the ancient epic, to strive to
(in the words of Ezra Pound) "Make it New." Ulysses moves the epic journey from the
realm of external adventures to the realm of the mind, and in doing so Joyce dares to
make a heroic figure of an ordinary urban man of no apparent distinction. For all its
difficulty and obscurity, what Ulysses can do is to reveal the ordinary as extraordinary.
VI.

CONFLICTS
MAN VERSUS SELF
Ulysses is conflicted because he feels the obligation to be with his family but he also

feels the urge for adventure. So, Tennyson presents Ulysses as someone whose main
desire is adventure. And since the adventures that he craves are dangerous, Ulysses is
described as a frustrated king, anxious to journey and commit to adventures that would
necessarily require a heroic man to attempt them. Ulysses is admirable because it is easy to

admire one, especially in his relatively old age, to continue to strive to live life to the fullest.
But Ulysses is selfish in this respect as well. He is willing to leave his wife in order to make
at least one last journey. That being said, it is not that Ulysses does not care for his wife
(although he notes his boredom being "Matched with an aged wife"). Ulysses simply feels
that life is worthless unless he makes the most of his time. It means nothing to him to sit and
govern as king. To be so complacent is, to Ulysses, to waste away and wait for death.
Ulysses reasons that his son is more suited to sit as a king. In the context of the poem,
Ulysses shows himself to be a reluctant (or maybe even irresponsible) king and an
unsatisfied husband. But he also shows himself to be an indomitable spirit.
Despite this conflict of selfishness and heroism, one can read the poem for its broader
themes of never becoming complacent, of living life to the fullest until the very end, "To
strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
VII.

CLIMAX
The first climax could be when Bloom looks after Stephen during Stephens argument
with Private Carr (at the end of Episode Fifteen). The second climax is Blooms return
home to his bedroom to discover evidence of Mollys infidelity and to mentally overcome
the threat of Blazes Boylan (Episode Seventeen)

VIII.

ANALYSIS (DISCUSS /COMMENTS)

SPIRITUAL /RELIGION
By the end of that novel, he's broken his ties with the church, and has decided to replace the
priestly vocation with the artistic vocation. So in a sense Stephen, one of the main characters of
Ulysses, is not religious. But the truth is that he's actually more tormented by religious questions
than most of the Dubliners that line up for Church every Sunday. The problem of religion was
even more complex in 1904 Dublin because different religions sometimes broke down along
political lines: most of the Irish nationalists were Catholics, and most of those who favored union
with England were Protestants. Religion, like patriotism, is both an obsession and a danger in the
novel