Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region XI

Schools Division of IGACOS

ANONANG NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
Anonang, Kaputian District, IGACOS

A Book Review
Entitled
“Ulysses”
by James Joyce

Presented by:
Rusele O. Estrera

Grade 11- Sapphire Student

Presented to:
Mr.Hernan G. Pacatang

Teacher

February 6, 2017
A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF JOYCE'S ULYSSES

Stephen Dedalus spends the early morning hours of June 16,1904, remaining aloof from
his mocking friend, Buck Mulligan, and Buck’s English acquaintance, Haines. As Stephen leaves
for work, Buck orders him to leave the house key and meet them at the pub at 12: 30. Stephen
resents Buck.
Around 10:00 A.M. , Stephen teaches a history lesson to his class at Garrett Deasy’s
boys’ school. After class, Stephen meets with Deasy to receive his wages. The narrow-minded
and prejudiced Deasy lectures Stephen on life. Stephen agrees to take Deasy’s editorial letter
about cattle disease to acquaintances at the newspaper.
Stephen spends the remainder of his morning walking alone on Sandymount Strand,
thinking critically about his younger self and about perception. He composes a poem in his head
and writes it down on a scrap torn from Deasy’s letter.
At 8:00 A.M. the same morning, Leopold Bloom fixes breakfast and brings his wife her mail
and breakfast in bed. One of her letters is from Molly’s concert tour manager, Blazes Boylan
(Bloom suspects he is also Molly’s lover)—Boylan will visit at 4:00 this afternoon. Bloom
returns downstairs, reads a letter from their daughter, Milly, then goes to the outhouse.
At 10:00 A.M. , Bloom picks up an amorous letter from the post office—he is
corresponding with a woman named Martha Clifford under the pseudonym Henry Flower. He
reads the tepid letter, ducks briefly into a church, then orders Molly’s lotion from the pharmacist.
He runs into Bantam Lyons, who mistakenly gets the impression that Bloom is giving him a tip
on the horse Throwaway in the afternoon’s Gold Cup race.
Around 11:00 A.M., Bloom rides with Simon Dedalus (Stephen’s father), Martin
Cunningham, and Jack Power to the funeral of Paddy Dignam. The men treat Bloom as
somewhat of an outsider. At the funeral, Bloom thinks about the deaths of his son and his father.
At noon, we find Bloom at the offices of the Freeman newspaper, negotiating an advertisement
for Keyes, a liquor merchant. Several idle men, including editor Myles Crawford, are hanging
around in the office, discussing political speeches. Bloom leaves to secure the ad. Stephen
arrives at the newspaper with Deasy’s letter. Stephen and the other men leave for the pub just as
Bloom is returning. Bloom’s ad negotiation is rejected by Crawford on his way out.
At 1:00 P .M. , Bloom runs into Josie Breen, an old flame, and they discuss Mina
Purefoy, who is in labor at the maternity hospital. Bloom stops in Burton’s restaurant, but he
decides to move on to Davy Byrne’s for a light lunch. Bloom reminisces about an intimate
afternoon with Molly on Howth. Bloom leaves and is walking toward the National Library when
he spots Boylan on the street and ducks into the National Museum.
At 2:00 P .M. , Stephen is informally presenting his “Hamlet theory” in the National
Library to the poet A.E. and the librarians John Eglinton, Best, and Lyster. A.E. is dismissive of
Stephen’s theory and leaves. Buck enters and jokingly scolds Stephen for failing to meet him and
Haines at the pub. On the way out, Buck and Stephen pass Bloom, who has come to obtain a
copy of Keyes’ ad.
At 4:00 P .M. , Simon Dedalus, Ben Dollard, Lenehan, and Blazes Boylan converge at
the Ormond Hotel bar. Bloom notices Boylan’s car outside and decides to watch him. Boylan
soon leaves for his appointment with Molly, and Bloom sits morosely in the Ormond
restaurant—he is briefly mollified by Dedalus’s and Dollard’s singing. Bloom writes back to
Martha, then leaves to post the letter.
At 5:00 P .M. , Bloom arrives at Barney Kiernan’s pub to meet Martin Cunningham
about the Dignam family finances, but Cunningham has not yet arrived. The citizen, a belligerent
Irish nationalist, becomes increasingly drunk and begins attacking Bloom’s Jewishness. Bloom
stands up to the citizen, speaking in favor of peace and love over xenophobic violence. Bloom
and the citizen have an altercation on the street before Cunningham’s carriage carries Bloom
away.
Bloom relaxes on Sandymount Strand around sunset, after his visit to Mrs. Dignam’s
house nearby. A young woman, Gerty MacDowell, notices Bloom watching her from across the
beach. Gerty subtly reveals more and more of her legs while Bloom surreptitiously masturbates.
Gerty leaves, and Bloom dozes.
At 10:00 P .M. , Bloom wanders to the maternity hospital to check on Mina Purefoy.
Also at the hospital are Stephen and several of his medi-c-al student friends, drinking and talking
boisterously about subjects related to birth. Bloom agrees to join them, though he privately
disapproves of their revelry in light of Mrs. Purefoy’s struggles upstairs. Buck arrives, and the
men proceed to Burke’s pub. At closing time, Stephen convinces his friend Lynch to go to the
brothel section of town and Bloom follows, feeling protective.
Bloom finally locates Stephen and Lynch at Bella Cohen’s brothel. Stephen is drunk
and imagines that he sees the ghost of his mother—full of rage, he shatters a lamp with his
walking stick. Bloom runs after Stephen and finds him in an argument with a British soldier who
knocks him out.
Bloom revives Stephen and takes him for coffee at a cabman’s shelter to sober up.
Bloom invites Stephen back to his house.
Well after midnight, Stephen and Bloom arrive back at Bloom’s house. They drink cocoa and
talk about their respective backgrounds. Bloom asks Stephen to stay the night. Stephen politely
refuses. Bloom sees him out and comes back in to find evidence of Boylan’s visit. Still, Bloom is
at peace with the world and he climbs into bed, tells Molly of his day and requests breakfast in
bed.
After Bloom falls asleep, Molly remains awake, surprised by Bloom’s request for
breakfast in bed. Her mind wanders to her childhood in Gibraltar, her afternoon of sex with
Boylan, her singing career, Stephen Dedalus. Her thoughts of Bloom vary wildly over the course
of the monologue, but it ends with a reminiscence of their intimate moment at Howth and a
positive affirmation.
INTRODUCTION

Ulysses is a novel that is consist of eighteen episodes and this story is more on Ancient
Greek names. When the author seriously returned to his writing he met the girl he spend the rest
of his life with. The girl is Nora Bernacle, a 20-year old woman. Related on his book there are
events he gave connection or relativeness in his life to the story or novel in the famous
"Bloomsday" in Ulysses, June 16 and that day Joyce knew that he was already fall in love of that
woman. The installment of Ulysses appeared in the Little Review in New York from March 1918
until September-December 1920. This story is somewhat similar to Homer's Odyssey because
each title taken from some incident and character in the Ulysse's novel. James Joyce's Ulysses
published in 1922, remains one of the most challenging and rewarding works of English
Literature. Ulysses is a modern reworking of The Odyssey. It's 18 chapters were each named
after an episode of Homer's epic and Joyce first critics made much of this tribute to protect
himself from obscenity.Katherine Mullin introduces James Joyce's novel, exploring both its
commitment to modernist experimentation and to the portrayal of everyday life. Reading the
book in the first place is a good idea to think some imaginative and creative thinking to
developed our abilities related in some artistic matter. Every chapter makes us realize in every
different aspect of life.
CHARACTERIZATION

The characters have shown their feelings and emotions when they are taking their part
in the novel. Every word and action has been working from the characters they make their best to
produce excellent performance in the novel. Stephen was more aware in the Ulysses because
Stephen Dedalus in a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man he left his homeland as he was
thinking that the country will always destroy it's prophet. In back Mulligan he is an usurper that
he take and keep something power in a violent way even he was not in the right place to do that.
Haines, is a patronize to talk in a way that shows you are more intelligent than other people and
he is also Oxonian, a student or graduate of Oxford University. Joyce created good and bad
qualities on the characters mentioned in the novel that would relate to the past behaviour of the
people in the Ancient Greek times. With the background of Stephen on his own life that he
recently experienced of being lonely person for the passed presence and soul of his mother in
this world that goes up for a good reason. Stephen shown his feelings in a good manner and
control his own feelings of becoming lonely as his mother passed away. Stephen and Leopold,
they are characterized not so much in their actions as by their resistant. Leopold Bloom is
Ulysses's central character. Leopold Bloom is anti-heroic. His profession is both new and
uncertain. He is an advertising canvasser most of it is related from small business such as for
designs and imagery that placed in Dublin Newspaper. He is married to the girl Molly, an
amateur opera singer that his manager on the company who is Blazes Boylan. The character of
Boylan is not inspiring to the extent that he is a guy having with sex to the girl who is already
married. This one fact dominates everything else we learn about him, and instantly makes us
dislike him. In the case of Stephen and Leopold, however, they are characterized not so much by
their actions as by their passivity. The two main character walking with their action and
passivity.
PLOT

Ulysses is about Ancient Greek book series. In chapter 1 of the novel named Telemachus
and the setting of this chapter in the Martello Tower at Sandycove where Stephen Dedalus and
Buck Mulligan live. Stephen, Back Mulligan and a visiting Englishman named Haines arise and
eat breakfast. Afterwards, they left on the house and went to their our destination. Stephen went
to the school where he teaches at Dalkey where Stephen teaches history about death of Pyrrhus
and literature Milton's "Lycidas". He met Mr.Deasy and is given a letter by Mr.Deasy on foot-
and-mouth disease to be placed in a Dublin newspapers. The entire episode he thinks stream of
consciousness as he walks. He imagine to visit his uncle's house. After that imagination the novel
comes in Bloom's house and neighborhood. Bloom got arises in the early morning just to buy
something he want to ate in the breakfast and he returns and prepares something for Molly and
himself. Afterwards Molly goes in a private room and defecates. She receives a letter from
Blazes Boylan and Bloom goes outside walks along the street and picks up the letter from
Martha Clifford. In this novel, every chapter makes me intense what happen next on the story
like the letter sender of Bloom whose Martha Clifford. There's a question running through my
mind that what is the relationship of that unknown woman to Bloom. Martha is a Bloom's pen
pal and platonic lover with whom he corresponds under the pseudonym Henry Flower. After
picking up the letter of Martha Clifford meanwhile Bloom meets Bantam Lyons, he also stops in
All Hallow church and pharmacist's shop to buy soap and order some cream for Molly. After that
happening, Bloom goes to a funeral of Paddy Dignam. Inside the Bloom's carriage are
Bloom,SimonDedalus,Martin Cunningham, and Mr.Power. In the carriage the men make
conversation about Jews and suicide after their arriving. Blooms hears about the service read
over Paddy and think about death and those who have died. Bloom decided to went to the office
of the Freeman's Journal in downtown Dublin. As Deasy gave the letter about Hoof-and-mouth
disease to Stephen, he comes to gave in the letter and also tells a story about two old Dublin
women who climb to the top of Nelson's Pillar. The next scene is Bloom met two woman and
one man naming Mrs.Breen,Nosy Flynn, and Boylan. Bloom meets Mrs.Breen in the Burton
restaurant they decided turn to other food structure where is the Davy Byrne’s Pub where he also
meet Nosy Flynn Davy Byrne's pub where he has a cheese sandwhich and a glass of burgundy
while Boylan meets in the National Museum. Around 2pm, Stephen introduces the Hamlet
Theory andShakespeare to the National Library and people who gathered in that place hears the
Theory, Bloom also hears since he comes to newspaper design for the ad he is working and Buck
Mulligan hears also the Theory. As story taken in the library, Bloom at the bookseller’sstand,
Molly throwing money to one legged sailor and Stephen talking to his sister Dilly.Bloom stops
by the restaurant of the Ormond Hotel for a snack; in the bar of the Hotel two barmaids flirt with
several men, including Ben Dollard, Simon Dedalus, and Father Cowley. Bloom sits with Richie
Goulding, Stephen's uncle (his mother's brother). The men in the bar sing songs from popular
operas while Bloom eats liver. During his stay at the Ormond restaurant he answers the letter
from Martha and thinks about Molly's adultery with Blazes Boylan. This what makes me
suspense in this episode what the letter says from. Some of the men believe Bloom gave a racing
tip to Bantam Lyons the men in the pub mistakenly think Bloom has won money on a long shot.
Bloom comes to words with them, so that the Citizen chases Bloom out and throws at him a
biscuit can. In this scene is popularly romantic in the beach,three hours passed Gerty daydreams
about romantic life while thinking of that, Gerty sees a dark gentleman who is Bloom. Bloom
observes Gertyand he does the masturbate and fall asleep. In 10pm, Bloom witness
Mrs.Purefoy’s baby been born in the Hollesmaternityhospital. Stephen, Lenehan and group of
riotous medical student are there and some of them been drunk. This next episode is the climatic
one where the argument attack to the characters Stephen and Bloom. Stephen might get in
trouble so Bloom searching for Stephen and find him in Bella Cohen’s. After the flirtations with
girls. Out in the street Stephen very passively becomes involved in an argument with two British
soldiers and one of them hits him and knocks him down. Bloom comes up and asks the aid of the
undertaker, Corny Kelleher, to disperse the crowd and satisfy the police. Bloom helps Stephen
away. Bloom takes Stephen home to 7 Eccles Street, where the two men have cocoa, talk, and
urinate together outside. Bloom offers to let Stephen stay the night, but he declines.After there
conversation with Stephen, Bloom comes to bed and Molly got awake of consciousness as she
lies awake. She was thinking ofthere first meeting with Bloom and drifts toward sleep. This
chapter enters the mind of Bloom's wife, Molly, and presents her thoughts in 24,195 words and
only one punctuation mark, a period at the end of the chapter.
ART AND DELIVERY

Joyce was creative in delivering his story. His imagination goes beyond in figuring out
the picture on his mind of something. He uses difficult and critical words. Related on his novel
every human goes on a journey, just a mystical Odysseys did in his heroic adventures in the
Homer's Odyssey. The modern man like in real life his journey will be humdrum and uneventful
rather than heroic. In artistic side of the book they give clear picture to figure out of the readers
what's happen next in the next chapter. The intimacy of Ulysses's portrait of Bloom is achieved
by the experimental nature of the novel's many literacy styles. The way Bloom takes his
monologue in the chapter four in which Bloom expressed his best way to got the perfect moment
in fleeting thoughts with terse description of his actions. The styles are still in the novel to
appreciate the enhancement of content. He used with form and style that would create modern
modes of communication. Every chapter composed of long paragraphs in the epic style, or long
catalogues, or by long detailed descriptions. Ulysses is a novel who uses the modernist tradition
and also uses third person point of view. Technique he makes is to combine two words into one
to create a single adjective and sometimes a noun such as dangerous looking and many others.
FINAL VERDICT

It was a perfect example novel created of proficient and expert author. The content of
this novel was impressively excellent and admirable. The flow of story has been organized and in
orderly manner that will lead as a reader easy to comprehend and understand but in the word
choices I can’t easily catch up . As a reader, I don't continuous read and understand the story
because of the words choice used by the author. I don't relate myself to the novel for the reason
it's about Greek. It’s a greatest novel I’ve read because every chapter makes me suspense and
excited as well what will happen next on the story. You can’t picture out what will happen next
because the imagination of the author is really in high class and expert in making a story. It was a
work of educated man to the extent as a beginner reader in expert format it’s not easy to
comprehend efficiently you need to analyze the whole passage for as to understand well the story
.In my own perception, that who is the one reading this novel will also acknowledge that the
work of Ulysses is difficult but when you really gave attention or study each part you will know
the meaning beyond the story. This novel was related to Homer’s epic poem which the life of
Ulysses been taken. It has a careful selection to the word used and the emotion is there in telling
the story. Every character acts according to their assigned human characters they expressed well
their emotion and feeling. Even the novel had a lot complement to other readers there is also a
negative thought about this novel. Some scene contain obscene happenings like what happen to
Gerty, when Bloom watching his legs and do the masturbate orgasm. This novel also deals with
life or should I say real existence in life such as what might possibilities happen to a couple in
this real life situation some of them they split but in case in Molly Bloom and Leopold Bloom.
Each other of them they get in relationship with other and they called a cheater already. Still
some of the readers especially professional and expert appreciate and like the novel of Joyce.
Even for me, it was nice novel since it involves reality which I can relate in our life.
REFERENCES