Novel Fiction

Ulysses
Author Year Published Original Language
James Joyce 1922 English

THEMES

An Epic of Set in Dublin on June 16, 1904, Ulysses weaves together allusions, history,
and an array of narrative styles. The meanderings of Leopold Bloom, an
Ordinary Life ordinary ad salesman, are framed as the epic journey in Homer’s Odyssey.
His and other characters’ habits, thoughts, and exploits drive the plot and
are narrated with startling frankness.

Death

An ever-present part
of their lives, death
profoundly affects the
characters.

Fathers & Sons

The bond between fathers

and sons is presented as
fragile and tragic.

Sex, Love & Empathy

Desire for sex and love, as

well as feelings of empathy,
motivate the characters.

Author Symbols

Bloom’s Potato

Represents the
superstitious belief in
talismans and cure-alls

Keys

JAMES JOYCE Stand for autonomy and

1882–1941 security in one's own home

Like Ulysses character

Stephen Dedalus, Joyce was
the eldest of many siblings in a
poor Dublin family and went to
Paris just after college. Joyce Throwaway
set Ulysses in Dublin, but he
Symbolizes the triumph
wrote it in Italy, France, and
of the underdog
Switzerland in self-imposed
exile from Ireland.

Main Characters
Ulysses
by the Numbers

££ 275,000
British pounds paid
FATHER FIGURE
for a first edition of
Ulysses in 2009

Leopold Bloom Stephen Dedalus

1933
Kindly, scientifically minded, Intellectual, rebellious,
Year an obscenity Jewish-Catholic Irishman artistic college graduate
trial lifted the ban on
SPOUSES

publishing Ulysses in
the United States

2
Years between
publication of
LOVERS
Ulysses and the
first celebration of
Bloomsday
on June 16
Molly Blazes Boylan

Sensual, independent Flirtatious rogue;

housewife; has a talented singer
singing talent

istory is a nightmare from which

I am trying to awake.
Stephen Dedalus, Chapter 2

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, The Guardian, James Joyce A to Z:

The Essential Reference to the Life and Work by A. Nicholas Fargnoli &
Michael Patrick Gillespie, The Modernism Lab, Salon.com

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