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Ulysses is a novel by James Joyce which takes its
title from the Roman form of Odysseus. It is sometimes cited as the greatest novel of the 20th century and has been the subject of much scrutiny, criticism and confusion.
Ulysses was written over an eight-year period from 1914 to 1922 and chronicles the adventures throughout Dublin of Leopold Bloom during an otherwise unremarkable day, June 16, 1904. The title alludes to the hero of Homer's Odyssey, and there are many parallels, both
implicit and explicit, between the two works (e.g. the correlations between Leopold Bloom as Odysseus and Stephen Dedalus as Telemachus).
June 16 is now celebrated by Joyce's fans worldwide as 'Bloomsday' and is commemorated by activities such as academic symposia, re-enactments and readings from
Ulysses, pub-crawling and general merriment. Joyce chose that date because he met his wife Nora on that day.
The novel was serialised in the American journal The Little Review from 1918, until the publication of the Nausicaa episode led to a
prosecution for obscenity. The book was first published in its entirety in Paris
in 1922, but was banned in both the United States and Great Britain until the 1930s. The work was blacklisted by Irish customs.
Ulysses is a massive novel: 267,000 words in total from a vocabulary of 30,000 words, with most editions weighing in
at sizes from between 800 to 1,000 pages long composed of 18 chapters. At first glance the book may appear unstructured, chaotic
and confusing. In fact, Ulysses is highly structured; what Joyce does is to make that structure invisible until one searches for
it. Some time after publication Joyce released two schemata that make the links to the Odyssey, and much internal structure,
explicit. To the confusion of all, these two schemata vary wildly in places.
The 18 chapters
Most chapters of Ulysses have an assigned theme, technique and, tellingly, correspondences between its characters and
those of the Odyssey. The chapter titles and the correspondences were not included in the original text, but derive from the
Linati and Gilbert schema.
- Telemachus
- Nestor
- Proteus
- Calypso
- Lotus-Eaters
- Hades
- Aeolus
- Lestrygonians
- Scylla and Charybdis
- The Wandering
Rocks
- Sirens
- Cyclops
- Nausicaa
- Oxen of the Sun
- Circe
- Eumaeus
- Ithaca
- Penelope
Warning: Plot details
follow.
Telemachus
It is morning. The book opens inside a Martello tower on Dublin Bay at Sandycove, where three young men, Buck Mulligan (a calluous, verbally aggressive and boisterous medical
student), Stephen Dedalus (an Aristotlean author) and Haines (a nondescript Englishman from Oxford) have just woken and are preparing for the day. Stephen, brooding about the recent death
of his mother, complains about Haines' hysterical nightmares. Mulligan shaves and
prepares breakfast and all three then eat. Haines decides to go to the library and
Mulligan suggests swimming beforehand; all three then leave the tower. Walking for a time, Stephen chats with Haines and smokes
before leaving, deciding that he cannot return to the tower that evening for Mulligan has usurped his place.
Nestor
Stephen is at school, attempting to teach bored schoolboys history and English, though they are unappreciative of his efforts. Stephen attempts to
tell a riddle which falls flat before seeing the boys out of the classroom. One stays behind so that Stephen shows how to do a
set of arithmetic exercises. Afterwards Stephen visits the school headmaster,
Mr. Deasy, from whom he collects his pay and a letter to take to a newspaper office for printing.
Proteus
Next, Stephen finds his way to the strand and mopes around for some time, doing little more than thinking, reminiscing and
walking about on the beach. He lies down among some rocks, watches a couple and a dog, writes some poetry ideas, picks his nose and possibly has a sexual experience.
Calypso
The role of protagonist suddenly shifts to Leopold Bloom, a Jewish advertising canvasser living nearby in
Eccles street preparing breakfast at the same time as Mulligan in the tower. He walks to a butcher to purchase a kidney for his breakfast and returns to finish his cooking. He takes his wife (Molly Bloom) her
breakfast and letters and reads his own letter from their daughter, Milly. The chapter closes with his plodding to the outhouse
to defecate.
Lotus-Eaters
Bloom now begins his day proper, furtively making his way to a post office (by an intentionally indirect route), where he
receives a love letter from one 'Martha Clifford' adressed to his pseudonym,
Henry Flower. He buys a newspaper and meets an acquaintance; while they chat he attempts to ogle a woman wearing stockings, but
is distracted by a passing tram. Next, he reads the letter and tears it up in an alley.
Bloom makes his exit via a Catholic church service and thinks about
what is going on inside it. He goes to a drugstore then meets another acquaintance, Bantam, whom he unintentionally gives a
racing tip for the horse Throwaway. Finally, Bloom ponders his naked state in water as he approaches the baths to wash
for the rest of the day.
This chapter is the first with obvious motifs, and these are those of botany, religion, drugs, potions, and guilt and
murder.
Hades
Bloom is entering a funeral carriage with three others and they begin to make
their way. The four men pass Stephen and make smalltalk. Bloom scans his newspaper. They talk about various deaths, forms of
death and the tramline before arriving and getting out. They enter the chapel into the
service and subsequently leave with the coffincart. Bloom sees a mysterious anonymous man wearing a macintosh during the burial
and ponders on various subjects some more. Leaving, he points out a dent in a friend's hat.
The main motifs of this chapter are death and decay.
Oxen of the Sun
This chapter is remarkable for Joyce's wordplay, which seems to recapitulate the entire history of human language to describe
a scene in an obstetrics hospital, from the Carmen Arvale:
- Deshil Holles Eamus. Deshil Holles Eamus. Deshil Holles Eamus.
to something resembling Middle English:
- In ward wary the watcher hearing come that man mildhearted eft rising with swire ywimpled to him her gate wide undid. Lo,
levin leaping lightens in eyeblink Ireland's westward welkin. Full she dread that God the Wreaker all mankind would fordo with
water for his evil sins. Christ's rood made she on breastbone and him drew that he would rathe infare under her thatch. That man
her will wotting worthful went in Horne's house.
and on through skilful parodies of Malory, Bunyan, Gibbon, De Quincey, and Carlyle, among many
others.
Penelope
The final chapter of Ulysses consists of Molly Bloom's Soliloquy: eight enormous sentences (without punctuation) written from the viewpoint
of Leopold Bloom's estranged wife, Molly (who represents Penelope). Parts of the final sentence were used by Kate Bush as lyrics to her song The Sensual World.
The two schemata
- The 1920 Linati schema for Ulysses
- The 1921 Gilbert schema for Ulysses
Movie
In 1967, a movie version
of the book was produced.
Joyce wrote of Ulysses:
"I've put so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant..."
As such, there are a good number of puzzles and open problems present in the book which require careful readings to solve.
- Denis Breen's postcard
- Why is Denis Breen's postcard libellous?
- Who sent it?
- Is its text "U.P.: up" or merely just "U.P."?
- Why did the Blooms' social life decrease so significantly after 1894?
- Gerty MacDowell
- How old is Gerty?
- Does Bloom acknowledge her age or is he in denial?
- Is Bloom's encounter with her just a fantasy?
- What is the seating arrangement in the funeral carriage in Hades?
- Some of the dates given or implied in Ithaca conflict with those given in Calypso and Penelope. Which are correct in which instances?
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