James Joyce - Ulysses
Unite to give praise to Ulysses. Those who will not
may content themselves with a place in the lower intellectual orders.
Ezra Pound
Characters
Stephen Dedalus (An academic of the humanities, teacher at a boys' school at
Dalkey, 8 miles SE of central Dublin)
Buck Mulligan (flatmate? of Stephen Dedalus)
Simon Dedalus (Stephen's father)
Leopold Bloom (a Jew, advertising canvasser, known to Marion as Poldy)
Marion Bloom (née Tweedy) (Leopold's wife, known to him as Molly)
Millicent Bloom (their daughter)
Rudolf Virag (subsequently Bloom, a Jew from eastern Europe) (Bloom's father)
and many others
My Summary
The action of the novel is all set on one day, Thursday June 16th 1904. Just an average day in the lives of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom. Dedalus carries out his early morning ablutions in the morning (Telemachus) and goes to work teaching in Dalkey Boys' School (Nestor). He then wanders around a bit (Proteus). Bloom leaves his marital bed at 7 Eccles Street (Calypso), carries out his ablutions and goes to the butcher in the morning (Lotus Eaters), purchases a pork kidney, and returns to roast it for his breakfast. At 11 he attends the funeral of his old mate Paddy Dignam (Hades), then goes to the offices of the Freeman's Journal and the Evening Telegraph (Aeolus) to transact some business.
At 1pm (Lestrygonians) he has something to eat at Davy Byrne's pub, then visits the National Library, where at 2pm (Scylla and Charybdis) he encounters Stephen Dedalus, who is engaged in a heavy debate about Shakespeare. At 3pm (Wandering Rocks) Bloom is wandering the streets again, registering various happenings and minor events going on around him. He winds up at the bar of the Ormond Hotel (Sirens). On leaving this establishment he arrives at Barney Kiernan's pub at 5pm (Cyclops). On his wanderings again, and at 8pm he reaches Sandymount Strand (Nausicaa), where he comes across a group of girls, one of whom (Gerty) turns him on greatly, and he feels that she is 'displaying' for him, but nothing extends beyond his imagination. In Oxen of the Sun, Bloom arrives at 10pm at Holles Street Maternity Hospital to support a pregnant friend (Mrs. Mina Purefoy) who is about to produce. In Circe, we find that Bloom and Stephen Dedalus have come up by train to Bella Cohen's brothel 'nighttown'. Towards the end of this chapter we find that Dedalus has got himself into a bit of trouble. The action of Eumaeus (1am) takes place in the cabmen's shelter, and we find that Bloom is really beginning to appreciate Dedalus and discover the full extent of his knowledge and interest in the arts. He would like to adopt him as a surrogate son; and he invites him to his home.
At 2am (Ithaca) they arrive back at 7 Eccles Street, Bloom's home, and make a pot of tea. Dedalus leaves, and Bloom goes to bed, trying not to wake Molly; in the process revealing his distrust of her. In Penelope we hear for the first time from Molly, who must have been disturbed. It is here in this final chapter that Joyce uses the famous stream-of-consciousness technique as Molly describes her relationship with Leopold, whom she also mistrusts (though she loves him too) and her affair with concert promoter Hugh Boylan; and concluding with ecstatic reminiscences of Bloom's marriage proposal to her on the Rock of Gibraltar, where she was brought up.