James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, just south of Dublin in a wealthy suburb called Rathgar. The Joyce family was initially well off as Dublin merchants with bloodlines that connected them to old Irish nobility in the country. James' father, John Joyce, was a fierce Irish Catholic patriot and his political and religious influences are most evident in Joyce's two key works A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses.

As a result of their steadily diminishing wealth and income, the Joyce family was repeatedly forced to move to more modest residences and John Joyce's habitual unemployment as well as his drinking and spending habits, made it difficult for the Joyces to retain their previous social standing. A young James Joyce was sent away to the renowned Clongowes School in 1888?a Jesuit institution that was regarded as the best preparatory school in Ireland. The Clongowes school figures prominently in Joyce's work, specifically in the story of his recurring character Stephen Dedalus. Joyce earned high marks both at the Clongowes School and at Belvedere College in Dublin where he continued. At this point in his life, it seemed evident that Joyce was to enter the priesthood, a decision that would have pleased his parents. As James Joyce made contact with various members of the "Irish Literary Renaissance," his interest in the priesthood waned. Indeed, Joyce became increasingly critical of Ireland and its conservative elements, especially the Church.

In opposition to his mother's wishes, Joyce left Ireland in 1902 to pursue a medical education in Paris, and did not return to Ireland until the following year upon news of his mother's debilitation and imminent death. After burying his mother, Joyce continued in Ireland, working as a schoolteacher at a boys' school?another autobiographical detail that recurs in the story of Stephen Dedalus. After barely spending a year in Dublin, Joyce returned to the Continent, drifting in and out of medical school in Paris before taking up residence in Zurich. It was during this period that Joyce began writing professionally.

In 1905, Joyce completed a collection of eight stories, entitled Dubliners, though it was not until 1913 that the volume was actually printed. During these frustrating and impoverished years, Joyce heavily relied upon the emotional support of Nora Barnacle, his unmarried Irish lover, as well as the financial support of his younger brother, Stanislaus Joyce. Both Nora and Stanislaus remained as protective, supporting figures for the duration of the writer's life. During the eight years between Dubliners' completion and publication, Joyce and Barnacle had two children, a son named Giorgio and a daughter named Lucia.

Joyce's next major work, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, appeared in serialized form in 1914 and 1915, before Joyce was "discovered" by Ezra Pound and the complete text was printed in New York in 1916, and in London in 1917. It was with the assistance of Pound, a prominent literary figure of the time, that Joyce came in contact with Harriet Shaw Weaver, who served as both editor and patron while Joyce wrote Ulysses.

When Ulysses was published in Paris in 1922, many immediately hailed the work as genius. With his inventive narrative style and engagement with multiple philosophical themes, Joyce had established himself as a leading Modernist. The novel charts the passage of one day?June, 16 1904?as depicted in the life of an Irish Jew named Leopold Bloom, who plays the role of a Ulysses by wandering through the streets of Dublin. Despite the fact that Joyce was writing in self-imposed exile, living in Paris, Zurich and Trieste while writing Ulysses, the novel is noted for the incredible amount of accuracy and detail regarding the physical and geographical features of Dublin.

Thematically similar to Joyce's previous works, Ulysses examines the relationship between the modern man and his myth and history, focusing on contemporary questions of Irish political and cultural independence, the effects of organized religion on the soul, and the cultural and moral decay produced economic development and heightened urbanization. While Joyce was writing the epic work, there was serious doubt as to whether Ulysses would be completed. Midway through his writing, Joyce suffered the first of eleven eye operations to salvage his ever-worsening eyesight. At one point, a disappointed Joyce cast the bulk of his manuscript into the fire, though Nora Barnacle immediately rescued it.

While Ulysses was hailed by some, the novel was banned from both the United Kingdom as well as the United States on obscenity charges. It was not until 1934, that Random House won a court battle that granted permission to print and distribute Joyce's Ulysses in the United States; two years later, the novel was legalized in Britain.

By that time, Joyce was approaching the end of his public career having concluded his work on a final novel entitled Finnegan's Wake. Considered to be far more baffling and convoluted than Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake was a critical failure, ostracizing Joyce from many of his former admirers. At the outbreak of World War II, Joyce remained in Paris until he was forced to move?first to Vichy and then to Switzerland. On January 13, 1941, James Joyce died of a stomach ulcer at the age of 58, and was buried in Zurich's Fluntern Cemetery. Though his prestige had faded towards the end of his life, Joyce regained literary stature in the decades following his death and Ulysses now stands as the definitive text of the Anglo-American modernist movement, marking Joyce's creative genius and premier abilities as a stylist of the English language. 


Ulysses, a Modernist reconstruction of Homer's epic The Odyssey, was James Joyce's first epic-length novel. The Irish writer had already published a collection of short stories entitled Dubliners, as well as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the semi-autobiographical novella, whose protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, reappears in Ulysses. Immediately hailed as a work of genius, Ulysses is still considered to be the greatest of Joyce's literary accomplishments and his first two works anticipated what was to come in Ulysses. The novel was written over the span of several years, during which Joyce continued to live in self-imposed exile from his native Ireland. Ulysses was published in Paris in the year of 1922--the same year in which T. S. Eliot published his widely regarded poem, "The Waste Land."

Within English literature, the "Modernist" tradition includes most of the British and American literary figures writing between the two world wars, and James Joyce is considered among the likes of T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf: standard-bearers who initiated the Modernist "revolution" against the Victorian "excesses of civilization." Even today, Ulysses is widely regarded as the most "revolutionary" literary efforts of the twentieth century if only for Joyce's "stream of consciousness" technique. In his efforts to create a modern hero, Joyce returned to classical myth only to deconstruct a Greek warrior into a parody of the "Wandering Jew." Joyce's hero, Leopold Bloom, must suffer the emotional traumas of betrayal and loss, while combating the anti-Semitism of 1904 Dublin. In place of Greek stoicism and power, Joyce set a flawed and endearing human being. And while Homer's The Odyssey only touched upon "epic," dignified themes, Joyce devoted considerably detailed passages to the most banal and taboo human activities: gluttony, defecation, urination, dementia, masturbation, voyeurism, alcoholism, sado-masochism and coprophilia-and most of these depictions included the hero, Bloom.

Joyce saw Ulysses as the confluence of his two previous works. From Dubliners, Joyce borrowed the fatalistic and naturalistic depictions of a gritty, urban center. Ulysses is impressive for its geography alone, charting almost twenty hours of Dublin's street wandering, "bar-hopping" and marine commerce. Even though Joyce took alternate residences in Switzerland, Italy and France, he was able to paint Dublin from his almost perfect memory. While Leopold Bloom is the major character of the work, Joyce spends considerable time focusing on Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist of his first work. It is through Stephen, that Joyce is able to debate the contentious religious and political issues that dominated the novella. Unsurprisingly, Joyce's portrays Dublin as the semi-complicit victim of Britain's aggression and the Roman Catholic Church's oppression. Joyce continues his argument as a non-conformist, that the Roman Catholic Church's structure facilitated corruption and more generally contributed to the alienation and rot of the human soul as opposed to its uplift.

At the same time, the Irish population was governed by the British and kept under close watch. The British occupying force humiliated Irish patriots, and this permanent military presence was one of the principal obstacles on the path towards Irish "Home Rule." Despite Joyce's resentment towards Britain's colonial outlook, his most dramatic political evolution since Portrait, is his rejection of Ireland's nascent nationalist fervor. The patriots and zealots of Ulysses are invariably buffoons or villains. Frequently they are drunk, and their national agendas usually feature misogynist and anti-Semitic corollaries. Most notably, Joyce satirizes the campaigned "Renaissance" of the Irish language and we should remember that Ulysses accomplished the double act of establishing Joyce as the premier stylist of the English language while giving Ireland a national bard and epic.

But Ulysses' ascension into the literary canon was not a simple one even though the novel sold well in Paris. Critics heralded Joyce's genius and wit, though the book's incredible opacity, numerous deceptions and tedious allusions were a source of contention. In Ulysses, Joyce attempted to replicate the thoughts and activities of genuine human beings, but Joyce's "outhouse humor" even drew criticism from literary familiars like Virginia Woolf. The allegedly "pornographic" novel was immediately banned in the United Kingdom as well as the United States. The frank sexuality of the "Penelope" episode and Bloom's sado-masochistic "hallucinations" in the "Circe" chapter elicited the strongest reactions. Despite the moral indignation, Ulysses was a smuggled commodity and Joyce's literary stature rose considerably among literary communities on both sides of the Atlantic. Nonetheless, it was well over a decade before a Random House court victory initiated the first American publications of the novel, which became available in Britain two years later. 

Bannon, Alec: A friend of "Buck" Mulligan who appears in the "Oxen of the Sun" chapter at the National Maternity Hospital. He is also familiar with Leopold Bloom's daughter Milly and he discusses her without knowing that her father is present. 

Beaufoy, Philip: The writer of the prize-winning story "Matcham's Masterstroke" which Leopold Bloom reads in the outhouse towards the end of "Calypso." Leopold Bloom, in "Nausicaa," contemplates becoming a writer as successful as Beaufoy, whose stories have little literary merit. 

Best, Richard: The librarian who appears in "Scylla and Charybdis" which takes place in Dublin's National Library. 

Bloom, Leopold "Poldy": The protagonist of Joyce's mock-epic. Bloom is a "modern" hero in contrast to the Homeric Ulysses. Throughout the novel, Joyce exposes Bloom, an ad-canvasser, as an outsider and as a Christ-like figure. Bloom's outsider status stems mainly from the fact that he is a Jew in an overwhelming Roman Catholic (and frequently anti-Semitic) environment. Moreover, the fact that his wife Molly is having an affair with the more popular and attractive Blazes Boylan, typifies the emasculating awkwardness that Bloom suffers throughout the novel. Despite Bloom's substantial weaknesses and numerous foibles, he emerges as a hero if only for the compassion that he shows towards his fellow man and his demonstrated artistic sensitivity. Most notably, Bloom, who survives both his father and his son, serves a father-like role for Stephen Dedalus. The child of foreigners, Leopold Bloom's original family name was Virag which is Hungarian for flower. In his attempts at a covert affiar with Martha Affiar (via love letters), Bloom uses the pseudonym Henry Flower; his wife Molly refers to him by the nickname "Poldy". 

Bloom, Marcus J: A Bloom who is not related to the Bloom family. The name of this dental surgeon provides confusion in the "Wandering Rocks" chapter. 

Bloom, Milly: The fifteen year old daughter of Leopold and Molly Bloom. She is dating Alec Bannon. 

Bloom, Molly (Marion Tweed): The wife of Leopold Bloom who has an affair with fellow singer, Blazes Boylan, on June 16, 1904. Molly is a Spaniard, originally from Gibraltar. As she is aging and growing less attractive, Molly becomes disgruntled with her married life and engages in an affair with Boylan, though this too seems to leave her unsatisfied. On a thematic level, Molly plays the role of Penelope to Bloom's Ulysses, though she is unfaithful, a contrast with the Greek original. Molly's thoughts in the final "Penelope" section are noted for the frankness with which issues of marriage, sex and emotions are discussed. Molly's maiden name is Marion Tweed, and this is the name that she often uses when professionally singing. 

Bloom, Rudolph: the father of Leopold Bloom, who committed suicide in an Italianhotel in 1886. His original name was Rudolph Virag and the discussion of suicide in the "Hades" brings his death to Leopold's mind. The widower of Ellen Higgins, Rudolph's ghost appears in the "Circe" chapter which takes place in Nighttown. 

Bloom, Rudy: the son of Leopold and Molly Bloom. Rudy died on January 9, 1894 when he was 11 days old. The dead child represents the fact that there will be no future Bloom descendants, despite Leopold's longing for a son who may become the Messiah. Leopold's vision of Rudy appears at the end of the "Circe" chapter at the age he would have been had he lived. He is unobservant of Leopold and carries a lamb. 

Boylan, Blazes: a Dublin singer who has sex with Molly Bloom on the afternoon of June 16, 1904. Boylan is a contrast to Leopold Bloom in many respects and he appears in several chapters. In the "Wandering Rocks" chapter we discover that Boylan is simply a flirt, a rather shallow individual. Evidently, Boylan is considered by his colleagues to be the "best man in Dublin" as is noted in the "Hades" chapter. Again in "Sirens" and in "Circe," Boylan is hailed as a sexual conqueror, and in "Penelope," Molly suggests that he had four orgasms during their tryst. Despite his popularity, Molly also reveals that she found his boorish, unromantic demeanor to be offensive. Further, Boylan loses money in a horserace, betting on a horse named Sceptre that was heavily favored to win. In this regard, Joyce hints that Bloom, an outsider like the horse named Throwaway, may be ultimately successful in spite of the odds stacked against him. 

Breen, Denis: the husband of Josie Breen. He has received a postcard with "U.P.: up" written on it, and is now trying to sue for libel. He worries his wife Josie, and is mocked by Dubliners in "the Cyclops" 

Breen, Josie: the wife of Denis Breen who is worried that her husband is becoming crazy. Molly mocks her in "Penelope." 

Byrne, Davy: Leopold Bloom patronizes his pub after leaving the beastly Burton Hotel in "The Lestrygonians." Byrne discusses Bloom with his friend Nosey Flynn an while they agree that he is an upstanding person, they also agree that he is noncommittal, standoffish and ambivalent. 

Caffrey, Cissy: young woman who appears in "Nausicaa" on the beach with her friend Gertrude McDowell. She also appears in Bloom's hallucination during "Circe" 

Carr, Harry (Pvt): a British private in "Circe." He strikes Stephen after accusing him of threatening the king. Private Carr is seen with Private Compton as well as an Irish young lady who he intends to spend the rest of the night with. Private Carr is a symbol of the British oppression of the comparatively weaker Ireland. 

Citizen: the villain in the "Cyclops" episode that takes place in Kiernan's Pub. Citizen is Joyce's satire of anti-Semitic, rabid patriotism. At the end of the chapter, Citizen throws a biscuit tin at Bloom's head but he misses, blinded by the sun in his eye. As a parallel to the Cyclops Polyphemus, the Citizen is blind-both intellectually and physically. 

Clifford, Martha: the pen-pal of Bloom's alter-ego "Henry Flower." Bloom receives one of Clifford's letters in "Lotus Eaters" and while Bloom considered the letter-writing to be an escape from his depressing marriage, Clifford's desire to meet becomes equally concerning. 

Cochrane: a student of Stephen Dedalus. His inattentiveness in class is depicted at the beginning of "Nestor." 

Coffey, Father Francis: the priest who performs the burial of Paddy Dignam which takes place in Glasnevin Cemetery. This occurs in the "Hades" chapter and Coffey is considered to be a parallel to the three-headed Cerberus of Greek myth, who monitors the gates of Hades. 

Cohen, Bella: the woman who runs the brothel where Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom spend much of their time in Nighttown. Bella works in Nighttown to support her son who is studying in Oxford and when Stephen breaks one of her chandeliers, Cohen tries to rob him of his money. In one of Bloom's emasculating hallucinations, Bella (a parallel to Circe) assumes the name Bello and becomes Bloom's masculine and sexually dominating master. 

Conmee, Father John: a character from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, who appears at the beginning of "The Wandering Rocks," remembering his time at Clongowes Wood College. Stephen's days at Clongowes are the subject matter of Portrait. 

Corley, John: a young man in "Eumaeus," who borrows money from Stephen as he heads for the cabman's shelter. Corley is living as a wastrel, having exhausted the benefits of his noble upbringing. 

Cowley, "Father" Bob: a corrupt priest who appears in "The Wandering Rocks." 

Crawford, Myles: appears in "Aeolus" as the Editor of the Evening Telegraph. He refuses the bargain that Bloom has made with Alexander Keyes regarding the advertisement for the House of Keyes. He is unnecessarily terse with Bloom, during their conversation. 

Cunningham, Martin: one of the men with whom Bloom shares the carriage to Glasnevin Cemetary for the burial of Paddy Dignam, in "Hades." Martin's wife has lost her mind and she is in the habit of selling the family furniture to pawn shops. Cunningham is also present in "The Cyclops" chapter, leaving Kiernan's Pub and accompanying Bloom to visit the Dignam widow. 

Dawson, Dan: a satirized patriot whose speech is printed in the morning paper. He is mentioned in "Hades" and again in "Aeolus." 

Deasy, Garrett: the windy headmaster of the school where Stephen Dedalus teaches. Deasy is a parallel to "Nestor," and Stephen Dedalus obliges Deasy by having his ridiculous letter (about Irish cattle) printed in the Evening Telegraph. 

Dedalus, Boody: a daughter of Simon Dedalus who derides him in absentia in "Wandering Rocks." 

Dedalus, Dilly: a daughter of Stephen Dedalus who appears in "Wandering Rocks." After accosting her father outside of a pub in the hopes of getting money for food, Dilly receives a coin and uses it to by a French primer. 

Dedalus, Maggy: a daughter of Stephen Dedalus who fails in her attempt to pawn the books of her brother Stephen. 

Dedalus, May "Mary": the mother of Stephen Dedalus who begs him to pray at her deathbed. Stephen is haunted by thoughts of Mary Dedalus and her ghost appears to him, in "Circe." 

Dedalus, Simon: Stephen's sociable and alcoholic father. The widower of Mary Dedalus, Simon allows the Dedalus girls to go hungry as he squanders his time and money throughout Dublin. Simon Dedalus attends Dignam's funeral in "Hades," and is present in "Aeolus" and "The Sirens." 

Dedalus, Stephen "Kinch": Joyce's autobiographical young hero who first appears in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Stephen is one of Joyce's two major characters in Ulysses, and her plays the role of "Telemachus" to Leopold Bloom's "Ulysses." Stephen is a schoolteacher who has returned to Dublin after spending time in Paris. Throughout the hours of June 16, Simon is obsessed alternately by the recent death of his mother, his spiritual departure from Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church, Shakespeare and Hamlet, as well as his own literary bard-like ambitions. Stephen's self-esteem suffers at the hands of his friends, particularly his roommate Malachi "Buck" Mulligan. Mulligan has nicknamed Stephen, Kinch, which means knife-presumably a patronizing reference to Stephen's wit. 

Dignam, Patrick "Paddy": the dead acquaintance of Leopold Bloom who is buried at Glasnevin Cemetary in "Hades." Dignam, who died in a drunken stupor, is considered to be Joyce's parallel to Elpenor, who greets Ulysses in the underworld, having suffered for his own drunken excesses. 

Dignam, Patrick: the son of the dead Patrick Dignam who appears twice in "Wandering Rocks." The young man is unable to concentrate on the magnitude of his father's death and is instead concerned about his shirt collar. Dignam also considers how his friends and teachers may regard him as a celebrity once the news is printed in the paper. 

Dixon: a doctor who recently removed a bee sting from Bloom's side. 

Dlugacz, Moses: the owner of the butcher shop where Bloom buys a liver in "Calypso." Dlugacz is a Hungarian Jew, like Bloom, who sees an advertisement for fledgling Jewish settlements in the Promised Land. Presumably a practicing Jew, Dlugacz is a contrast to Bloom who has become an apostate. 

Dodd, Reuben J.: a Dubliner whose stinginess in derided in "Hades." When Dodd's son attempted suicide by drowning, he was rescued by a passerby to whom Dodd offered a mere florin of gratittude. 

Dollard, Ben: a popular Dubliner who is known for his large size and singing talent. In "The Sirens," Dollard appears in the bar of the Ormond, where he sings the patriotic ballad, "The Croppy Boy." Molly once described Dollard's as a "barreltone" voice, referring to his barrel-size and the fact that he is a baritone. 

Doran, Bob: a Dubliner who celebrates his annual drinking binge in Kiernan's pub. The drunk performs a somewhat sinister role alongside Citizen in "Cyclops." 

Douce, Lydia: a barmaid who works at the Ormond Hotel. The bronze-haired Dubliner first appears in "Wandering Rocks" before playing the role of a Siren alongside Mina Kennedy in the next chapter, "The Sirens." 

Driscoll, Mary: a maid who was fired by Molly, who grew jealous of Leopold Bloom's alleged interest in her. Driscoll appears in one of Leopold's hallucinations in "Circe" and again in Molly's thoughts in "Penelope." 

Egan, Kevin: an Irish expatriate who is living in Paris. In "Proteus," Stephen remembers him as he is wandering Sandymount strand. 

Eglinton, John: a patronizing essayist who appears in "Scylla and Charybdis." Eglinton rejects Stephen's philosophizing during their discussion in the Dublin's National Library. 

Farrell, Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall: a Dubliner whose habit of walking outside of lampposts is referred to and presented in several of the novel's chapters. 

Fitzharris, James "Skin-the-Goat": a mysterious figure who allegedly drove the decoy car after the 1882 Phoenix Park Assassinations. In "Eumaeus," there is discussion that Fizharris is the owner of the cabman's shelter where Bloom takes Stephen. 

Flynn, Nosey: a Dubliner who compliments Bloom when he frequents Davy Byrne's pub in "The Lestrygonians." 

Garryowen: the menacing dog in "The Cyclops." Garryowen appears with the Citizen in Kiernan's pub, though he is owned by a man named Giltrap, the grandfather of Gerty MacDowell who Leopold Bloom encounters in "Nausicaa." 

Goulding, Uncle Richie: the brother of Stephen Dedalus' mother, Mary Dedalus. In "Proteus," Stephen considers visiting the Gouldings, though he decides against it. Richie Goulding is Leopold Bloom's dining partner in the solemn dining room of the Ormond Hotel in "The Sirens." Gouding's daily doses of backache pills do little for the decrepitude he now suffers because of the (alcoholic) excesses of his youth. 

Grogan, Mother: a character of Irish folksong whose moniker identifies the old milkmaid of "Telemachus." As "Mother Grogan," the old milkmaid is twice the victim of Mulligan's unfettered wit. 

Haines: the British and anti-Semitic student from Oxford who lives in Martello Tower. In "Telemachus," we learn that Oxonian is in Ireland to study Irish folklore and in "Scylla and Charybdis," we learn that he and Mulligan have been invited to a literary event. 

Hely, Charles Wisdom: a printer for whom Bloom once worked. Hely has hired five men who advertise his establishment (Hely's) by wearing red letters on large white hats (to spell out H-E-L-Y-S). The men wander Dublin and appear in "The Lestrygonians" and "Wandering Rocks." 

Higgins, Ellen: the deceased mother of Leopold Bloom and wife of Rudolph Bloom. The ghosts of Ellen Higgins and her husband appear to their son, Leopold, on the streets of Nighttown, early on in "Circe." 

Higgins, Zoe: a prostitute in Bella Cohen's brothel. This namesake of Leopold Bloom's mother, also appears in "Circe" where she takes Bloom's potato away from him and contributes to the mocking hostility of the brothel. 

Horne, Andrew J.: a doctor in Dublin's National Maternity Hospital and celebrated in "The Oxen of the Sun" for his assistance in the three-day labor of Mina Purefoy. His name, "Horne" (Horn), is a reference to the golden Oxen of the corresponding Homeric episode. 

Hynes, Joe: the reporter in "Hades" who submits an erroneous account of Dignam's funeral. Hynes owes Bloom money and ignores Bloom's multiple attempts to collect what is owed. Hynes appears again in "The Cyclops" where he can afford to purchase drinks for himself and his friends. 

Johnson, Georgina: a prostitute who Stephen has visited. Stephen paid for Johnson's services with the last of the money borrowed from George Russell. 

Kelleher, Corny: an undertaker's employee. In "Eumaeus," Kelleher rejects Bloom's call for assistance on behalf of the unconscious Stephen who has been assaulted by the British Private Carr on the streets of Nighttown. Kelleher is also on display as part of the Dublin scenery in the second section of "Wandering Rocks," entering figures in his daybook while chewing and spitting "hayjuice." 

Kennedy, Mina: a gold-haired barmaid at the Ormond Hotel who appears alongside fellow barmaid, Lydia Douce, in "Wandering Rocks" and the subsequent chapter where she and Douce play the role of the Sirens. 

Keyes, Alexander: the owner of the House of Keyes, a teashop. The advertisement for the House of Keyes begins as a simple project for Bloom, but its convolutions become the source of Bloom's troubles in "Aeolus" and necessitate his trip to the National Library in "Scylla and Charybdis." 

Lenehan: a Dubliner whose disrespect for Bloom is depicted in "Aeolus" when he dances a mazurka as an attempt to emulate Bloom's gait. Later, in "Wandering Rocks," Lenehan bores an uninterested M'Coy with his story of an alleged sexual encounter with Bloom's wife, Molly. 

Lynch, Vincent: a Judas-like friend of Stephen Dedalus. Lynch is present in the National Maternity Hospital in "Oxen of the Sun," and in "Circe," Lynch is impatient in regards to Stephen's drunken stumbling. After helping to spend the wages that Stephen received from Deasy that morning, Lynch deserts Dedalus upon exiting Cohen's establishment. 

Lyons, Bantam: a Dubliner who misunderstands Bloom's comment in "Lotus-Eaters" and presumes it to be a tip on the racehorse Throwaway. In "The Lestrygonians," Lyons shares this presumed tip with his fellow gamblers, Nosey Flynn and Davy Byrne. 

Lyster, Thomas: the "Quaker Librarian," whose National Library is the setting of "Scylla and Charybdis." 

MacCabe, Florence: an old woman who Stephen sees in "Proteus," imagining her as an ancient midwife. Later, in "Aeolus," Stephen tells the Parable of the Plums and names one of its characters Florence MacCabe. 

MacDowell, Gertrude "Gerty": a young woman whose beach-side flirtation with Bloom establishes her as a parallel to Homer's Nausicaa, for whom the chapter is named. Even as she is baby-sitting, accompanied by her friend Cissy Caffrey, Gerty flashes Bloom with a sight of her thighs and undergarments. MacDowell's name, "Gertrude," suggests a parallel to the tragic and unfaithful mother of Prince Hamlet. Additionally, Gertrude's grandfather, Giltrap, is the owner of Garryowen, a menacing dog appearing in "The Cyclops." 

MacHugh, Hugh: a contributor to the newspaper office's discussions of politics, featured in "Aeolus." 

Mc'Intosh: an unknown guest at Dignam's funeral at Glasnevin Cemetery whose only discernable characteristic is the fact that he is wearing a Mc'Intosh (raincoat). While the character only appears once (in "Hades,") he is recalled in "Eumaeus," when Bloom, reading Hynes' newspaper article, notes that Hynes has named the man Mc'Intosh. 

M'Coy, C. P.: a man who is known for borrowing luggage and pawning it. Bloom encounters him in "Lotus Eaters," and obliges M'Coy by adding his name to the list of those present at Dignam's funeral. M'Coy is present in "Wandering Rocks," and he coolly rebuffs Lenehan's tasteless boast of an alleged romantic encounter with Molly Bloom. 

Menton, John: a guest at Dignam's funeral in "Hades." Menton, a solicitor, dismisses Bloom well-intentioned remark that his hat had a dent in it. We are to assume that Menton's mistreatment of Bloom dates to their rivalry for Molly's hand. 

Mulligan, Malachi "Buck": the brave and sociable roommate of Stephen Dedalus. Mulligan's extroverted personality is a contrast to Stephen and Mulligan's patronizing and cruel treatment of Stephen escalates to a physical altercation before the two separate, perhaps permanently. Mulligan's most defining characteristic is his sacrilegious and cynical sense of humor. Stephen considers Mulligan to be a "usurper," having ostracized Stephen from his own home, Martello Tower. 

Murphy, W. B. (Senor A. Boudin): a sailor in "Eumaeus." He entertains the patrons of the cabman's shelter with his autobiographical stories. Murphy bears a strong resemblance to Ulysses who also sailed the seas before returning home, unsure of what has happened in his absence. 

Nannetti, Joseph Patrick: a newspaper foreman who is the boss of Leopold Bloom. In "Aeolus," Nannetti ignores Bloom who unsure how to proceed with the Keyes advertisement. 

O'Molloy, J.J.: appears in the overcrowded newspaper offices in "Aeolus," accidentally hitting Bloom with a door. 

Pat: a waiter in the restaurant of the Ormond Hotel. In "The Sirens," Pat waits on the table shared by Leopold Bloom and Richie Goulding. 

Power, Jack: an occupant of the carriage that Bloom takes to Dignam's funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery. Early in "Hades," Jack discusses suicide, unaware that Bloom's father killed himself. Power is also present at Barney Kiernan's pub when the Cyclops character, Citizen, terrorizes Bloom. 

Purefoy, Mina: the wife of Theodore Purefoy who appears in "The Oxen of the Sun." In a street-side discussion with Mrs. Breen, Leopold Bloom learns that Mrs. Purefoy (Pure-faith) has been in labor for three days. Bloom visits Mina in the National Maternity Hospital soon before she gives birth to a healthy son. 

Russell, George "A.E.": a literary figure who participates in the National Library conversation which occurs in "Scylla and Charybdis." Russell has previously lent money to Stephen and in "The Lestrygonians," Bloom sees Russell bicycling with Lizzie Twigg. 

Sargent, Cyril: an incompetent student of Simon Dedalus. In "Nestor," Sargent's weakness reminds Stephen of his own failures. 

Sweny, F. W.: the apothecary in "Lotus-Eaters." Bloom buys a bar of lemon soap from Sweny. Bloom is supposed to return for Molly's lotion later in the day but he forgets. 

Talbot: a student of Stephen Dedalus. His transparent cheating techniques are displayed in "Nestor." 

Twigg, Lizzie: a respondent to Bloom's advertisement for a typist. Bloom has rejected Lizzie Twigg in favor of Martha Clifford and in "The Lestrygonians," Bloom sees Twigg bicycling with George Russell. 

Ward, William Humble (Earl of Dudley): the face of British occupation. The afternoon trek of his viceregal carriages provides the chronological structure of "Wandering Rocks." 

summary.

Joyce's novel is set in Dublin on the day of June 16, 1904 and the protagonist, Leopold Bloom, is a middle-aged Jew whose job as an advertisement canvasser forces him to travel throughout the city on a daily basis. While Bloom is Joyce's "Ulysses" character, the younger hero of the novel is Stephen Dedalus, the autobiographical character from Joyce's first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. While Joyce develops the character of the young student, most of the novel is focused on Bloom. 

Bloom's wife Molly is a singer and she is having an affair with her co-worker, Blazes Boylan, and early in the morning of June 16, Bloom learns that Molly intends to bring Boylan into their bed later that afternoon. The Blooms have a daughter named Milly (age 15) who is away, studying photography. Ten years ago, Molly gave birth to a son, Rudy, but he died when he was eleven days old and Bloom often thinks of the parallel between his dead son Rudy and his dead father Rudolph, who killed himself several years before. 

Stephen Dedalus is the central character of the novel's first three chapters, which constitute Part I of Ulysses. Dedalus is an academic and a schoolteacher and he has left Ireland for Paris but he was forced to return upon hearing news that his mother was gravely ill. The initial depictions of Stephen indicate that he is guilty because he has separated from the Catholic Church and refused to pray at the side of his mother's deathbed despite her pleading. Stephen has literary ambitions but his desire to write Ireland's first true epic is tempered by his fear that the island is too stultifying for him to be a success. Stephen lives in Martello Tower with Buck Mulligan and a British student, Haines, and Stephen's introverted personality prevents him from asserting himself. Instead, his friends patronize him and take advantage of him. 

The opening three chapters, "Telemachus," "Nestor" and "Proteus," track the early morning hours of Stephen Dedalus who eats breakfast, teaches at a school in Dalkey and wanders Sandymount Strand. The opening chapters of Part II ("Calypso" and "Lotus-Eaters") begin the day anew, charting the early morning rituals of Leopold Bloom, who must later attend the funeral of his friend, Paddy Dignam. In "Calypso" and "Lotus-Eaters," the reader learns that Bloom is a servile husband who prepares breakfast and runs errands on behalf of his wife Molly, who remains half-asleep. We also learn that Bloom is preoccupied with food and sex. He relishes eating a slightly burned kidney and has a penchant for voyeurism. 

The "Hades" chapter of Ulysses recounts the burial of Paddy Dignam in Glasnevin Cemetery and it is at this point that Joyce begins to develop his theme of Bloom as a Jewish outsider in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic society. Bloom's insecurities are only heightened by his foreknowledge of Molly's infidelity. Both Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus are set on a long winding tour of Dublin that occupies most of the afternoon and they continually cross paths before eventually meeting later that night. The afternoon chapters begin with "Aeolus" and conclude with Bloom's altercation with the Citizen in "The Cyclops." 

After Dignam's funeral, we get a more detailed view of Bloom's routine day. Bloom immediate heads for the downtown newspaper office-a building that is shared by three companies. Considering the frenetic pace of the news building, the employees' treatment of Bloom seems excessively rude and dismissive and Bloom's attempt to secure an easy advertisement renewal requires a trip to the National Library. Bloom's library visit in "Scylla and Charybdis" presents another occasion for him to talk to Stephen as their paths cross again but they continue on their separate paths, neither cognizant of the other. Bloom's suffers the afternoon, dreading his wife's adulterous act, scheduled for 4:30 pm. Joyce uses the "Wandering Rocks" chapter to mirror Bloom's desperation with the squalor of the city's poorest families before contrasting Bloom's unhappy solitude with the jovial and musical atmosphere of "The Sirens." Bloom simply shrugs off the prejudice of his acquaintances, accepts his solitude as his fate and even at this point, tries to ignore the serious problems in his marriage. 

Upon entering Kiernan's pub, late in the afternoon, Bloom is confronted by the Citizen, a half-blind patriot whose outspoken anti-Semitism forces Bloom to assert his identity, arguing that he can be a Jew and an Irish citizen, simultaneously. Citizen is quiet before resuming his offense. Having burdened the entire pub as a menacing drunk, Citizen focuses the brunt of his attack on Bloom, accusing him of "robbing widows and orphans," even as Bloom readies to leave, in order to visit the widow of Paddy Dignam. Bloom coolly replies to Citizen who becomes indignant when Bloom asserts that Christ, himself, was a Jew. This altercation is the first of the novel's two dramatic climaxes. When Bloom exits the pub, the raging drunk hurls a biscuit tin at his head, but Bloom escapes unharmed. Even as the Citizen's depressed faculties hindered him, he was blinded by the sun, guaranteeing Bloom's victory. The "Wandering Jew" "ascends" into the heavens and the concluding prose of "The Cyclops" strongly suggests that Joyce modeled Bloom after Elijah who ascended immediately after completing his course. While Bloom's problems with Molly remain, his victory in Kiernan's pub anticipates his final transformation into Stephen's temporary paternal figure. As an Elijah, Bloom passes the "mantle" to Stephen Dedalus. 

The earliest chapter of night is "Nausicaa," which depicts Bloom as an incredibly solemn and tired man. As he walks the beach of Sandymount Strand we understand that the eclipsing evening corresponds to his aging and depressing loss of virility. Even though Bloom is only a middle-aged man with a fifteen-year old daughter, he bears the image of an elderly wanderer. A young woman named Gerty MacDowell is sitting within their range of mutual sight and as she is overcome with emotional longing and maternal love, she notices that Bloom is staring at her while he is conspicuously masturbating himself in his pocket. MacDowell seeks to offer Bloom a "refuge" and she abets his deed by displaying her undergarments in a coquettish manner. After masturbating, Bloom is enervated, complaining that Gerty has sapped the youth out of him. 

Joyce's deliberate narrative structure produces the interaction between Bloom and Dedalus right as Bloom contemplates the diminution of his own masculinity and youth. Bloom meets Dedalus in the National Maternity Hospital, unexpectedly, having arrived to visit Mrs. Mina Purefoy, who had been in labor for three days. Stephen had accompanied several friends to the Hospital, including Mulligan who has corrupted his friends into a loud table of young drunks. Bloom worries for Stephen's safety and he eventually accompanies the young man to "Nighttown," the red-light district where the "Circe" chapter is set. Undoubtedly, "Circe" is the most memorable chapter of the book: Bloom suffers "hallucinations" while walking on the street and they continue inside the brothel of Bella Cohen. Joyce's "Circe" employs Freudian theories of the subconscious, of repression and sexual desire. Bloom's hallucinations conflate feelings of religious guilt, acts of sado-masochism and the shame of being cuckolded by the popular ladies' man, Blazes Boylan. 

When Bloom re-emerges from his hallucinations, he finds that Stephen is completely vulnerable, having degenerated into a limp and intoxicated creature. It is unclear what is causing Stephen to jump around the room and half-climb the furniture until we see him smash his walking stick into the chandelier, resisting the ghost of his dead mother who has returned from the grave to use guilt in order to coerce Stephen into Catholicism. The scene becomes chaotic as Bloom assists Stephen out of Cohen's brothel. Stephen is alone after his friend Vincent Lynch forsakes him. It is Bloom who tends to Stephen when he passes out after a pugnacious British soldier delivers a heavy blow, aware that Stephen is incapable of defending himself. Bloom sees the development as an opportunity to forge a relationship with Stephen. Bloom succeeds in transporting Dedalus to the Cabman's Shelter for some coffee and they continue their conversations about love and music in Bloom's home at 7 Eccles Street. Despite Bloom's insistence, Stephen declines the offer to spend the night in his home and as the novel concludes, it seems likely that Stephen, like Bloom, must embark upon his own heroic quest. "Penelope," the final chapter of Ulysses, presents Molly's assessment of Bloom. Just as we come to understand how Bloom's lack of empathy largely motivated Molly's infidelity, we also come to understand that Molly truly loves her husband, independent of the question of their marriage.