Ulysses: An Odyssey

In 1907, James Joyce made brief notes for a short story about a Jewish character called ‘Mr Hunter'. He then abandoned this story but held onto the idea, believing that, with a little work, it might become something more.

Fifteen years and a quarter-of-a-million of the most celebrated words in modern fiction later, Joyce completed Ulysses, a book which transformed the novel forever and opened the gates to generations of new writers.

The Dublin of Ulysses is a dazzling labyrinth of words. The book's 18 episodes chronicle a single day, and Joyce uses them to dismantle history, religion, literature and identity. Wandering through these episodes is Leopold Bloom, a fictional hero brought more completely to life than any other. Out of his misadventures, Joyce fashions a hilarious, epic and powerfully moving portrait of human civilisation.

For more than 50 years, Dublin has publicly marked James Joyce's achievement, but the perception of Ulysses as complex, esoteric and intentionally obscure continues to stop people from enjoying this comic masterpiece. With the countdown to Bloomsday 2007 underway, Village presents a guide to the genius of Joyce.

1. The title

Ulysses is the Latin spelling of Odysseus, the hero of Homer's Odyssey. Joyce considered Odysseus the greatest historical figure of all time and Bloom's wanderings around Dublin are an ironic mirror-image of Odysseus's journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan wars. The comedy of Ulysses comes from seeing how the actions of Joyce's Dubliners match, or fail to match, those of their classical counterparts.

2. The date

On 10 June 1904, Joyce met a young Galway woman, Nora Barnacle, and they agreed to meet again a few days later. This became the first day of their 37-year relationship. That October, they eloped to Zurich. Joyce later reflected that without Nora, his works would never have been published. He made 16 June Bloomsday in her honour. The picture (left) shows Nora on the left and James in the centre, along with another friend.

3. The opening at the tower

The Martello tower, Sandycove is home to Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's fictional alter-ego, who is the guest of Buck Mulligan, a mercurial medical student based on Oliver St John Gogarty. Stephen has returned from the Continent a melancholy intellectual and resents Mulligan's fun and games.
In reality, Joyce enjoyed a vivid week at the tower. Another guest was an Englishman who woke at night screaming that he could see a panther. This, along with Gogarty's fondness for shooting frying pans above Joyce's bed, led him to leave.

4. History

Ulysses illustrates Joyce's theory that civilisation moves in cycles, with people constantly re-enacting the past. Stephen calls history a nightmare, but the second episode sees him teaching lessons on ancient myths to bored children at a school in Dalkey. He then converses with Mr Deasy, a Unionist who sees modern history as an age only for “true Irishmen” like himself. Stephen then walks Sandymount strand and attempts to write poetry, the power of art being the only thing that can hold time at bay.

5. The Blooms

In his late-30's, short, dark and portly, Leopold Bloom is universally branded a “jewman”, even though he is only half-Jewish and was baptised a Protestant. Bloom's steady, decent nature leads him to do the right thing except when his own innocence causes him trouble. His wife Molly is an extravagent opera singer, with a need for excitement that leads her to secretly invite the dashing Blazes Boylan into her bed. We are left to wonder if Bloom is aware of his wife's deception and whether they will part. It is only in her 60-page soliloquy that Molly's thoughts turn to their first kiss and she affirms how much she loves Leopold with the book's famous closing word, “Yes”.

6. Culture high and low

Ulysses is an archive of all forms of human culture and is packed tight with references to old Irish legends, religious doctrines and philosophy. Joyce spoofs learning in the scene where Stephen gives his incomprehensible interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Joyce was also the first writer to value popular culture. Musical lyrics are woven into the text because Joyce, himself an accomplished singer, gave Ulysses a soundtrack. In the 11th episode alone we hear many songs including the ballad, ‘The Croppy Boy' and the music-hall number, ‘Lovely Seaside Girls'.

7. Life and Death

There is a surprising amout of tragedy and sadness in Ulysses. Stephen is haunted by guilty visions of his dead mother for whom he refused to pray. Bloom attends the funeral of a friend, Paddy Dignam, who has drunk himself to death, leaving behind a family with no means of support. In Glasnevin Cemetary, Joyce lists all the fallen heroes of Irish history. The narrative brightens when Joyce moves the action to Holles Steet Hospital, where maternity wards are a reminder that Ireland is still a young nation with great days to come.

8. Food and Drink

Joyce's writing is at its best when he is describing the consumption of food. From the fried breakfast with fresh milk enjoyed in the tower to Bloom's pork kidney and gorgonzola sandwiches, the book is a gastronomic adventure. Much of the day is also devoted to drinking, especially in episode 12 where Bloom goes to Barney Kiernan's Bar. Here, he is set upon by a demented, one-eyed Fenian called the Citizen, who accuses Bloom of secretly winning money on a horse race. Bloom gets the better of him in their argument and the Citizen's only response is to hurl a biscuit tin.

9. Nighttown

The 15th episode of Ulysses is the most infamous as Bloom rescues the drunken Stephen from a brothel. Joyce abandons any attempt to depict actual reality and the narrative becomes an unrelentingly mad collage of fantasies, bad dreams, cabaret acts, mock trials, magic-tricks and gender-swapping. Even clothes, lamp fittings and bars of soap begin to speak.

10. Outsiders and Exiles

The story of Ulysses is one of man's search for a state of belonging. Bloom lost his boy Rudy when he was a baby and Stephen has grown distant from his embittered, bankrupt father Simon. The two spend most of the book unconsciously looking for each other. When they finally meet, Joyce refuses to give us a happy ending. Bloom offers the destitute Stephen accommodation and employment but he politely refuses and walks into eternity as Bloom shuffles off to bed. Their search is destined to continue.π