And Bloom knows about it.īy experiencing these events through the inner-monologue of these characters, we access Stephen and Bloom's unfiltered thoughts on the people and places they encounter, their memories of past joys and pains, and their concerns about the future.

Oh, and Bloom's wife has sex with another man in the afternoon. Bloom makes breakfast for himself and his wife, Molly, runs some errands in town, attends a funeral, does some business (he works in advertising), has lunch, gets into a political argument with an Irish Nationalist in a pub, 'relaxes' on the beach for an hour at sunset, visits a maternity hospital where a friend is in labor, crosses paths with drunk Stephen and decides that he should look after him. Oh, and Stephen is haunted by the recent death of his mother, for whom he refused to pray on account of his rejection of religion. Stephen has breakfast with his roommates, teaches a class, goes for a walk, engages in scholarly conversation with other intellectuals, gets drunk, goes to a brothel, and gets knocked out for speaking loosely to a belligerent British soldier (Ireland is under English rule). In terms of plot, the novel depicts the events of one day (June 16th, 1904) in one smallish European city (Dublin, Ireland) through, mostly, the consciousness of two men (Stephen Dedalus, 22, and Leopold Bloom, 38). Written in a revolutionary style, the novel challenges the conventions and limits of language.įamously, not much happens in this book, yet all of life is contained in its pages. Yet as Leopold wanders the city, he is haunted by the memory of his lost son.One of humanity's great masterpieces, James Joyce's Ulysses celebrates the strength of spirit required to endure the trials of everyday life, exploring the patterns of human thought while also fostering an appreciation for differences between people. Part of the reason Bloom is wandering around for so much of the day is to give his wife privacy for her affair. During the famous soliloquy of Molly Bloom, she recalls vividly and with great warmth moments in their relationship. Despite the infidelity, there is a great deal of love and warmth between the couple. Unable to be intimate with one another since then, the couple sleep head to toe of each other. The couple’s marriage was permanently altered by the death of their young son just a few days after his birth eleven years prior to the events of the novel. Indeed, her husband is aware of, and even tacitly approves of the affair. Yet Joyce is unjudgmental in his portrayal of Molly’s infidelity. Whereas Penelope is Odysseus’ faithful wife, awaiting his homecoming (or nostos), Molly Bloom is having an adulterous affair with a brazen local loudmouth, Hugh ‘Blazes’ Boylan.

A substantial alteration from the Odyssey, however, is Bloom’s relationship with his wife Molly, Joyce’s analogue for Penelope.

Ulysses by james joyce