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1-Page Summary of Ulysses

Overview

Joyce’s novel is set on June 16, 1904 in Dublin. The main character, Leopold Bloom, is a middle-aged Jew who travels around the city for his job as an advertisement canvasser. While he is Joyce’s “Ulysses” character (the hero of Ulysses), most of the book focuses on Stephen Dedalus, the young student from Joyce’s first novel.

Bloom’s wife, Molly, is having an affair with her co-worker. It will be happening later in the day on June 16. They have a daughter named Milly (age 15) who studies photography and lives away from home. Ten years ago, they also had a son named Rudy but he died when he was 11 days old. Bloom often thinks of his dead son and compares him to his father Rudolph who committed suicide several years before that.

Stephen Dedalus is the central character of Joyce’s Ulysses. He has left Ireland for Paris but he was forced to return upon hearing news that his mother was gravely ill. At the beginning, Stephen seems guilty because he has separated from the Catholic Church and refused to pray at the side of his mother’s deathbed despite her pleading. However, it turns out that Stephen is only guilty because he believes in guilt; if people believe in something strongly enough then they will feel guilty about breaking those rules even when there is no logical reason for doing so—Stephen feels this way about religion. He also believes that Ireland can’t support him as a writer, which causes him to be afraid of success and not write anything great (this contrasts with Leopold Bloom who does not fear failure). Instead, Stephen allows others (Buck Mulligan and Haines) to patronize him by taking advantage of his weaknesses instead of helping them overcome their own weaknesses or teaching them how to achieve their potentials.

The novel begins with a morning scene in which Stephen Dedalus has breakfast, teaches at a school, and wanders by the sea. Later on that same day, Leopold Bloom wakes up and goes through his routine of getting ready for the day. He also attends Paddy Dignam’s funeral later in the afternoon. In both “Calypso” and “Lotus-Eaters,” we learn about Bloom’s early morning habits: he enjoys eating slightly burnt food and is preoccupied with sex.

In the “Hades” chapter of Ulysses, Leopold Bloom attends a funeral and begins to feel alienated from his Roman Catholic society. He also feels insecure because he knows that Molly is having an affair. The rest of the day, Bloom gets lost in Dublin and runs into Stephen Dedalus several times before they meet later that night at a pub called The Cyclops.

After Dignam’s funeral, we get a more detailed view of Bloom’s routine day. He goes to the downtown newspaper building where he works as an advertisement salesman and is treated rudely by his co-workers. The employees’ treatment of him seems overly dismissive and even though he tries to renew an easy advertisement, it takes him all afternoon just to do that. Joyce uses the “Wandering Rocks” chapter to mirror Bloom’s desperation with the squalor of Dublin’s poorest families before contrasting Bloom’s unhappy solitude with the jovial atmosphere at Stephen’s concert in “The Sirens.” Even though his acquaintances are prejudiced against him, he accepts his fate and ignores his marriage problems for now.

Upon entering Kiernan’s pub, Bloom is confronted by a drunk man who insists that he’s Jewish. When Bloom tries to leave to visit the widow of Paddy Dignam, an altercation occurs and Bloom wins. This occurrence sets up the first climax in the novel. As this happens, Elijah ascends into heaven after completing his course on earth. The ending of “The Cyclops” suggests that Joyce modeled Bloom after Elijah when he ascended to heaven after finishing his work as a prophet. After winning this fight with Citizen, it seems like everything will be okay for him now because he has passed on his mantle (the responsibility) to Stephen Dedalus so that they can both achieve their goals together as friends and equals.