ULYSSES, by James Joyce
ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK
AND MAIN CHARACTERS
Gaddi Lisa 5B
School year 2012-2013
The narrative techniques
used are: the mythical
method, the stream of
consciuosness
The themes are: the
searh for a
father/son, the exile,
quest/journey
ULYSSES
Each chapter is
associated with a
specific colour, art or
science, and body
organ.
First
published
in 1922.
The novel takes
place in a single
day: 16TH
JUNE 1904.
It consists of 18
CHAPTERS, each one
covering an hour of the
day.
CHARACTERS:
In Ulysses, J.Joyce sets the characters
and episodes of Homer’s Odyssey in
modern Dublin.
The protagonists of the story are:
MOLLY BLOOM as PENELOPE
She represents the ESSENCE OF FEMALE
NATURE.
Differently from Penelope, she is the unfaithful
wife. In the final monologue she represents the sum
of all women in the novel (Calypso, Circe ecc.) and
the solution for Bloom and Stephen’s quest.
LEOPOLD BLOOM as ULYSSES
He represents THE COMMON MAN
He is a 38 years old advertising canvasser,
he is mature and even-headed and an
urealised artist.
Bloom is the common man curious of new
experiences but not efficient. He looks
foward the scientific certainties and
human relationships he’s not able to find.
STEPHEN DEDALUS as TELEMACHUS
He represents every YOUNG MAN SEEKING FOR
MATURITY.
He embodies J.Joyce himself at the age of 22.
He is the protagonist of “Portrait of the artist as a
young man” and he is and idealist in search for
spiritual values.
Stephen Dedalus is very different from Bloom but
similiar as well: he’s unable to satisfy his deepest
expectations and he’s always persuing a QUEST.
In the comprhension of Ulysses is also important the
use of narrative techniques. There’s:
THE MYTICAL METHOD:
First defined by T.S Eliot as “a way
of controlling , of ordering, of giving
shape and significance to the
immense panorama of futility and
anarchy which is contemporary
history.”
The mythical method allows the
writer to make a parallel with the
Odyssey and provides the book with
a symbolic meaning.
STREAM OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
For example in final Molly
Bloom’s monologue.
There’s no narrator,no
punctuation and no cronological
order.
The organisation principle is the
JUXTAPPOSITION OF
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS.