full title Ulysses
author James Joyce
type of work Novel
genre Modernist novel; comic novel; quest novel
language English
time and place written Trieste, Italy; Zurich, Switzerland; Paris; 1914–1921
date of first publication Individual episodes were published serially starting
in 1918; as a novel, it was first published
in 1922
publisher First serially in The Little Review;
as a novel by
Shakespeare & Company
narrator Episodes One, Two, Four–Twelve, Sixteen, and Seventeen feature
anonymous narrators. Episode Three features Stephen’s thoughts.
Episode Thirteen features an amalgamation of anonymous narrator,
Gerty MacDowell, and Bloom. Episode Fourteen features a variety
of narrators, meant to be representative of the prose styles of
historical English authors. Episode Fifteen has no narrator. Molly
Bloom is the first-person narrator of Episode Eighteen.
point of view Episodes One, Two, Four–Eleven, Sixteen, and Seventeen
are
told from the third-person viewpoint. Episode Three features interior
monologue. Episode Twelve is told from the first-person. Episode
Thirteen is told from the third and first person. Episode Fourteen
is told variously in the third-person and first-person. Episode
Fifteen is in play-script form. Episode Eighteen features an interior
monologue.
tone The narratives of Episodes One through Eight have a straightforward
tone. Episodes Nine through Eleven have a self-conscious, playful
tone. Episode Twelve has a hyperbolic, belligerent tone. Episode
Thirteen has a sentimental tone. Episode Fourteen has an extreme
variety of tones, including pious, sensational, and satiric. Episode
Fifteen has no narrator and therefore no dominant narrative tone.
Episode Sixteen has a tired tone. Episode Seventeen has a scientific
tone.
tense Present
setting (time) 8:00A.M.,
June 16, 1904–approximately 3A.M., June 17, 1904
setting (place) Dublin, Ireland, and its surrounding suburbs
protagonist Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom
major conflict Molly Bloom’s infidelity with Blazes Boylan; Stephen
Dedalus’s search for a symbolic father; Leopold Bloom’s desire for
a son (his only son died eleven years ago several days after his
birth)
rising action Bloom leaves his house for the day, sees Blazes Boylan
on the
street several times, and becomes anxious about Blazes and
Molly’s four o’clock rendezvous. Bloom is convinced they are
going to have sex. Stephen and Bloom go about their day. They
pass by each other several times and coincidentally meet at Holles
St. Maternity Hospital.
climax The first climax could be when Bloom looks after Stephen
during Stephen’s argument with Private Carr (at the end of Episode Fifteen).
The second climax is Bloom’s return home to his bedroom to discover
evidence of Molly’s infidelity and to mentally overcome the threat
of Blazes Boylan (Episode Seventeen).
falling action Bloom and Stephen rest at a cabman’s shelter (Episode
Sixteen), then return to the Bloom residence and have cocoa and
talk (Episode Seventeen). Bloom tells Molly about his day and asks her
to serve him breakfast in bed (Episode Seventeen). Molly lies awake
considering the events of the day and a happy memory from her and
Bloom’s past.
themes The quest for paternity; the remorse of conscience;
compassion as heroic; parallax or the necessity of multiple perspectives
motifs Lightness and darkness; the home usurped; the East
symbols Plumtree’s Potted Meat; the Gold Cup horserace; Stephen’s
Latin Quarter hat; Bloom’s potato talisman
foreshadowing Stephen’s and Bloom’s compatible dreams set in an Eastern marketplace
street
