Summary
It is around 8:00 in the morning,
and Buck Mulligan, performing a mock mass with his shaving bowl,
calls Stephen Dedalus up to the roof of the Martello tower overlooking
Dublin bay. Stephen is unresponsive to Buck’s aggressive joking—he
is annoyed about Haines, the Englishman whom Buck has invited to
stay in the tower. Stephen was awakened during the night by Haines’s
moaning about a nightmare involving a black panther.
Mulligan and Stephen look out over the sea, which Buck
refers to as a great mother. This reminds Mulligan of his aunt’s
grudge against Stephen for Stephen’s refusal to pray at his own
mother’s deathbed. Stephen, who is still dressed in mourning, looks
at the sea and thinks of his mother’s death, as Buck mocks Stephen
for his second-hand clothes and dirty appearance. Buck holds out
a cracked mirror for Stephen to see himself in. Stephen staves off
Buck’s condescension by suggesting that such a “cracked lookingglass
of a servant” could serve as a symbol for Irish art. Buck puts a
conciliatory arm around Stephen and suggests that together, they
could make Ireland as cultured as Greece once was. Buck offers to
terrorize Haines if he annoys Stephen further and Stephen remembers
Buck’s “ragging” of one of their classmates, Clive Kempthorpe.
Buck asks Stephen about his quiet brooding, and Stephen
finally admits to his own grudge against Buck—months ago, Stephen
overheard Buck referring to his mother as “beastly dead.” Buck tries
to defend himself, then gives up and urges Stephen to stop brooding over
his own pride.
Buck goes down into the tower singing, unknowingly, the
song that Stephen sang to his dying mother. Stephen feels as though
he is haunted by his dead mother or the memory of her. Buck calls Stephen
downstairs for breakfast. He encourages Stephen to ask Haines, who
is impressed with Stephen’s Irish wit, for money, but Stephen refuses.
Stephen goes down to the kitchen and helps Buck serve breakfast.
Haines announces that the milk woman is approaching. Buck makes
a joke about “old mother Grogan” making tea and making water (urine),
and encourages Haines to use it for a book of Irish folk life.
The milk woman enters, and Stephen imagines her as a
symbol of Ireland. Stephen is silently bitter that the milk woman
respects Buck, a medical student, more than him. Haines speaks Irish
to her, but she does not understand and thinks he is speaking French.
Buck pays her and she leaves.
Haines announces his desire to make a book of Stephen’s
sayings, but Stephen asks if he would make money off it. Haines
walks outside, and Buck scolds Stephen for being rude and ruining
their chances of getting drinking money from Haines. Buck dresses
and the three men walk down toward the water. On the way, Stephen explains
that he rents the tower from the secretary of state for war. Haines
asks Stephen about his Hamlet theory, but Buck insists it wait until
they have drinks later. Haines explains that their Martello tower
reminds him of Hamlet’s El-sinore. Buck interrupts Haines to run
ahead, dancing and singing “The Ballad of Joking Jesus.” Haines
and Stephen walk together. As Haines talks, Stephen anticipates
that Buck will ask Stephen for the key to the tower—the tower for
which Stephen pays the rent. Haines questions Stephen about his religious
beliefs. Stephen explains that two masters, England and the Catholic
Church, stand in the way of his free-thinking, and a third master,
Ireland, wants him for “odd jobs.” Trying to be conciliatory about
Irish servitude to the British, Haines weakly offers, “It seems
history is to blame.” Haines and Stephen stand overlooking the bay
and Stephen remembers a man who recently drowned.
