Ulysses by J.Joyce

Its publication

Ulysses first came out in Paris in 1922 thanks to the efforts of Sylvia Beach, the owner of the famous "Shakespeare & Co. Bookshop". It had been partially serialized in the American Little Review in 1918 before being found obscene. For the same reason the Hogarth Press- owned by Leonard and Virginia Woolf - turned it down.In England the book was banned for obscenity untill 1936

The plot

Joyce's Ulysses has no traditional plot.The whole novel takes place on a single day, on Thursday 16th June 1904. It tells the events of an ordinary day in the life of three inhabitants of Dublin: Leopold Bloom, a middle-aged advertising agent of Jewish origin who is the Ulysses of the title, his wife Molly who corresponds to Penelope and Stephen Dedalus, a sensitive young man frustrated by Irish provincial life, who represents Telemachus.

Joyce, using the epic model, stresses the lack of heroism, of ideals, of love and trust in the modern world.

The relation to Odyssey

Ulysses is divided in three parts called Telemachiad (chap.1-3), Odyssey (chap.4-15) , Nostos (chap.16-18), embodying the three main characters and imitating the three parts of Homer's Odysseys.The 24 hours of Bloom's day correspond to the twenty-four books of the classical epic; the novel eighteen episodes- that is the chapters- correspond to the same incidents in Homer, in addition each chapter is organized around a different hour, a colour, a body organ, a sense, a symbol and a suitable narrative technique.

Look at the video taken from a series called "Great Modern Writers". There are adaptations to film from some passages of Ulysses introducing the three main characters. Moreover an external voice makes observations about Joyce's novel.

Stephen Dedalus

In the first episode, called "Telemachus", Stephen is evicted from his home, a tower on the coast, by his housemates who mock him. Speaking with one of them , Buck Mulligan, Stephen remembers his mother dying .Look at the video and then check your comprehension.

Mr Bloom and his wife Molly

In the video you can see how an ordinary day in the life of an ordinary man begins. It is morning and Leopold Bloom is in the kitchen getting breakfast ready for his wife, who is still in bed, and for himself. Bloom's thoughts are expressed in an apparently chaotic flow, according to the direct interior monologue technique.

Molly Bloom's soliloquy

The final chapter of Ulysses, referred to as "Penelope", is totally written in the stream of consciousness technique. Molly recollects memories of any kinds while dozing in bed near her husband, who she has been unfaithful to . In this final paragraph, Molly recalls the day he proposed to her :

"...I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. "

Ulysses: a modern hero

Read the paragraph below and fill in the missing words.

The whole novel takes place on a day, Thursday, June 16 1904. During this day, main characters ' adventures are described from eight o' clock in the morning till two o'clock of the following morning. Stephen , Bloom and his Molly represent two aspects of the human : Stephen is pure intellect while Mrs Bloom embodies the sensual nature. Mr Bloom . uniting the extremes, represents the whole who knows that life means suffering, falling but also seeking the .

Answer the questions

1.How is Ulysses related to the Odyssey?

2. What does the mythical method allow the writer to make?

3. Who are the three main characters and what do they represent?

Write a short paragraph

Leopold Bloom is the modern Ulysses who wanders about the street of Dublin just as Homer's Ulysses wandered about the Mediterranean. For the modern man, the sea journey , metaphor of life, has become a city journey. Express your opinion.

Credits

Pagina a cura di Tonia Calò

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Ulisse tra mito, arte e letteratura

	a. warm
	b. detached
	c. positive
	d. negative

	a. friendship
	b. sex
	c. romance
	d. other

	a. Leopold's marriage proposal
	b. the sexual intercourse
	c. life
	d. other