English Literature books summary

Haines is somewhat patronizing in his attitude towards Stephen's desire to

become a poet. Haines is a British native and both Mulligan and Stephen

despise him, though Mulligan masks his true thoughts with hypocrisy and

flattery. Haines appears as a spoiled student and a shallow thinker. He

argues that British oppression is not the cause of Ireland№s problems;

rather "history" is to blame. Interrupting the young men's conversation

about Ireland and its international politics, an old lady arrives to

deliver the morning milk and Stephen finds that he is forced to pay the

bill. Soon after breakfast, the three men leave the Tower to walk along the

beach. After making plans to meet Stephen at a bar called the Ship around

noon, Mulligan asks him for his key to the tower. After, forfeiting his key

to Mulligan, Stephen departs from his two roommates, feeling that he has

been usurped from his position.

Chapter Two: Nestor

About an hour after "Telemachus" ends, we find Stephen teaching

ancient history and the classics to a disrespectful class of wealthy boys.

Neither Stephen nor the students are particularly interested in the lesson

which concerns the martial exploits of the Greek hero, Pyrrhus. Armstrong,

the class clown, is disruptive and Talbot, a lazy cheater who is reading

the answers out of his book, does not bother to hide his act from Stephen,

who tells him to 'turn the page" when he stammers at his final response.

Stephen struggles to keep the class in order and it is clear that they

disrespect him. Eventually, even Stephen is distant and half-hearted in his

participation and he eventually gives up his attempt to quiz the students

on their classics lesson.

Later, the young boys ask Stephen to tell them ghost stories and

riddles instead of their lesson. Upon recess, one pathetic student named

Cyril Sargent asks Stephen for assistance with his multiplication tables

and Stephen is reminded of his mother as he considers the fact that only a

mother could love as pitiful a creature as what he and Cyril must have

been. Stephen considers his roommate Haines to be much like the spoiled

students to whom he must cater. Because he feels that his students are

incapable of learning, and because he feels that his intellectual talents

are being wasted in his current position, Stephen does not care about his

job and is already considering leaving his position.

At the end of the chapter, the schoolmaster, Mr. Deasy, gives Stephen

his meager pay for the month. and annoys the young teacher with trite

advice on lending money, pro-British and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Mr. Deasy

continues with an unintelligent attempt at philosophy as well as

Shakespearean criticism. At the close of the chapter, Mr. Deasy asks

Stephen to examine his letter on a cattle-disease that has caused foreign

economic powers to consider an embargo on Irish cattle. Deasy intends for

Stephen to use his contacts to get the letter, which is full of

misstatements and incorrect assertions, printed in the Evening Telegraph.

Chapter Three: Proteus

After 11 AM, Stephen Dedalus wanders along Sandymount strand (a beach)

to waste time before he is to go to the Ship at 12:30 to meet Mulligan and

Haines. Though, in the end, Stephen decides not to go to the Ship to see

Mulligan. This occurs immediately after the "Nestor" episode at Mr. Deasy's

school and Stephen is still disgruntled by his unpleasant experience with

Mr. Deasy and also feels burdened because he has to carry Mr. Deasy№s inane

letter to the Evening Telegraph. Later in the chapter, Stephen sits on a

rock and pencils in a few corrections, in an effort to make his upcoming

trip to the newspaper office less embarrassing.

After walking for several miles, Stephen considers visiting his

mother's family (the Gouldings) but after imagining what his father's

objections would be, he decides against it. Stephen imagines a vivid scene

of what would transpire if he did decide to visit the Gouldings. He

imagines his Uncle Richie Goulding who is laid up in bed as he suffers the

consequences of decades of alcoholism. As usually, "nuncle Richie" would be

singing Italian opera while cousin Walter ran around the house in search of

backache pills for his father. In another room, Mrs. Goulding would no

doubt be bathing one of the myriad young children running around the house.

As he walks on the beach, Stephen considers different philosophical

questions on what is real and what is only perceived, on the relationship

of the symbol versus the symbolized, as well as the human senses and how

they interact and overlap. Stephen expresses his feelings of solitude as

his mind wanders on the real and imagined figures that surround him on

Sandymount and he imagines himself to be in Paris, in the company of his

friend, Kevin Egan. Dedalus№ friend, Egan, was reputed to be a socialist

and after exiling himself to Paris, unlike Stephen, he never returned to

Ireland.

Chapter Four: Calypso

Chapter Four marks the opening of Part Two, beginning at 8am with

Leopold Bloom in his house on 7 Eccles Street. It is breakfast time at the

Bloom residence as was the case in Martello, and the scene that we

encounter is one of fractured domesticity. Bloom's wife, Molly, is asleep

in the bed and their daughter Milly is away. Joyce's focus on Bloom's

thoughts is a contrast to Stephen's intellectualism. When he wakes up,

Bloom№s primary concern is to get breakfast made before his wife is

stirring. He likes to serve Molly breakfast in bed, and Molly is very

specific about how she likes her toast corners cut and her morning tea

served. After beginning preparations for her breakfast and serving the cat

her milk, Bloom quickly departs for the butcher shop in search of a nice

cut of pork kidney for his own breakfast. He later burns the kidney when he

spends too much time assisting Molly upstairs.

Indeed, Joyce's Ulysses is more of a comic hero than an epic figure, a

resemblance to Cervantes' Don Quijote. Bloom is doomed to wander for the

day because he has left his key in the pair of pants that he wore the

previous day and he is afraid to go upstairs and disturb his wife Molly.

Like Stephen, Bloom is rather submissive in his relationships. Bloom, for

example, is aware of the fact that his wife is having an affair with Blazes

Boylan, a younger man with whom she professionally sings. Molly has

received a letter from Boylan that morning and Bloom is aware that Molly

and Boylan plan to consummate their relationship that very afternoon.

Additionally, Bloom is also concerned that his daughter's innocence may be

imperiled on account of her new suitor; Bloom simply shrugs this off and is

passive, if not fatalistic.

We learn a little about Bloom's sexual preferences in his rather

obsessive voyeurism. When Bloom goes to the Dlugacz butcher shop, he

attempts to pursue a young girl at the hope of catching a glimpse of her

underwear. Towards the end of the chapter, Bloom is dressing in all black

on account of the funeral of his acquaintance, Paddy Dignam. And the

chapter ends when Bloom takes a trip to the outhouse and expresses his

concern about again while reading a serialized story which leads him to

consider taking up a literary career to make more money.

Chapter Five: The Lotus Eaters

Chapter Five begins close to 10am as a keyless Bloom leaves his house

and takes a circuitous route to the post office in order to pick up any

responses to an advertisement in which he inquired for a secretary. As a

result of his advertisement, Bloom has been in correspondence with a

flirtatious woman who uses the pseudonym "Martha Clifford" to his "Henry

Flower, Esquire." Despite the fact that he has already found an answer to

his advertisement, Bloom continues to check the post office box and his

advertisement has netted over forty responses and in the end Martha

Clifford was the final consideration, narrowly defeating Lizzie Twigg for

the "position." Regardless of Bloom№s initial intent and whether or not he

was initially searching for a secretary, Martha Clifford has become a

platonic pen-pal and now it seems that the relationship is escalating. Upon

reading Clifford's letter, Bloom regrets the fact that he has goaded

Clifford by responding to her letters and he is afraid that she may want to

meet him instead of continue a Clifford-Flower relationship with non-

committed, teasing love letters. As if to confirm her romantic intentions,

Clifford, the coquette, has included a flower along with her letter.

After leaving the post office, Bloom travels to the Belfast and

Oriental Tea Company, though he only looks through the window and admires

the various spiced teas from the outside. Looking through the large window

of the store, Bloom is lost in a daydream as he imagines the various

advertisement possibilities for the establishment. Bloom continues on his

wandering course until he reaches F.W. Sweny's chemist shop where he buys a

bar of lemon soap and makes plans to return with a recipe for Molly's

lotion. He had forgotten to bring it with him. Bloom sees Bantam Lyons on

the street and Lyons misunderstands Bloom's offer of the newspaper that he

has just finished reading.

Bloom's statement that he was just going to throw away the paper is

misheard by Lyons who thinks that Bloom is giving him a tip on the

racehorse, Throwaway. This rather strained comic scene has unfortunate

consequences for Bloom, later in the novel. Towards the end of the chapter,

Bloom contemplates a Turkish bath, but his peaceful thoughts are

interrupted by his memory of his father's suicide. Bloom№s father, Rudolph,

took an overdose of monkshood poison and died in a resort in Italy.

Chapter Six: Hades

Soon before 11am, Bloom enters a funereal carriage with other friends

of Paddy Dignam. Jack Power, Martin Cunningham, Simon Dedalus (the father

of Stephen) and Bloom, follow Dignam's hearse to Glasnevin Cemetery where

Father Coffey delivers the conclusion of the religious interment ceremony.

Along the way, the carriage passes throngs of urban poor, the small hearse

of an orphan, a widow, Blazes Boylan, as well as Stephen Dedalus. As the

funeral procession passes through the city, all of Dublin№s bleakest

characteristics are exposed and magnified. Bloom imagines it as a city of

the dead and when he passes an old lady, he thinks to himself that she is

somewhat relieved to see the hearse pass by her as she lives in the

constant fear that the next death she sees will be her own. The carriage

has a few navigational problems as the course to Glasnevin Cemetery

requires that they pass over four different rivers including the Liffey,

Dublin№s largest river.

Bloom's outsider status is revealed even in the stilted congeniality

of the cramped carriage. Power and Dedalus are extremely terse in their

comments to Bloom, though Cunningham does make an effort to express his

kindness. Still, the conversation is triangular and Bloom spends most of

his time thinking of ways to jump into the conversation. His attempt to be

sociable is more of a faux pas than anything else and his comments expose

him as a non-Catholic. One of the carriage members comments on the

unfortunate nature of Paddy Dignam№s death, given that he died in a drunken

and unconscious stupor. For the three Catholics, it need not be said that

Dignam was unable to receive last rites, jeopardizing the status of his

soul in the afterlife. Bloom, an outsider, has missed the nuance of the

conversation and he argues that Paddy was lucky, for dying in ones sleep is

the least painful exit. Later the conversation turns to the subject of

suicide and Jack Power makes an inconsiderate remark about the eternal

damnation suffered by suicides. Unlike Power, Cunningham is aware of the

fact that Bloom№s father committed suicide and he steers the conversation

to a lighthearted topic. Despite the stiff sobriety of the occasion though,

Bloom's opinions of the Roman Catholic ceremony provide comic relief from

the somber subject matter of the chapter.

Chapter Seven: Aeolus

After the Dignam funeral, Bloom goes downtown to the newspaper office

(an office for three different publications) to work on his newest

advertising assignment, a two-month renewal for Alexander Keyes. Bloom

appears close to accomplishing his goal because Keyes previous ad is easily

recovered. Problems arise when the business manager, Nannetti, decides that

Keyes should take out a three-month advertisement and he is largely

unwilling to compromise. Nannetti№s tone is sarcastic when he addresses

Bloom and so the ad canvasser is unclear as to whether or not he will have

to re-negotiate his contract with Keyes, though in the end it seems that

this is the case.

To further complicate manners, Bloom learns that he will have to trek

to the National Library to retrieve a specific graphic image of two crossed

keys. The Keyes house wanted to use this image and though it was the same

image that they used in their last advertisement, Bloom is unable to find a

copy of it in the office. Bloom's escapades in the office are interrupted

by the entrance and exit of both Simon and Stephen Dedalus at different

times and within different groups. Simon Dedalus has arrived with a few of

his friends who were also in attendance at the funeral and they eventually

leave for drinks. While they are there, the men discuss and ridicule a

recent patriotic speech that has printed in the paper.

When Stephen arrives, he sends a telegraph to Mulligan, notifying him

that he will not be going to the Ship. Instead, Mulligan and Stephen will

cross paths in the National Library, though Stephen is wholly unaware of

Leopold Bloom and his plans. Stephen is also engaged in a political

discussion in which he tells what he calls the Parable of the Plums,

describing the Irish condition as that of two old women who have begun to

climb the tall statue of the British Lord Nelson. Having stopped midway,

they take a break to eat plums, spitting the pits down into the Irish soil.

At this point, the two old women are horrified and unable to move,

frightened by the distance between their current position and ground level.

At the same time though, they find Lord Nelson№s face to be unwelcoming and

menacing and they refuse to climb any further on the statue, resigned to

live the rest of their lives clutching on Lord Nelson№s midsection. After

telling the parable to his enthusiastic and older audience, Stephen

delivers Mr. Deasy's letter on Irish cattle, which the staff reluctantly

agrees to print. Bloom re-appears towards the end of the chapter as he

attempts to call Keyes to confirm the three-month renewal before beginning

the work but all of his attempts at communication are unsuccessful as his

co-workers are disrespectful and only make Bloom's assignment more

difficult than it needs to be.

Chapter Eight: The Lestrygonians

Chapter Eight is a chronology of Bloom's early afternoon. Rather than

directly venturing to the National Library, Bloom wanders for a little over

an hour and the narrative of the chapter follows his course as he decides

to get something to eat. A young proselytizer affiliated with the YMCA

hands Bloom a "throwaway" tract and when Bloom first reads the words:

"blood of the lamb," he mistakes the letters B-L-O-O for the beginning of

his own name. Soon after, Bloom sees one of Simon Dedalus' daughters

waiting for him outside a bar. Bloom then feeds the gulls, watches the five

men advertising H.E.L.Y.S. establishment, listens to Mrs. Breen's story

concerning her husband, Denis, who is losing his mind. Mr. Denis Breen has

received a postcard in the mail that reads "U. p: up" and enraged, by the

unintelligible prank, he has ventured to a lawyer in order to press

charges. Denis Breen intends to sue for libel, though he is unaware of the

intent or sender of the postcard.

Mrs. Breen also shares the story of Mina Purefoy, who has been in

labor for three days. Purefoy is losing her strength and apparently, Mrs.

Breen has recently visited her in the National Maternity Hospital.

Concerned for Mrs. Purefoy, Bloom decides that he will visit the pregnant

woman and a little after this decision, Bloom encounters an in/famous

character by the name of Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farell.

Farrell is another Dublin crazyman who spends him time walking in between

the lampposts. After avoiding Farrell's track, a hungry Bloom enters the

Burton Restaurant but he leaves, disgusted by the exceptionally poor habits

of the savage customers. Bloom, in fact, does not even give himself the

chance to sit down in the Restaurant, whose somewhat opulent dйcor

contrasts the loud noise of the animated diners.

After leaving the Burton Restaurant, Bloom continues his wandering

through the city before he finally opts for Davy Byrne's "moral pub," where

he sees Nosey Flynn. Just as the "moral pub" is considerably cleaner than

the Burton Restaurant, Flynn presents himself as a decent man‹though he

too, is not the cleanest. Flynn is constantly picking and brushing lice off

his shoulders. The conversation inside Byrne's touches upon Blazes Boylan

as well as the upcoming horserace in which Sceptre is heavily favored.

After Bloom's exit, Byrne and Flynn discuss the wanderer, concluding rather

fairly that he is a decent man despite his deliberate ambiguity and

consistent refusal to sign his name to any agreement. The chapter ends soon

after Bloom is on the path to the National Library. He helps a "blind

stripling" cross street and soon after, Bloom enters a Museum, presumably

to hide from Blazes Boylan whose path has again crossed with Bloom's.

Chapter Nine: Scylla and Charybdis

This afternoon chapter lasts for approximately an hour and a half and

ends at 3pm. "Scylla and Charybdis takes place in the National Library and

the shift in focus from Bloom to Stephen Dedalus marks Stephen's third

appearance since "Proteus." Stephen has left the news office of "Aeolus"

and after sending a message to Mulligan, he departed for the National

Library rather than The Ship. It is unclear exactly what Stephen has been

doing in the interim, though we do see that he is not alone in the library

and Stephen sees that this casual company provides him with another

opportunity to present himself as an intellectual thinker and budding

literary genius.

Despite Stephen’s continued efforts to impress the men in his company,

he finds that his ploys are mostly frustrated. In contrast to Stephen's

more receptive audience in "Aeolus," two of his library companions, Russell

and Eglington, are men of literary stature who patronize Stephen's ideas

about Shakespeare, ideas that he wedges between commentary on Irish

politics and the difficult predicament of the young Irish literati. In his

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