Bloomsday (celebrated and recreated by Anthony Cronin in 1952) relates the fictional Leopold Bloom 16th June 1904. Ulysses
is written as a comedy. Ulysses takes the Odyssey and creates a myth with four aspects: Stephen’s estrangement from Mulligan, Molly Bloom’s infidelity, Bloom and Stephen meeting and their return to Bloom’s house and their parting. In this myth, most of the adventures occur in the mind. The second myth is ethical (desirable and undesirable life). The third myth is aesthetic (art versus nature (art and morality). The last myth is the ultimate justification of existence. The book concludes by uniting lofty purpose with ordinary circumstances in extravagant comedy.The book was grouped in threes, separated from the twelve adventures (in four triads). Initially (I) on throwing Stephen Dedalus out of his Omphalos Tower, Mulligan wants to Hellenise the Irish. The Morning After (1) Stephen’s mother clutches at him from the underworld. Ulysses is rendered an Irish Faust. The Odyssey takes place in heaven, earth and the underworld, Joyce adopts two Gods, space and time.
Magpie and Cuckoo (2) This episode has a
history lesson. Stephen allows history to survive as an actuality of the possible as possible. Time is marshalled. The Irish are oppressed throughout history.
Why Stephen Dedalus Picks his Nose (3) Stephen’s monologue details space and time, his shadow is endless, he writes a poem, expressing love and death.
Browne and Nolan (II) Joyce matched Homer’s aim - father searching son and vice versa. Bloom balances Stephen’s edgy mind with abundant goodwill. The book takes place in Bloom’s mind.
Middle Earth (4) The sensory world of food. Molly reads a pornographic book. Secret messages are exchanged between Bloom and the cat. The Other World (5) The Lotus Eaters function in time, they are divorced from history, they have put it to sleep. Lotus Eaters are dolce far niente. Two letters, from Molly and Martha Clifford in the Lotus Eaters provide opposition. Bloom’s adventures in Lotus Land include meeting M’Coy and Lyons, Lotus Land replicas. Bloom meditates on Buddhism and Christianity. Bloom leaves the Lotus Land creatures behind - a penpal is better than a bedpal.
The Circle Joined (6) Bloom and Stephen work together. Stephen finds women distant creatures, Bloom finds women interesting. Dignam dies. In Blooms imagination the dead speak as for Odysseus in Hades. Stephen teaches in a rich boy’s school, ‘You will not be the master of others or their slave’ (III) Harsh Geometry. Joyce regards Odysseus as a man-God, Outis (no-one) and Zeus.
Blowing up Nelson’s Pillar (7). Nelson represents the defeat of Europe’s Catholic chivalry. The 1882 Phoenix Park murderers are described as ‘Clamn dever.’ Moses did not free the Jews from bondage. Joyce worked his prose into
patterns.
A Cheese Sandwich (8) Lestrygonians were cannibals. Bloom reflects on his married life. Bloom uses his memory (love enriches his memory) to defend himself against the Lestrygonians.
The Riddle of Scylla and Charybdis (9). This episode is based on Hamlet. They escape
Scyllla and Charybdis by mating them. (V) The Void Opens. The Universe is a mighty maze without a plan. Only through error can one become fully human and achieve liberation in life or art. Memory is a source of personal identity. Between Two Roaring Worlds (10). The Viceroy represents the occupying authority. Father Conmee upholds spiritual power. Bloom and Stephen disregard both.
Words Become Notes Become Words (11). The Sirens episode begins with sounds. Bloom hears Boylan’s song. Miss Douce pulls the beerpull just as the ‘Croppy Boy’ is hanged.
Bloom Unbound (12). A pair of narrators, Thersites, refers to to Odysseus blinding Cyclops. Bloom counters hatred, illusion and chauvinism. ‘History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake’ Bloom.
(VI) The Battle for Dublin. Ulysses adventures from Aeolus to Circe, Joyce makes statues of idealists, sentimentalityis death.
Towards Lay Sanctity (13). In Nausicaa Blooms watch stops at 4.30. The Gods of materialism and idealism are considered in Circe.
Heroic Naughtiness (14). Bloom lands in the country of Nausicaa, Phaeacia. Love loves to love, love. The young assert their uniqueness, the old their familiarty. Molly menstruates, Bloom’s masturbation is heroic.
Vagitus, The Word is Born (15). Odysseus crew profane the sacred cattle. Vagitus is the cry of the newborn. Stephen, is sired by the English language and damned by literary tradition. Stephen and Bloom discuss foot and mouth disease, then an epidemic. Bloom and Stephen save themselves from shipwreck.
The Orc (15). In this episode the Orc has many heads. In the brothel scene Bloom is crowned King Leopold I. The book’s climax is in the house of climaxes, Odysseus avoids Circe turning him into a pig. Bloom raises Ruby from the dead like Lazarus.
(VIII) The New Bloomusalem. Bloom must return home. Joyce, in Circe, mastered two kingdoms - birth and death.
A Fiction Not Supreme (16). Old age is supreme. Gerty is the monologuist. The sailor is spokesman for false art.
Le Scienza Nuova e Vecchia (17) Bloom is at home in Ithaca, the slaughter of the suitors, fidelity and infidelity coincide.
Why Molly Bloom Menstruates (18). Bloom and Molly are in the arms of Morpheus, (arms of Murphy, Joyce). Bloom and Stephen become like the stars on which they gaze. Molly rejects sado-masochism, her monologue is a correction. Molly re-bears paradise. Bloom, Stephen and Molly are a trinity and a unity. Ulysses is an oblique message in Dublin Greek.