Summary
At 8 a.m. Malachi ‘Buck’ Mulligan, a boisterous medical student, calls aspiring writer Stephen Dedalus up to the roof of the Sandycove Martello tower, where they live. There is tension between Dedalus and Mulligan stemming from a cruel remark Dedalus overheard Mulligan make about his recently deceased mother and from the fact that Mulligan has invited an English student, Haines, to stay with them. The three men eat breakfast and walk to the shore, where Mulligan demands from Stephen the key to the tower and a loan. The three make plans to meet at a pub, The Ship, at 12:30pm. Departing, Stephen decides that he will not return to the tower that night, as Mulligan, the “usurper”, has taken it over.
Odyssey Allusion
In Greek mythology, Telemachus ( tə-LEM-ə-kəs; Ancient Greek: Τηλέμαχος, romanized: Tēlemakhos, lit. ‘far-fighter’) is the son of Odysseus and Penelope, who are central characters in Homer’s Odyssey. When Telemachus reached manhood, he visited Pylos and Sparta in search of his wandering father. On his return to Ithaca, he found that Odysseus had reached home before him. Then father and son slew the suitors who had gathered around Penelope. According to later tradition, Telemachus married Circe after Odysseus’s death.
The first four books of the Odyssey focus on Telemachus’s journeys in search of news about his father, who has yet to return home from the Trojan War, and are traditionally given the title Telemachy.
Episode Notes
Mulligan introduced as shaving and his mockery
1.1 Stately plump Buck Mulligan
“Stately, plump Buck Mulligan cam from the starihead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.”
Link to original
- Mulligan mercilessly mocks Stephen, also mocks Catholic traditions.
- “Come up Kinch! Come up, you fearful jesuit!” 1.8 You fearful jesuit
Mulligan has numerous nicknames for Stephen: Both Hamlet and Telemachus begin their respective stories in a state of angst and dispossession, and both are sons without fathers. In these and other ways, Stephen Dedalus fits into their lineage. They are his literary ancestors.
Mulligan judges Stephen’s refusal to pray for his dying mother
- He says that his Aunt thinks “you killed your mother”
- He uses his aunt as a guise to hide behind, all the while critcizing Stephen
- “But to think of your mother begging you with her last breatht to kneel down ad pray for her. And you refuse. There is something sinister in you…” 1.88 Something sinister in you
Stephen’s mind wanders over his guilt of his mother’s death
- “Stephen, an elbow rested on the jagged granite, leaned his palm against his brow and gazed at the fraying edge of hi shiny black coatsleeve. Pain, that was not yet the pain of love, fretted his heart.” 1.100 Pain that not yet the pain of love
Stephen holds a mirror
- Clearly he does not have a good impression of self
- “Hair on end. As he and others see me. Who chose this face for me? This dogsbody to rid of vermin. It asks me too.” 1.136 As he and others see me… dogsbody
- On the mirror, Stephen remarks, “It is a symbol of Irish art. The cracked lookingglass of a servant.” 1.146 Cracking lookingglass of a servant
The Milk Woman enters
- While Stephen contemplates the woman, it is not soo nice:
- “Old shrunken paps… Old and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a messenger.” 1.399 Maybe a messenger
- Yet “To serve or to upbraid, whether he could not tell: but scorned to beg her favour.” 1.408 Scorned to beg her favour
Haines tries to converse with the milkmaid in Gaelic
- This isn’t explicitly said in the writing, but implied
- The milk woman doesn’t understand him, however
- The milkwoman says, “I’m ashamed I don’t speak the language myself. I’m told it’s a grand language by them that knows.” 1.435
They walk to the beach
- It is revealed that Stephen really hates to bathe
- Mulligan jumps in. Haines says he wants to write down Stephen’s sayings, as a part of a study on Ireland
- Weird, to treat Stephen as an exhibit, or test subject
- This makes Stephen uncomfortable:
- They continue: Haines: “I should think you are able to free yourself. You are your own master, it seems to me.” 1.637 You are your own master
- Stephen responds: “I am a servant of two masters, Stephen said, and English and an Italian… And a third, Stephen said, there is who wants me for odd jobs.” 1.638 I am a servant of two masters
Haines and Stephen talk about History
1.649 history is to blame
An Irishman must think like that, I daresay. We feel in England that we have treated you rather unfairly. It seems history is to blame.
Link to original
Returning from the beach, Stephen vows not to return. He calls Mulligan 1.743 Usurper
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Mulligan mocks Stephen’s poverty, mother’s death
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The roommates eat breakfast, the milkmaid delivers milk
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The roommates go to swim
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Stephen parts, he vows not to return to Sandycove Martello tower
Thoughts
Quotes
“Stately, plump Buck Mulligan cam from the starihead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.” 1.1 Stately plump Buck Mulligan
“A servant too. A server of a servant” 1.312 A server of a servant