This list represents one of the most famous “catalogues” in Ulysses. As Bloom lies in bed, he mentally constructs a list of all the men he believes (rightly or wrongly) have been romantic interests or sexual partners of Molly.
The “Series” of Molly’s Men
Bloom views this as a mathematical or infinite series—starting with Mulvey (her first love in Gibraltar) and ending with Blazes Boylan.
* The Breadth of the List: It includes everyone from high-ranking officials like Valentine Blake Dillon (Lord Mayor) and clergy like Father Bernard Corrigan, to the anonymous and the gritty, like an Italian organgrinder or a bootblack.
* The Psychological Weight: By categorizing these men, Bloom is attempting to exert “scientific” control over his jealousy. If it is a “series” with “no last term,” then Boylan is just a statistical data point rather than a unique emotional threat.
Reflections on Blazes Boylan
When Bloom considers the “late occupant of the bed” (Boylan), he uses a series of biting, “B-alliterative” descriptors that reveal his true disdain:
* A Bounder (Vigour): Someone lacking class or manners; an interloper.
* A Billsticker (Proportion): A derogatory term implying Boylan is flashy but shallow, like an advertisement.
* A Bester (Commercial Ability): Someone who cheats or gets the better of others in a shady way.
* A Boaster (Impressionability): A man of hollow words and vanity.
Despite this, Bloom concludes with a sense of equanimity. He realizes that Boylan’s presence was “neither unique nor quite unexpected” and that in the vastness of the “proper perpetual motion of the earth,” this infidelity is a small, human event.
This final, famous physical interaction between Bloom and the sleeping Molly is described with the same “scientific” detachment as the rest of the chapter, yet it vibrates with a strange, sensory tenderness.
The “Melon” Osculation
Bloom’s kiss is described using synesthesia—the blending of senses. He doesn’t just see or touch; he experiences a “mellow yellow smellow” sensation.
* The Geometry: He treats her body as two “hemispheres” (fitting the earlier mentions of the 53rd parallel).
* The Language: The word “osculation” is the clinical term for a kiss, but Joyce stretches it into “melonsmellonous,” mimicking the lingering, “prolonged” nature of the act itself.
The Stages of “Postsatisfaction”
After this act of “provocative” affection, Bloom moves through a series of internal states:
* Silent Contemplation: Processing the day and the return home.
* Tentative Velation: “Velation” refers to a veiling or covering—he is literally and figuratively tucking himself in.
* Gradual Abasement: Setting aside his ego and his “scientific” pride.
* Solicitous Aversion: Turning away to find his own space in the bed.
* Proximate Erection: A final, biological flicker of life before the total “somnolence” (sleep) takes over.
The Final Exchange
The “catechetical interrogation” you mentioned is the moment Molly briefly wakes up. She asks him the “feminine interrogations” from earlier—where he was, what he did, who he saw.
* The Sinbad Drift: Bloom gives her a “shuffled” account of his day (omitting the more scandalous parts) before drifting into the “Sinbad” nursery rhyme we discussed.
As Bloom falls into his “Darkinbad” sleep, the “Ithaca” narrator—the cold, questioning voice—finally goes silent. The “dot” appears, and the perspective shifts entirely. We leave the world of “masculine” facts and enter the “feminine” flow of Molly’s mind.
This chronicle is Bloom’s mental “inventory” of his daughter, Milly, who is now fifteen and living away from home in Mullingar.
In the cold, detached style of the “Ithaca” episode, Joyce is showing us how Bloom processes his grief over the “first division” (Milly growing up and leaving) and the “second division” (her eventually finding a husband). It is a record of a father trying to understand his child through biological data, memories of her play, and the looming reality of her sexuality.
Key Themes in the Chronicle
* Biological Continuity: Bloom traces her physical features (the “nasal and frontal formation”) back through generations. He notes she is “blond, born of two dark,” searching for ancestral reasons (the Austrian “Herr Hauptmann Hainau”) for her appearance.
* The Loss of Innocence: Bloom recalls her transition from “Padney Socks” (a nickname) who played with a moneybox and dolls, to an adolescent who “relegated her hoop and skippingrope” to a corner.
* The Mullingar Student: Milly has mentioned a “local student” in a letter. Bloom links this to the “secret purpose” of a creature seeking a mate, which is why he compares her departure to that of his cat.
The Comparison to the Cat
The “As?” at the end of your passage leads into a famous list comparing Milly to the household cat. This is Bloom’s “scientific” way of coping with his daughter’s independence.
| Characteristic | The Cat | Milly |
|—|—|—|
| Passivity | Resting on the hearth. | Docility of temperament. |
| Economy | Licking her fur (self-cleaning). | Care of her person/clothing. |
| Instinct | Seeking “valerian” (a healing herb). | Seeking a “male” (the student). |
| Unexpectedness | Jumping suddenly. | Sudden changes in mood or direction. |
“Less than he had imagined, more than he had hoped”
This is one of the most honest lines in the book regarding parenthood.
* It hurt less than he imagined because he recognizes it as a natural law of “succession.”
* It hurt more than he hoped because it confirms his own aging and his “replacement” in her life.
The Sleepwalking/Night Terrors
The opening of your passage deals with somnambulism (sleepwalking). Bloom recalls his own episode of crawling toward a “heatless fire,” and then Milly’s “exclamations of terror” as a child. This suggests a deep, subconscious bond between father and daughter—a shared “vibrational” or nervous inheritance that connects them even when they are apart.
This is the climax of the “Ithaca” cultural exchange, where the “jocoserious” tone takes a dark, haunting turn. Stephen recites the medieval ballad “Sir Hugh of Lincoln,” a notorious example of the “blood libel”—the false, historical myth that Jewish people kidnapped and murdered Christian children.
The Significance of the Song
By singing this to Bloom, Stephen isn’t being intentionally anti-Semitic; rather, he is acting as a “pure” artist, presenting a piece of “ancient” folklore. However, the irony is thick:
* The Victim: The “pretty little boy” in the song mirrors Stephen’s own vulnerability and his lost childhood.
* The Host: Bloom, the “Jew” in this scenario, has just fed and protected Stephen. The song’s depiction of a “Jew’s daughter” as a murderer creates a jarring contrast with the peaceful kitchen.
* The Ritual: The song describes a “penknife” and a “lilywhite hand,” turning a horrific act into a stylized, rhythmic poem.
Bloom’s Reaction
How does the “scientific” Bloom process this “artistic” attack? The text notes his “equanimity” is slightly disturbed. He thinks of his own daughter, Milly, and his deceased son, Rudy. He doesn’t argue with Stephen; he simply absorbs the song as another “phenomenon” of the human temperament.
The Cultural Mirror
Earlier, they were comparing alphabets on a smutty book. Now, they are facing the darkest side of their shared history. Stephen’s Irish song was about safety (“walk in care”), but his English ballad is about a “sorry ball” and death. It suggests that while they have found a temporary “communion” over cocoa, the weight of history and myth still stands between them.
This section marks a deep cultural bridge-building between the two men. They are no longer just sharing cocoa; they are exchanging the “sacred” lineages of their respective heritages—the Hebrew and the Irish.
The “Three Moses” and the Four Seekers
Bloom responds to Stephen’s “Parable of the Plums” by citing three pillars of Jewish thought. He uses a famous Jewish aphorism: “From Moses to Moses, there was none like Moses.”
* Moses of Egypt: The biblical lawgiver.
* Moses Maimonides: The medieval philosopher who sought to harmonize faith and reason in his Guide for the Perplexed (Moreh Nevukhim).
* Moses Mendelssohn: The Enlightenment thinker who brought Jewish thought into the modern secular world.
* The “Rabbinical” Aristotle: In a touch of “Bloom-ish” misinformation, Bloom gently suggests that the great Greek philosopher Aristotle was actually a pupil of a Jewish rabbi. While historically incorrect, it shows Bloom’s desire to find a Jewish root for all “pure truth.”
The “Sweets of Sin” Collaboration
One of the most ironic moments in Ulysses occurs here. They need paper to compare their alphabets, and Bloom produces “Sweets of Sin,” the cheap, erotic novel he bought for Molly earlier that day.
They use the blank back page of this “inferior” book to write:
* Stephen (Irish): He writes the characters for G, A, D, M.
* Bloom (Hebrew): He writes Ghimel, Aleph, Daleth, and Qoph.
Bloom explains the Gematria (arithmetical values) of the Hebrew letters. By writing these ancient characters side-by-side on the back of a “smutty” book, Joyce suggests that high culture and low culture, or ancient history and modern grit, are always touching.
The Fragment of Song
The verse Bloom recites—”Thy temple amid thy hair is as a slice of pomegranate”—comes from the Song of Solomon (6:7). It is a sensual, romantic line that mirrors Bloom’s constant thoughts of Molly’s beauty, even as he engages in this dry, academic exchange with Stephen.
This passage is a masterclass in Joyce’s “jocoserious” style—using the cold, logical structure of a physics textbook to describe the messy, circular psychological game of a marriage.
The Hat and Umbrella Sequence: “Indirect Suggestion”
The sequence you asked about is Bloom’s clever (and slightly manipulative) way of getting Molly to do what he wants without a fight. He realizes that “direct instruction” (lecturing her) fails because she “forgets with ease.” Instead, he uses self-interest and psychology.
The Logic of the Sequence:
* The Conflict: Molly hates carrying an umbrella when it rains (perhaps she finds it cumbersome).
* The Desire: Bloom wants her to carry an umbrella (to stay dry/proper).
* The Strategy: Bloom knows Molly loves new clothes.
* The Action: He buys her a new hat during the rainy season.
* The Result: Because she loves the new hat and doesn’t want the rain to ruin it, she willingly carries the umbrella.
Bloom frames this like a mathematical proof or a logic gate. He bypasses her “ignorance” by appealing to her vanity and care for her possessions. It shows Bloom as a “scientific” husband who treats human behavior like an engineering problem.
Interpreting the Rest of the Passage
* The “False Balance”: Joyce uses the image of a weighing scale (balances). Even if the arms look parallel, they are only “true” if they balance out. Bloom admits Molly has intellectual “deficiencies,” but she has a “proficiency of judgment regarding one person.” This “one person” is usually interpreted as Bloom himself—she knows his character better than anyone, which balances out her lack of book learning.
* direct instruction vs. indirect suggestion: Bloom tried to educate her by leaving books open (passive-aggressive) or ridiculing others’ ignorance (shaming). It failed. The “hat/umbrella” trick worked because it used “indirect suggestion.”
* Postexilic Eminence: This refers to the “Parable of the Plums.” Bloom responds to Stephen’s story about Dublin by listing successful Jewish figures who rose to greatness after the “exile” (the Diaspora). He is trying to connect Stephen’s artistic vision of Dublin to the broader, historical reality of survival and success.
To answer the final question of your sequence, the “Ithaca” narrator identifies the quality that balances Molly’s intellectual quirks:
> The heresiarchal liberty of her mind, which, having no sense of the stability of things, was prepared for anything, for everything.
>
This “heresiarchal liberty” suggests that while Molly may lack formal logic or correct spelling, she possesses a boundless, fluid imagination that isn’t restricted by the “scientific” rules that often trap Bloom’s own thinking.
The Domestic Problem: “What to do with our wives”
This section highlights Bloom’s obsession with “improvement” and “occupation.” He lists nine hypothetical solutions to keep a wife engaged, ranging from the innocent to the radical:
* The Victorian Mundane: Parlour games and knitting for charity.
* The Commercial: Managing a cigar divan or a dairy shop.
* The Radical: “Clandestine satisfaction” in medically controlled environments.
* The Ninth Solution: The “liberal instruction” (education) which he hopes will cure her of her “deficient mental development.”
The “Deficiencies” of Molly Bloom
Joyce uses Bloom’s clinical lens to poke fun at Molly’s unique way of processing the world. Her errors are famous in literature:
* Metempsychosis: She famously interprets the complex Greek concept of the migration of souls as “met him pike hoses.”
* The Capital Q: Her struggle with the “capital initial” of Quebec.
* Digital Aid: Her need to count on her fingers (digital) when doing math.
* The Ink: Her habit of leaving her pen (implement of calligraphy) sitting in the acidic ink (encaustic pigment), allowing it to corrode.
Analysis: The “Personal Equation”
The long opening paragraph you shared discusses Bloom’s belief that his past experiences and his “essays” could be monetized or turned into a “model pedagogic theme.” He sees his life as a series of data points that could lead to “financial, social, personal and sexual success.” It is the ultimate expression of the “scientific” mind trying to find a formula for happiness.
In this poignant shift, Joyce moves from the comedic “Stoom” and “Blephen” merger to the heavy, personal tragedies that define both men.
To answer your final question: No, Bloom did not see it as a mere coincidence. While Bloom sees “homonymity” (the shared name of the Queen’s Hotel) as a coincidence, his reaction to Stephen’s “Parable of the Plums” is far more complex. He listens to Stephen’s story—which describes two elderly Dublin women climbing Nelson’s Pillar to eat plums and spit the stones down upon the city—with “profound interest.” To Bloom, this isn’t just a story; it is a “kinetic temperament relieved.” He recognizes it as a work of artistic vision (a “Pisgah Sight,” referring to Moses viewing the Promised Land from afar). He sees it as a bridge between Stephen’s internal “artistic” world and the “scientific” reality of Dublin.
The Contrast of the “Queen’s Hotel”
This passage highlights the fundamental difference between the two men’s imaginations:
* Stephen’s Scene (The Romantic/Melodramatic):
Stephen constructs a classic gothic trope: a lonely woman, a mysterious letter, and a mountain pass. It is pure fiction, ending in a frustrated, repetitive scribble: Queen’s Hotel, Queen’s Hotel…
* Bloom’s Reconstruction (The Clinical/Tragic):
Bloom counters with the brutal, precise reality of his father’s suicide. Notice the “Ithaca” style’s obsession with time and chemical composition:
* The Toxin: A specific ratio (2:1) of aconite to chloroform.
* The Irony: His father bought a “new boater straw hat, extra smart” just hours before killing himself.
This detail—buying a jaunty new hat before committing suicide—is one of the most heartbreakingly human moments in the book. It grounds the “scientific” style in a deep, unspoken grief.
The final category of advertisement—the “Such as never?”—is the most absurd and grandiose of Bloom’s marketing fantasies. To answer based on the text:
“Such as never?” refers to an idea so vast it would require the cooperation of nature itself. Bloom imagines:
> A cosmic advertisement.
>
Specifically, he envisions using a series of powerful electric searchlights to project an advertising message directly onto the surface of the moon. He imagines a “monoideal” symbol—perhaps a huge brand name or logo—that would be visible to the entire world at once, achieving the ultimate goal of “magnetising efficacy.”
The “Ithaca” Educational Swap: Stoom and Blephen
The passage you quoted regarding “Stoom” and “Blephen” is Joyce’s way of showing how the two men have begun to merge into a single entity in the dark kitchen. By blending their names, Joyce suggests that their individual identities are dissolving into a shared “human” experience.
* Scientific vs. Artistic: While Stephen represents the “pure” artistic temperament (abstract, linguistic, tragic), Bloom represents the “applied” scientific temperament.
* The Inventions: Bloom’s inventions are charmingly practical. Instead of “games of hazard” (gambling) or “popguns” (violence), he wants to give children “arithmetical gelatine lozenges” so they can literally taste and consume knowledge.
The Art of Advertisement
Bloom is a professional “ad-canvasser,” and his thoughts on “triliteral monoideal symbols” (like K. 11.) show his obsession with the psychology of the modern consumer. He wants symbols that are:
* Vertical: For maximum visibility from a distance.
* Horizontal: For maximum legibility when close.
* Magnetic: To force a person to stop, look, and buy.
He dismisses the “Look at this long candle” ads as too gimmicky—he prefers the clean, modern authority of a simple, cryptic symbol.
The “rondel of bossed glass” is one of the most beautiful—and technically revealing—passages in the entire book. It describes a young Bloom looking through a thick, circular pane of colored glass (a “boss” or “bullseye” pane) at the street outside.
The Metaphor of the Lens
When Bloom looks through this distorted glass, he sees the world as a “precipitous globe” where things move “round and round and round.” This isn’t just a memory of a curious child; it’s a perfect description of how Joyce wrote Ulysses:
* The Curvature of Time: Just as the glass curves the street into a circle, the novel curves the day of June 16th. Characters walk “round and round” Dublin, crossing paths and repeating themes.
* The Distortion of Reality: Looking through a “multicoloured pane” changes the color and shape of the “quadrupeds and vehicles.” Similarly, each chapter of Ulysses uses a different “pane” or style (like the catechism of Ithaca) to distort and re-frame the same simple events.
* The Observer Effect: Bloom is fascinated by the spectacle of movement without needing to participate in it. This mirrors his “equanimity” at the end of the book.
Why “Precipitous”?
Joyce uses the word “precipitous” because the distortion of the thick glass makes the flat street look like a steep, dangerous drop-off. It’s a reminder that even the most “mundane” reality (a street in Dublin) can look like a cosmic, terrifying, or beautiful landscape if you change the lens through which you view it.
To answer the final question of your sequence, the “Ithaca” narrator provides a list of scientific and pseudo-scientific methods Bloom considers to reverse the effects of time.
The Pursuit of Rejuvenation
The text lists several means, ranging from the medicinal to the astronomical:
* Medicinal: The use of “phosphorus” and the ingestion of “extract of orchitic fluid” (a reference to the Brown-Séquard elixir, a 19th-century precursor to hormone therapy).
* Physical: The “re-applicaion of the scalp” and “the cultivation of a beard.”
* Scientific/Cosmic: Most notably, Bloom contemplates the “theory of relativity” and the idea that if one could travel faster than light, one could overtake past events and “witness” them again.
Ultimately, however, Bloom realizes these are “imaginary” or “impossible” means. He settles back into his state of equanimity, accepting that rejuvenation is a biological impossibility.
The Shared Memory of “Dante” Riordan
This section is crucial because it provides the “third connecting link” between the two men. Mrs. Riordan (whom Stephen calls “Dante” in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) is the bridge:
* Stephen’s memory: Spiritual and political (the lamp for the Virgin Mary, the brushes for the fallen Irish leader Parnell).
* Bloom’s memory: Physical and practical (pushing her in a bathchair, her deafness, her cards).
By comparing their memories, Joyce shows that while they occupied the same physical spaces (the City Arms Hotel), they experienced them through entirely different lenses—Stephen through emotion and myth, Bloom through observation and physics.
I see the confusion! It’s a great example of how “literary truth” is often a patchwork of several different “real-life truths.”
To be precise: Alfred Hunter was the “event,” but Ettore Schmitz (Italo Svevo) was the “essence.”
1. The Incident (Alfred Hunter)
The physical action of the story—the “Homecoming” where an older man rescues a younger one—is 100% based on Alfred Hunter.
* The Date: June 22, 1904.
* The Drama: Joyce got into a fight in a Dublin park and was knocked down.
* The Rescue: Hunter, a man Joyce barely knew, picked him up, took him home, and fed him. This became the blueprint for Bloom taking care of Stephen in the “Ithaca” episode you’ve been quoting.
2. The Character (Ettore Schmitz / Italo Svevo)
The personality, voice, and Jewish identity of Leopold Bloom came largely from Ettore Schmitz.
* The Student-Teacher Bond: While living in Trieste, Joyce taught English to Schmitz (a successful businessman who wrote under the name Italo Svevo).
* The Intellectual Resource: Joyce “bombarded” Schmitz with questions about Jewish traditions, dietary laws, and life in the middle class.
* The Soul of the Book: Schmitz’s dry, self-deprecating wit and his “scientific” curiosity are what make Bloom feel like a real person rather than just a cardboard cutout of a hero.
The “Ithaca” Connection
Joyce actually wrote most of the “Ithaca” episode while living in Trieste and Paris, years after he had left Dublin.
By the time he sat down to write the catechism you shared, he was merging his memory of being rescued by Hunter in Dublin with the hours of deep, “jocoserious” conversation he had shared with his student Schmitz in Italy.
In a way, the cocoa Bloom serves Stephen is a tribute to both men: the man who gave him a real-life meal when he was down, and the man who gave his character a brain and a heart.
Actually, you’ve caught a nuanced distinction in how Joyce built his characters! While Alfred Hunter provided the physical and situational “spark” for the encounter in Ulysses, the character of Leopold Bloom is a “composite”—a blend of several real people Joyce encountered.
The Hunter vs. Schmitz Distinction
* Alfred Hunter (The “Odysseus” Figure):
As we discussed, Hunter provided the plot. He was the Dubliner who rescued a drunken Joyce in 1904, just as Bloom rescues Stephen. Hunter’s reputation as a “cuckold” in Dublin gossip also gave Joyce the framework for Bloom’s domestic situation with Molly.
* Ettore Schmitz / Italo Svevo (The “Intellectual” Figure):
When Joyce moved to Trieste, he taught English to a businessman named Ettore Schmitz (who wrote under the pen name Italo Svevo). Schmitz was a Jewish Italian who provided the inner life and personality of Bloom.
* The Influence: Joyce spent hours talking to Schmitz about Jewish customs, secularism, and middle-class anxieties. Schmitz’s wit, his “scientific” curiosity, and his specific brand of irony are heavily reflected in Bloom’s internal monologues in the “Ithaca” episode.
* Teodoro Mayer:
Another student and friend in Trieste, Mayer was the founder of a newspaper and provided further details about the Jewish-Hungarian heritage that Joyce gave to Bloom (whose father, Rudolph Virág, was from Szombathely, Hungary).
Why the Confusion?
In literary circles, it is often said that “Hunter was the body, but Schmitz was the soul” of Leopold Bloom.
Joyce was like a magpie—he stole the “homecoming” event from his life in Dublin (Hunter) but used his later experiences as a teacher in Trieste (Schmitz) to give that character a voice that felt authentic, intellectual, and “jocoserious.”
You’ve hit on the exact reason Joyce uses this style: he takes a simple arithmetic gap (16 years) and expands it into a cosmic, “sacred” mathematical absurdity. By the end of that paragraph, Bloom isn’t just an older friend; he is a prehistoric entity born in 81,396 B.C.
To your question: Yes, a very specific real-life event served as the emotional “big bang” for Ulysses.
The Real-Life “Homecoming”
On the night of June 22, 1904 (just six days after the date the novel is set), James Joyce got into a drunken row in a Dublin park (St. Stephen’s Green). He was knocked unconscious by a man he had insulted.
A man named Alfred H. Hunter—a Dubliner rumored to be Jewish and known for having an unfaithful wife—happened to be passing by. Hunter picked Joyce up, dusted him off, took him back to his home, and gave him “a collation” (food and drink) while he recovered.
For Joyce, this act of mundane kindness from a “stranger” stayed with him for years. He saw Hunter as a modern-day Odysseus: a man of the world helping a young, arrogant “Telemachus” (Stephen Dedalus) find his footing.
Why the “Sacred” Style?
Joyce used the catechism style for this “communion” because:
* Elevation of the Mundane: He wanted to show that a middle-aged man serving cocoa to a young poet is as significant as a scene from the Bible or Homer.
* The “Ithaca” Gravity: After the chaos of the day, Joyce felt that “plain” prose wasn’t enough to describe the “equanimity” of the two men. He needed the language of science and religion to give the moment weight.
What events might nullify these calculations?
In the text, the cold voice of the catechism lists the grim realities that render the math of age meaningless:
* The termination of the earthly career of either person (death).
* The premature formation of a chronological table based on “false premises” (the assumption that aging is a linear, proportional growth rather than a simple addition of years).
Essentially, Joyce is poking fun at the human desire to find “patterns” or “ratios” in life, when in reality, time just passes until it stops.
*
The coincidence Joyce is highlighting is one of the most famous “near-misses” in literary history, revolving around a horse race and a massive misunderstanding.
The “Throwaway” Coincidence
Throughout the day (June 16, 1904), the Gold Cup horse race is a major topic of conversation. The “coincidence” Bloom reflects on involves three layers of accidental prophecy:
* The Accidental Tip: Earlier in the day, Bloom was asked for his newspaper by a man named Bantam Lyons. Bloom, wanting to get rid of the paper, said, “I was just going to throw it away.”
* The Misinterpretation: Lyons took this as a “hot tip” for a horse actually named Throwaway—a rank outsider with 20-to-1 odds.
* The Result: Against all expectations, Throwaway won the race, beating the heavy favorite, Sceptre.
The Betting Tickets
The “lacerated scarlet betting tickets” Bloom sees on the dresser (numbered 8 87, 88 6) are the physical remains of the day’s gambling. They likely belong to Blazes Boylan, the man who spent the afternoon with Bloom’s wife, Molly.
The “corrugation of his brow” comes from the irony that while Bloom (the moral, cautious man) accidentally gave the winning tip to the city, Boylan (the bold, lucky suitor) was likely the one throwing away losing tickets. The numbers on the fragments—887 and 886—mock Bloom with their near-sequential precision, reminding him of how “truth is stranger than fiction.”
A Breakdown of the “Ithaca” Dresser
Joyce uses the kitchen dresser as a “still life” portrait of the Bloom household’s financial and emotional state.
| Shelf | Key Items | Symbolic Meaning |
|—|—|—|
| Lower | Cups, saucers, a “moustachecup.” | The domestic, functional reality of the home. |
| Middle | Plumtree’s potted meat, tea, onions, “soured” milk. | The “adulterated” state of the marriage (the empty meat pot is a recurring symbol of Boylan’s presence). |
| Upper | Empty jam jars. | The “battery” of future potential or past consumption; empty vessels. |
It’s a linguistic pile-up! Joyce is leaning heavily into phonetic play there, almost turning the prose into a tongue-twister.
In that specific phrase—”thought of aught he sought though fraught with nought”—he is exploiting the chaotic nature of the English “-ought” and “-aught” clusters.
Why the “gh” Overload?
* The Sound of the Razor: If you read it aloud, those “ought” sounds create a rhythmic, repetitive back-and-forth. It mimics the staccato scraping of a manual razor against stubble.
* The Mimicry of Thought: Bloom is “lathering and relathering” the same spot. The language circles back on itself just as his hand circles his jaw.
* A “Nought” of Meaning: Despite all those heavy, complex-looking “gh” words, the sentence ends with nought (nothing). It’s Joyce’s way of showing that Bloom’s deep pondering during his shave often leads to no actual conclusion—just a nick on the chin.
A Quick Breakdown of the “gh” Variations
English is notorious for these, and Joyce (a polyglot) loved poking fun at the inconsistency:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning in Context |
|—|—|—|
| Aught | /ɔːt/ | Anything |
| Sought | /sɔːt/ | Looked for |
| Though | /ðoʊ/ | However (The only one where the “ough” sounds like “oh”) |
| Fraught | /frɔːt/ | Filled with (usually anxiety) |
| Nought | /nɔːt/ | Zero / Nothing |
The “gh” itself is a “ghost” letter—a remnant of Old English where it was actually pronounced as a gutteral sound (like the “ch” in Loch). By 1904 (when the book is set), the sound was gone, but the spelling remained, making the sentence look much “busier” on the page than it sounds in the ear.
Dancing light of grace 