1. ULYSSES (1922)
CHARACTERS: Leopold Bloom: a middle-aged Irish common man Molly Bloom: his unfaithful wife Stephen Dedalus: a character in search for his identity of artist Dublin: Joyce’s loved and hated hometown on which the characters transfer their emotions and feelings. The novel takes place on a single day, Thursday June 16, 1904, the day when Joyce met his future wife, Nora Barnacle

2. ULYSSES vs ODYSSEY Ulysses is modelled on the Odyssey by Homer
The ancient epic ironically played against the modern is one of the key elements of the novel
The use of the ancient myth stresses the limitations and the lack of heroism of the modern novel

3. ODYSSEY
ULYSSES
Ulysses is the hero who passes from an adventure to another before coming back home after 20 years
Telemacus, the young Ulysses’s son who suffers from his father’s absence and for the presence of his mother’s suitors
Penelope waits faithfully and chastely for his husband’s return, repelling her suitors
Leopold Bloom is the anti-hero who travels through Dublin in one day, showing his limits and fears
Stephen Dedalus meets Leopold in his wandering and becomes momentarily his adopted child
Molly is a sensual singer who betrays her husband with her music director

4. MYTHICAL METHOD
the difference between the depressing and unsatisfying present and the heroic and glorious past. The ordinary present appears even more static and claustrophobic in comparison with the mythical past.
the past can’t come back but it can teach a new perspective and a new dimension

5. SYMBOLS
Leopold, Molly and Stephen are more than individuals: they embody two aspects of human nature.
Stephen is the soul, the pure intellect and he represents every young man seeking maturity.
Molly is the body, she stands for the flesh since she identifies herself totally with her sensual nature and fecundity.
Leopold is both and he represents the whole humanity.

6. MOLLY’S MONOLOGUE
an uninterrupted flow of ideas, memories, sensations written in eight huge unpunctuated paragraphs.
Expression of Molly’s needs and desires, even sexual, typical of the new more liberated female figure of the society of the time.
highest example of the interior monologue in the English literature.