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Episode 1: Telemachus
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ulysses, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Alienation and the Quest for Belonging
Literature, Meaning, and Perspective
Love and Sex
Fate vs. Free Will
Religion, Atheism, and Philosophy
Irish Identity and Nationalism
Summary
Analysis
Stephen quizzes his classroom full of students about the Greek king Pyrrhus and thinks about the meaning of human history and memory. One of his students, Armstrong, thinks Stephen is talking about “a pier,” which Stephen jokes is just “a disappointed bridge.” But the students don’t get it, and Stephen thinks he’ll save the quip for Haines, like a court jester writing jokes for his master. He decides that it’s a tragedy that, in the course of history, so many possibilities never get realized.
The second episode is set on the same morning as the first, but some time has clearly passed, as Stephen has come from the Martello tower to the school. In the Odyssey, Nestor is the wise old king of Pylos. Telemachus visits Nestor to seek information about his long-lost father Odysseus, but Nestor knows nothing. In this episode, the opinionated old buffoon Mr. Deasy represents a kind of parody of Nestor: he gives advice that is neither asked for nor correct. Stephen clearly isn’t well suited for teaching—he doesn’t find his students intelligent or stimulating enough, and his internal monologue is far more interesting than his lesson. Still, his thought about Haines shows that he recognizes that he needs an audience for his genius and is ultimately dependent on other people. His commentary on the unrealized possibilities in history is a reference to William Blake. It is also a reflection of his fear that he will not reach his potential because of the circumstances he’s forced to live in—like having to teach instead of being able to write, or having nobody’s attention but Haines’s.
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Next, Stephen leads his students through John Milton’s poem “Lycidas.” He remembers spending his evenings in a Paris library reading Aristotle, who argued that the mind is the highest form of existence, but he also remembers Jesus telling the Pharisees, “To Caesar what is Caesar’s, to God what is God’s.”
Milton wrote “Lycidas” to memorialize a dear friend, an intelligent clergyman who died in a shipwreck. This imagery recalls the report of a drowning man from the previous episode, and the motif of young potential being wasted refers back to Stephen. In fact, his months in the library in Paris were the one time he tasted his dream of complete intellectual freedom. Meanwhile, Jesus’s line to the Pharisees is a reference to the importance of separating one’s obligations to the state from one’s duties to God. This is especially significant for Ireland, which is caught between two dominant external powers: the British Empire and the Roman Catholic Church.
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It’s 10:00 AM, time for hockey, so the students pack their things. They ask Stephen to give them a riddle, and he gives them an unanswerable rhyme about “the fox burying his grandmother under a hollybush.”
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A struggling, shy student named Cyril Sargent approaches Stephen for help with some math problems. Stephen imagines Cyril’s mother loving and nurturing her “ugly and futile” son. Then, he thinks of his own mother’s skeleton in her grave (from his dream) and the fox burying his grandmother (from his riddle). Stephen helps Cyril work out the problem and sees a reflection of his own childhood “gracelessness” in the boy. Then, Cyril joins his classmates to play hockey.
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Mr. Deasy, the schoolmaster, sorts out an argument about the hockey teams and then meets Stephen in his office, with his wage of three pounds and twelve shillings. Deasy shows off the little box where he keeps his money and suggests that Stephen get one, but Stephen points out that he doesn’t have money to put in it. Misquoting Shakespeare’s Iago, Deasy complains that young people are no good at saving, unlike the English, who manage their money well and don’t amass debts. Stephen remembers his own sizeable debts to ten different people.
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Mr. Deasy looks at a portrait of King Edward VII hanging above the mantlepiece, then starts talking about the old days of the Irish Nationalist movement, in an attempt to win Stephen’s sympathy. But this doesn’t work. Stephen remembers how the English subjugated Ireland and stays silent.
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Mr. Deasy asks Stephen to bring a letter to his “literary friends” and sits down to finish typing it up. Meanwhile, Stephen looks around at the paintings of champion racehorses that cover the walls, and he remembers going to the races with his friend Cranly. He listens to the boys playing outside and imagines their hockey match turning into a bloody battle.
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Mr. Deasy comes over with his letter, which is about how his cousin has learned to treat the foot and mouth disease that afflicts Irish cattle and threatens Irish exports. He hopes that his letter can win attention, and he blames Jewish merchants for conspiring against him. In fact, he thinks that they are destroying England, and he thinks they are immoral for sinning against God. But Stephen says that everyone sins. He remembers seeing Jewish merchants in Paris and decides that, in time, all wealth will be scattered.
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Stephen tells Deasy that he’s “trying to awake” from the nightmare of history, but Deasy argues that human history is a constant motion towards unity with God. Stephen points to the children playing hockey outside and says, “that is God,” meaning “a shout in the street.” Undeterred, Deasy rants about all the sinful women who have betrayed their men. He also tells Stephen he’s not suited for teaching and probably won’t last long in the school.
Stephen promises to try to publish Deasy’s letter, and he leaves and goes out the school gate. But Deasy runs after him: he has one more thing to say. Unlike every other country, Deasy says, Ireland hasn’t persecuted Jewish people, because it never welcomed them to begin with. He repeats his joke and laughs on his way back into the schoolhouse.
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