The document compares and contrasts James Joyce's Ulysses with Homer's Odyssey. It notes similarities in their overall structure of taking place over 24 hours/books and involving 18 episodes/incidents. It also describes similarities between the main characters - Leopold Bloom maps to Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus to Telemachus, and Molly Bloom to Penelope. However, it also outlines key contrasts between the works, such as Leopold Bloom being an ordinary man versus the heroic Ulysses, and Molly's unfaithfulness contrasting Penelope's fidelity. Overall, the document argues Joyce's work presents a less heroic and more chaotic modern vision than the moral, adventurous world of Homer

1. SIMILARITIES: the structure
JOYCE’S ULYSSES
24 hours of Bloom’s day
18 episodes
A journey around
Dublin
HOMER’S ODYSSEY
24 books
18 incidents
A journey around the
Mediterranean

2. SIMILARITIES: the characters
JOYCE’S ULYSSES
Leopold Bloom
Molly Bloom
Stephen Dedaelus
HOMER’S ODYSSEY
Ulysses
Penelope
Telemachus

3. SIMILARITIES: Stephen-Telemachus
(first episode called Telemachus)
JOYCE’S ULYSSES
• Stephen is chased
from his house by
his housemates who
mock him and
deprive him of his
rights
• He is homeless and
fatherless
HOMER’S ODYSSEY
• Telemachus is forced
to leave his home
and he’s bullied by
the Proci, his
mother’s suitors
• He is homeless and
fatherless

4. SIMILARITIES: Leopold-Ulysses
(sixth episode called Hades)
LEOPOLD BLOOM
He goes to a funeral
at the cemetery and
thinks about the dead
people he has known
ULYSSES
He goes down the
Underworld (Hades)
and speaks to the
souls of great dead
heroes

5. SIMILARITIES
(the 15th episode of Circe)
LEOPOLD AND STEPHEN
• They visit a brothel
• They become
symbolically “swine”
• Bella is the brothel’s
owner
ULYSSES AND HIS FRIENDS
• They are hosted by the
mythical witch Circe
• Circe turns them into
swine
• Circe is the island’s
owner

6. CONTRASTS:
Leopold and Ulysses
JOYCE’S ULYSSES
• Leopold Bloom is an
ordinary human being
who lives a very
monotonous ordinary
day in Dublin
• He is like us (he works,
he thinks, he
accomplishes daily
routines and body
functions: excretion,
eating, sleeping, sexual
excitement)
HOMER’S ODYSSEY
• Ulysses is an
extraordinary hero who
lives a number of
extraordinary exciting
adventures
• He is not like us: he is
stronger, braver, more
handsome than ordinary
men
• We don’t know anything
about his body functions

7. CONTRASTS: Molly-Penelope
JOYCE’S ULYSSES
• Molly is not a perfect
wife: unfaithful (in
actions and in thoughts),
fragile, unsure
• Leopold is not her only
man: she desires other
men, she has other love
affairs
• She gives in to other
men’s courting
HOMER’S ODYSSEY
• Penelope is the perfect
wife: faithful, chaste,
steadfast, honest, brave
• Ulysses is her only man:
she has not had other
love affairs
• She doesn’t give in to
other men’s courting
(Proci – suitors)

8. CONTRASTS: THE MEANING
JOYCE’S ULYSSES
• Lack of heroism of modern
life
• Antiheroic vision of man
• Lack of values of modern life
(no family values, no moral
values, no religious values)
• The journey is a mock-
journey (in Dublin, the
centre of paralysis)
• No time and no space
• Stephen meets Leopold in a
brothel (the denial of the
fatherhood value)
HOMER’S ODYSSEY
• A heroic world
• A life based on moral
values (Ithaca is the
homeland, strong family
ties, obedience to gods)
• The journey is
adventurous and great
• There is a material time
and a material space

9. unstructured and chaotic
Joyce once said that he had
"put in so many enigmas andput in so many enigmas and
puzzles that it will keep thepuzzles that it will keep the
professors busy for centuriesprofessors busy for centuries
arguing over what I meantarguing over what I meant,"

10. “the thought of Ulysses is very
simple ... It is only the method
which is difficult”

11. The burst of the “biological”:
excretory functionsexcretory functions
heterosexual and auto-erotic formsheterosexual and auto-erotic forms
menstrual cyclemenstrual cycle

12. In a meaningless life ...
The meaning is in the body, in the
female body, in the WOMBWOMB
YES, I will YESYES, I will YES
MollyMolly