Ithaca

One thing that surprised me when I read the Odyssey is that the famous fantastical exploits at sea actually only take up a small portion of the epic; much more of the story is devoted to the homecoming itself—that is, what Odysseus does when he reaches his native land and how he gets rid of the villainous suitors. The ending can be summarized quickly, though: the hero enters his own house in his beggar disguise, gets a weapon in his hands, and then kills all the suitors with the help of his son and two faithful servants—no easy feat, as there are over a hundred of them.

Did contemporary readers of Ulysses think that Bloom might go home and murder Blazes Boylan, if not with bow and arrow then perhaps with handy shillelagh? Well, he doesn't, if for no other reason than that Boylan has already quit the scene. Instead Bloom brings Stephen home to 7 Eccles Street, and the first part of the episode is taken up with Bloom's apparent rapport with the young man. The two talk about a large number of things, in particular—and most important in terms of the book's themes—the similarities between the Irish and the Jews, in terms of both language (Hebrew and Gaelic) and history (the Irish oppressed at the hands of the English, the Jews oppressed in Egypt and elsewhere). Stephen sings Bloom a folk song about a boy who breaks a Jew's window with a ball, after which the Jew's daughter lures the boy inside and kills him. True to character, Stephen interprets the song in an abstract and reflective way, perhaps drawing a parallel to his adventures earlier that night, whereas of course Bloom is put off by the song. Regardless, Bloom fantasizes of a close friendship with Stephen—his thoughts even touch on the possibility of Stephen marrying his daughter—but at heart I think he knows that it will not be. Stephen, always aloof, declines to stay the night. On his leaving the pair micturate together and gaze up at the stars; as they shake hands they hear the tolling of a bell: 4 o'clock. By coincidence, the bell makes both men think of death: still brooding over his mother, Stephen hears a traditional prayer associated with the last rites, while Bloom hears "heigho, heigho, heigho, heigho," the same words he heard at the ringing of the bells in the episode Hades.

Bloom returns alone. He finds evidence of Blazes Boylan's presence in the house and a mysterious stain on an armchair. Ultimately, however, he accepts the situation. His attitude towards Molly at this moment is interesting: separate, equivocal—he idly considers leaving her or confronting her—but also confident, appreciative, pragmatic, and still attracted. Strangely, there is an ambiguous passage which might suggest that Molly has had many lovers, suitors and/or infatuations in the past. Bloom chuckles to think that each man no doubt thought himself of great importance at that moment, when in fact they were just one term in a series.

There is another subtle parallel to Homer when Bloom opens a drawer filled with mementos of his deceased father, as this echoes Odysseus visiting his own father after the killing of the suitors. We also learn a fair amount of new information about Bloom's history at this point: his father converted from Judaism to Protestantism, and Bloom himself converted to Catholicism when he married Molly. Bloom then thinks back on the day, has idle fantasies about the future, suddenly figures out the answer to a riddle that he had heard thirty years ago ("Where was Moses when the lights when out?"), goes to bed, gives his wife an affectionate kiss on the bum, recounts his day for her when she wakes (with some omissions and fabrications), and falls asleep.

The episode's style is a parody of scientific question and answer, with overblown vocabulary and matter-of-fact tone throughout. It is sometimes hilarious, sometimes aggravating, and sometimes poetic, but the overall effect is that it sets us at a remove from what's going on, as if the hero is fading off into the distance. There is even something melancholy or death-like about the end of the episode; Bloom thinks about his past and about his child; we find out that he has a life insurance policy and that he has already paid for a plot in a cemetery; in the course of becoming drowsy he pictures a heavenly idyllic house in the country, imagines himself wandering among the stars, rises above daily cares, and, in the final moments, becomes like a child again himself.

What universal binomial denominations would be his as entity and nonentity?

Assumed by any or known to none. Everyman or Noman.

Of course there is one last political tidbit here too; as a child Bloom, "in support of his political convictions, had climbed up into a secure position amid the ramifications of a tree on Northumberland road to see the entrance (2 February 1888) into the capital of a demonstrative torchlight procession of 20,000, divided into 120 trade corporations, bearing 2,000 torches in escort of the marquess of Ripon and John Morley." February 2 is also the birthday of one James Augustine Aloysius Joyce, author of Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Exiles, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.