Queen Victoria, whose reign lasted from 1837 until her death in 1901, is mentioned in several of the episodes of Ulysses. She was the queen during the time England became a colonial global power in a relentless conquest of the world's peoples and their resources. In the first passage below from the Proteus episode Stephen relates the quotation of a Frenchman, Drumont, with a view of Queen Victoria that was not uncommon among Irish people.

"Drumont, know what he called queen Victoria? Old hag with the yellow teeth. VIEILLE OGRESSE with the DENTS JAUNES."

The French "VIEILLE OGRESSE . . . DENTS JAUNES" means "Old ogress . . . yellow teeth." Gifford indicates that in folklore cannibalism turns people's teeth yellow. According to Gifford, Edouard Adolphe Drumont (1844-1917) was a French editor and journalist whose newspaper, La Libre Parole was distinguished primarily for the acrimony of its anti-Semitism. Queen Victoria was "honored more in the breach than in the observance" by the Irish people.

Stephen had just had conversations with Haines and Deasy about their stereotypical view of Jews which may have prompted the thought of another anti-Semite, Drumont.

***

This passage from the Hades episode has to do with the mourning by Queen Victoria for her late husband, Albert, which was considered by some to be both vane and prolonged.

"She had outlived him. Lost her husband. More dead for her than for me. One must outlive the other. Wise men say. There are more women than men in the world. Condole with her. Your terrible loss. I hope you'll soon follow him. For Hindu widows only. She would marry another. Him? No. Yet who knows after. Widowhood not the thing since the old queen died. Drawn on a guncarriage. Victoria and Albert. Frogmore memorial mourning. But in the end she put a few violets in her bonnet. Vain in her heart of hearts. All for a shadow. Consort not even a king. Her son was the substance. Something new to hope for not like the past she wanted back, waiting. It never comes. One must go first: alone, under the ground: and lie no more in her warm bed."

Richard Ellmann in Ulysses on the Liffey discusses how Joyce views the difference between Leopold Bloom who has lived with a woman and Stephen Dedalus who has not and how this difference is revealed through their disparate views of Queen Victoria. Stephen is content to refer to her with the amusing epithet of a French journalist, while Bloom "thinks of her as a widow like the widow Dignam" as he thinks of her with empathy in the "widowhood" passage above (38).

***

There is more on the Queen in the Lestrygonians episode:

"Twilight sleep idea: queen Victoria was given that. Nine she had. A good layer. Old woman that lived in a shoe she had so many children."

The references to the "laying hen" and the nursery rhyme speak of her fecundity in giving birth to four sons and five daughters; "twilight sleep" was her use of a partial anesthetic during the birth of Prince Leopold.

***

The Wandering Rocks episode includes this narrative about the cavalcade described near the end of the episode:

"the salute of two small schoolboys at the garden gate of the house said to have been admired by the late queen when visiting the Irish capital with her husband, the prince consort, in 1849 and the salute of Almidano Artifoni's sturdy trousers swallowed by a closing door."

According to Gifford, Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, spent four day in Dublin, August 6-10, 1849 in the course of their first visit to Ireland. The house the schoolboys salute was a house the Queen admired that was on the road that led them to the center of Dublin.

***

In the Cyclops episode Queen Victoria's image on the coin (testoon) is the stimulus for the narrative of her Royal German ancestry and something of her royal rule throughout the world.

"But he, the young chief of the O'Bergan's, could ill brook to be outdone in generous deeds but gave therefor with gracious gesture a testoon of costliest bronze. Thereon embossed in excellent smithwork was seen the image of a queen of regal port, scion of the house of Brunswick, Victoria her name, Her Most Excellent Majesty, by grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British dominions beyond the sea, queen, defender of the faith, Empress of India, even she, who bore rule, a victress over many peoples, the wellbeloved, for they knew and loved her from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, the pale, the dark, the ruddy and the ethiop."

"His Majesty the Alaki of Abeakuta" made a visit to England in the summer of 1904. Abeakuta was a small province in western Nigeria and the Alaki was its ruler or Sultan of that province.

Citizen, in Cyclops is reading from paraphernalia papers is commenting on this visit.

The Alaki, "emphasized the cordial relations existing between Abeakuta and the British empire, stating that he treasured as one of his dearest possessions an illuminated bible, the volume of the word of God and the secret of England's greatness, graciously presented to him by the white chief woman, the great squaw Victoria, with a personal dedication from the august hand of the Royal Donor."

***

Finally in the Ithaca episode Queen Victoria is mentioned twice. In this episode the narrative is a Catechism of pedantic questions answered by rote. One of these references pertains to the contents of a drawer which contains, among other things, a Queen Victoria postage stamp as follows:

"What did the first drawer unlocked contain?
"a Id adhesive stamp, lavender, of the reign of Queen Victoria,"

A question about what had kept Bloom from completing a certain "topical song" is answered by listing six obstacles, the first of which is, " Firstly, oscillation between events of imperial and of local interest, the anticipated diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria (born 1820, acceded 1837) and the posticipated opening of the new municipal fish market:"

The diamond jubilee was in 1897 so Bloom's procrastination had lasted from then until the time of the story, i.e., 1904.

This site includes the texts of the short stories in the Dubliners. See also my blog entry for August 9, 2011, which lists characters that are in these short stories and in Ulysses as well.

Short stories by James Joyce [Category: Short story]:

'via Blog this'

The following is the link to an article Christopher Hitchens wrote in Vanity Fair conferring homage on James Joyce and the marvelous character he created, Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Ulysses. In the introduction it is said, "Echoing Homer, riffing on Shakespeare, teeming with puns, palindromes, and allusions, Ulysses was a revolutionary exploration of the consciousness of it hero, Leopold Bloom." The homage is on the centenary of Bloomsday--June 16, 2004.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2004/06/hitchens-200406

Leopold Bloom is the Wandering Jew in Dublin. In many ways he is left out and treated as though he does not belong as a Dubliner. Sometimes he is ostracized in subtle ways and sometimes in more savage ways. Joyce not only portrays Bloom as the victim of anti-Semitism, but he also represents the prejudice through narrative that Haines, Deasy and the Citizen embrace.

In the first episode, Telemachus, Stephen is talking with Haines and Haines says,

"-- Of course I'm a Britisher, Haines's voice said, and I feel as one. I don't want to see my country fall into the hands of German jews either. That's our national problem, I'm afraid, just now."

***

In the second episode, Nestor, the Headmaster, Deasy tells Stephen,

"-- Mark my words, Mr Dedalus, he said. England is in the hands of
the jews. In all the highest places: her finance, her press. And they
are the signs of a nation's decay. Wherever they gather they eat up
the nation's vital strength. I have seen it coming these years. As
sure as we are standing here the jew merchants are already at their
work of destruction. Old England is dying."

Stephen tries to reason with Deasy who, in referring to Jews, says,

"-- They sinned against the light, Mr Deasy said gravely. And you
can see the darkness in their eyes. And that is why they are
wanderers on the earth to this day."

And even as Stephen is leaving the school Deasy runs after him to relate some coarse humor,

"-- I just wanted to say, he said. Ireland, they say, has the honour of
being the only country which never persecuted the jews. Do you
know that? No. And do you know why?

He frowned sternly on the bright air.

-- Why, sir? Stephen asked, beginning to smile.

-- Because she never let them in, Mr Deasy said solemnly.

A coughball of laughter leaped from his throat dragging after it a
rattling chain of phlegm. He turned back quickly, coughing,
laughing, his lifted arms waving to the air.

-- She never let them in, he cried again through his laughter as he
stamped on gaitered feet over the gravel of the path. That's why."

***

In episode 12, The Cyclops, much hostility is directed at Bloom especially from the citizen.

Bloom and citizen are talking to each other and Bloom says:

-- Mendelssohn was a jew and Karl Marx and Mercadante and
Spinoza. And the Saviour was a jew and his father was a jew. Your
God.

-- He had no father, says Martin. That'll do now. Drive ahead.

-- Whose God? says the citizen.

-- Well, his uncle was a jew, says he. Your God was a jew. Christ was
a jew like me.

Gob, the citizen made a plunge back into the shop.

-- By Jesus, says he, I'll brain that bloody jewman for using the holy
name.

By Jesus, I'll crucify him so I will. Give us that biscuitbox here.

-- Stop! Stop! says Joe.

Citizen misses the mark with the biscuit tin, but his aggression towards Bloom is palpable. The Citizen's bodily attack with the biscuit tin is the climax of a succession of lesser attacks. In addition to being regarded as a Jew, even though he nominally Christian, Bloom assumes the role of Jew. This provides the dialogue that frames the stereotypes on which anti-Semitism is based. Haines is British, Deasy is Anglo-Irish and Citizen is an ardent Irish nationalist, but they all share much the same stereotype of the Jewish. Anti-Semitism is firmly rooted in the Irish culture.

In the Hades episode Bloom, who is at the Glasnevin cemetery to mourn the death of Paddy Dignam, is thinking about what the dead might like, "The dead themselves the men anyhow would like to hear an odd joke or the women to know what's in fashion. A juicy pear or ladies' punch, hot, strong and sweet. Keep out the damp. You must laugh sometimes so better do it that way. The he thinks of the: Gravediggers in HAMLET" (Act 5, Scene 1).

The two gravediggers in Hamlet dig a grave for Ophelia in the churchyard. They argue whether Ophelia should be buried in the churchyard, since her death is apparently a suicide. Under religious doctrine, a person who commits suicide may not receive Christian burial. The first gravedigger, who speaks cleverly and mischievously, asks the second gravedigger a riddle: “What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?” The second gravedigger answers, "The gallows-maker for that outlives a thousand tenants." The first gravedigger corrects him, saying "when you are ask'd this question next, say "a grave-maker": the houses he makes lasts till doomsday." The gravediggers in this scene are called clowns, but they play the role of the clever fool. The gravediggers assume a rather morbid tone, since their jests and quips are all made in a cemetery, among bones of the dead.

The gravediggers in Hamlet are engaging in gallows humor. This kind of humor is on Bloom's mind when he thinks, "The Irishman's house is his coffin," which is play on the proverb "An Englishman's house is his castle."

In the "Lotus Eaters" episode Bloom tells M'Coy, "O, no, Mr Bloom said. Poor Dignam, you know. The funeral is today." As Bloom and M'Coy are parting "Tell you what, M'Coy said. You might put down my name at the funeral, will you? I'd like to go but I mightn't be able, you see."

In the "Hades" episode people gather at the Dignam home in Sandymount--they travel to Glasnevin Cemetery north of the city centre. The Dignam hearse is followed by a carriage occupied by Martin Cunningham, Jack Power, Simon Dedalus, and Bloom. Another carriage with Tom Kernan, Ned Lambert, and Hynes is behind. They will meet Corny Kelleher at the cemetery. There is a funeral service in the mortuary chapel at the cemetery. The service ends and the gravediggers come and take the coffin away. The funeral party walks along with the gravediggers.

"On the way to the grave, the caretaker, John O'Connell, says to Martin Cunningham:

-- Did you hear that one, he asked them, about Mulcahy from the
Coombe?
-- I did not, Martin Cunningham said.
They bent their silk hats in concert and Hynes inclined his ear. The
caretaker hung his thumbs in the loops of his gold watchchain and
spoke in a discreet tone to their vacant smiles.
-- They tell the story, he said, that two drunks came out here one
foggy evening to look for the grave of a friend of theirs. They asked
for Mulcahy from the Coombe and were told where he was buried.
After traipsing about in the fog they found the grave sure enough.
One of the drunks spelt out the name: Terence Mulcahy. The other
drunk was blinking up at a statue of Our Saviour the widow had got
put up.
The caretaker blinked up at one of the sepulchres they passed. He
resumed:
-- And, after blinking up at the sacred figure, NOT A BLOODY BIT
LIKE THE MAN, says he. THAT'S NOT MULCAHY, says he, WHOEVER DONE IT.

Rewarded by smiles he fell back and spoke with Corny Kelleher,
accepting the dockets given him, turning them over and scanning
them as he walked.
-- That's all done with a purpose, Martin Cunningham explained to
Hynes.
-- I know, Hynes said. I know that.

-- To cheer a fellow up, Martin Cunningham said. It's pure
goodheartedness: damn the thing else."

The gravediggers do their job and Paddy Dignam is laid to rest.

It is acknowledged that Oliver St John Gogarty was the model for Malachi Mulligan in James Joyce's Ulysses. The picture is of young Gogarty.

In the Scylla and Charybdis episode the subject is a party that the author George Moore is hosting that night. John Eglinton says to Stephen, " I hope you'll be able to come tonight. Malachi Mulligan is coming too. Moore asked him to bring Haines." However, Stephen had not received an invitation to the party. In real life Gogarty had been invited to Moore's party, but not Joyce.

This may have led to what could be called the Moore-Gogarty-Joyce "two dactyl" (one stressed and two unstressed syllables) connection. In the opening episode of Ulysses the narrative:

-- My name is absurd too: Malachi Mulligan, two dactyls. But it has
a Hellenic ring, hasn't it?

The name Oliver Gogarty also has two dactyls, which was Joyce's playful way of flaunting his language skills to Gogarty. It may have also been Joyce's way of outwitting Moore as a rebuff for his not getting an invitation to his party. Moore wrote a short story in 1905 "The Lake" in which the protagonist, a priest, is named Oliver Gogarty. When Gogarty's mother questioned Moore about it he presumably said, "Madame supply me with two such joyous dactyls and I will gladly change the name." So in the end Joyce may not only have had the last laugh, but the defining dactyl as well.

The following link provides biographical information on Oliver St John Gogarty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_St._John_Gogarty

The following are characters in Dubliners who reappear in Ulysses. The source: Michael Groden an English Professor at The University of Western Ontario.

"Two Gallants"

Lenehan: in Aeolus, Wandering Rocks, Sirens, Cyclops, Oxen of the Sun
Corley: in Eumaeus

"A Little Cloud"

Ignatius Gallaher: mentioned at 6:58, 7:626-677

"Counterparts"

Paddy Leonard: in Lestrygonians + mentioned at 6:142, 12:801
Nosey Flynn: in Lestrygonians, Wandering Rocks

"The Boarding House"

Bob Doran: in Cyclops + mentioned at 5:107, 10:984
Polly Mooney: mentioned at 12:398, 12:814
Jack Mooney: mentioned at 8:800, 12:814, 10:984

"A Painful Case"

Mrs Sinico: mentioned at 6:997, 19:947, 17: 1454

"Ivy Day in the Committee Room"

Joe Hynes: in Hades, Aeolus, Cyclops + mentioned at 8:1058, 13:1046, 13:1243, 16:1248
Bantam Lyons: in Lotus Eaters, Wandering Rocks + mentioned at 8:989, 10:517, 12:400, 12:1554
Crofton: in Cyclops + mentioned at 6:247

"A Mother"

Kathleen Kearney: mentioned at 18:376, 18: 878
Hoppy Holohan: mentioned at 5:96, 7:642-44

"Grace"

Tom Kernan: in Hades, Wandering Rocks, Sirens + mentioned at 5:20, 8:372, 8:759-60
Martin Cunningham: in Hades, Wandering Rocks, Cyclops + mentioned at 5:331, 7:165
Jack Power: in Hades, Wandering Rocks, Cyclops + mentioned at 8:419-20
M'Coy: in Lotus Eaters . Wandering Rocks + mentioned at 4:454, 6:114, 6:882-89, 8:596, 16:1260-6
O'Madden Burke: in Aeolus + mentioned at 10:410, 11:270
Fogarty: mentioned at 6:454

"The Dead"

Gabriel Conroy: mentioned at 7:307
Gretta Conroy: mentioned at 4:522
Kate and Julia Morkan: mentioned at 17:140
Bartell d'Arcy: mentioned at 8:181, 10:539, 17:2133, 18:273, 18:1295

Throwaway in James Joyce's Ulysses.

The following is the conversation between Bloom and Bantam Lyons in the "Lotus Eaters" episode of Ulysses that led Lyons to believe that Bloom was giving him the tip to bet on "Throwaway" in the horse race. The odds on Throwaway were twenty to one, but he won nonetheless. Lyons is looking at Bloom's newspaper.

***

"-- I want to see about that French horse that's running today, Bantam Lyons said. Where the bugger is it?
He rustled the pleated pages, jerking his chin on his high collar.
Barber's itch. Tight collar he'll lose his hair. Better leave him the
paper and get shut of him.
-- You can keep it, Mr Bloom said.
-- Ascot. Gold cup. Wait, Bantam Lyons muttered. Half a mo.

Maximum the second.
-- I was just going to throw it away, Mr Bloom said.
Bantam Lyons raised his eyes suddenly and leered weakly.
-- What's that? his sharp voice said.
-- I say you can keep it, Mr Bloom answered. I was going to throw
it away that moment.

Bantam Lyons doubted an instant, leering: then thrust the

outspread sheets back on Mr Bloom's arms.

-- I'll risk it, he said. Here, thanks.
He sped off towards Conway's corner. God speed scut."

***

At the 5 PM hour in Barney Kiernan's pub the horse race and its long shot winner, Throwaway, are much talked about.

In leaving the Pub to find Martin Cunningham, Bloom says, "I must go now, says he to John Wyse. Just round to the court a moment to see if Martin is there. If he comes just say I'll be back in a second. Just a moment."

Shortly thereafter this conversation takes place among Lenehan, the narrator, the citizen,Hynes and Terry:

"-- I know where he's gone, says Lenehan, cracking his fingers.

-- Who? says I.
-- Bloom, says he. The courthouse is a blind. He had a few bob on
THROWAWAY and he's gone to gather in the shekels.
-- Is it that whiteeyed kaffir? says the citizen, that never backed a
horse in anger in his life?
-- That's where he's gone, says Lenehan. I met Bantam Lyons going
to back that horse only I put him off it and he told me Bloom gave
him the tip. Bet you what you like he has a hundred shillings to five
on. He's the only man in Dublin has it. A dark horse.
-- He's a bloody dark horse himself, says Joe.
-- Mind, Joe, says I. Show us the entrance out.
-- There you are, says Terry."

Stuart Gilbert in James Joyce's Ulysses, describes the situation at Barney Kiernan's after Bloom returns; the "omen" referred to is Bloom's original remark in the "Lotus Eaters," episode.

"The unconscious utterance of this omen by Mr. Bloom and Lyons' manner of retelling it spell trouble for the former on his return to Barney Kiernan's (where, meanwhile, Martin Cunningham has arrived). To drunkenness and chauvinism, the third ingredient of a perfect pogrom---a mistake of fact---is now added. The thirsty patriots expect that Mr Bloom will pay a winner's tribute---drinks all round. But Mr Bloom cannot understand their hints" (265).

PHOENIX PARK

Alfred Hunter became a model for Leopold Bloom, the protagonist, of "Ulysses" through his actions shown after an incident in which Joyce was involved in a fight in Phoenix Park.

Joyce returned to Dublin in 1903 at the time of his mother's last illness and death, and he remained there in 1904. He met Nora Barnacle on June 16, 1904. Joyce was drinking heavily at this time. After one of these drinking sprees, he got into a fight with a man in Phoenix Park and he was picked up and cared for by a casual acquaintance of his father's, Alfred Hunter, who brought him into his home to take care of his injuries. According to Richard Ellman in Ulysses on the Liffey,"Hunter was rumored to be a Jew and to have an unfaithful wife, two disparate points that became important later. Joyce did not know him well, having (according to Stanislaus Joyce) met him only once or twice. This very lack of acquaintance added to the interest of the occasion, since Joyce regarded himself as hemmed in by indifference or hostility, and was the more surprised that someone unfamiliar, of temperament and background seemingly opposite, should have causelessly defended him. Here might be one of those 'epiphanies'---sudden, unlooked-for-turns in experience---which could prove the more momentous for being modest" (xiii). Thus, certain generous and caring traits of Leopold Bloom came from the model, Alfred Hunter.

Phoenix Park, twenty-two years before, had been the site of savage murders of British officials which were immediately condemned by Charles Stewart Parnell. Parnell through his voice of moderation became a politician who could be trusted by the Irish and the British. 

In the "Aeolus" episode of Ulysses the journalist, Gallaher, skills are praised, "Gallaher, that was a pressman for you. That was a pen. You know how he made his mark? I'll tell you. That was the sixth of May, time of the Invincibles, murder in the Phoenix park, before you were born, I suppose. I'll show you."

Aron Ettore Schmitz (December 19, 1861 – September 13, 1928), with the pseudonym Italo Svevo, was a model for Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce's Ulysses. He was born in Trieste to a Jewish family. Joyce had met Schmitz in 1907, when Joyce tutored him in English while working for Berlitz in Trieste.

Svevo wrote the classic novel La Coscienza di Zeno which was self-published in 1923. The work, showing the author's interest in the theories of Sigmund Freud, is written in the form of the memoirs of one Zeno Cosini, who writes them at the insistence of his psychoanalyst. The work might have disappeared altogether if it were not for the efforts of James Joyce. Joyce championed Confessions of Zeno, helping to have it translated into French and then published in Paris, where critics praised it.

J.M.Coetzee in his book Inner Workings includes a literary essay on Italo Svevo. The essay is biographical with emphasis on Svevo as an author. Schopenhauer influenced Svevo; Coetzee says, "In Svevo's eyes, Schopenhauer was the first philosopher to treat those afflicted with the handicap of reflective thought as a separate species, coexisting warily with healthy, unreflective types" (4). Svevo's focus on "reflective thought" coupled with the psychoanalytic themes of his books give insight into the reason Joyce used Svevo as a model for Bloom.

Alfred Hunter, also a model for Bloom, will be discussed separately.