Ulysses

Ulysses

by

James Joyce

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Ulysses makes teaching easy.

Leopold Bloom

The protagonist and unlikely hero of Ulysses is a thirty-eight-year-old Jewish advertising canvasser who lives on the north side of Dublin. Although he’s a bit of an eccentric and an outcast, Bloom is still essentially… read analysis of Leopold Bloom

Stephen Dedalus

Stephen Dedalus is the novel’s secondary protagonist and the main character in the first three episodes. He is a twenty-two-year-old aspiring writer who struggles to find a sense of identity and direction in colonized Dublin… read analysis of Stephen Dedalus

Marion (“Molly”) Bloom

Molly Bloom is one of the central characters in Ulysses. She is Leopold Bloom’s wife, Blazes Boylan’s lover, Milly Bloom’s mother, and Major Tweedy’s daughter. But she also represents womanhood… read analysis of Marion (“Molly”) Bloom

Alf Bergan

Long John Fanning’s assistant Alf Bergan drinks with the citizen, Joe Hynes, the debt-collecting narrator, and several other men in Barney Kiernan’s pub during “Cyclops.” His antics provide plenty of comic… read analysis of Alf Bergan

Rudolf Bloom, Sr.

Leopold Bloom’s father was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant who committed suicide in the Queen’s Hotel (which he also managed). He briefly appears in a flashback in “Circe.” Bloom thinks of his father’s death, like… read analysis of Rudolf Bloom, Sr.
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Rudolf Bloom, Jr.

Leopold and Molly Bloom’s son Rudy died eleven days after he was born, about a decade before the events of Ulysses. They also haven’t had sex ever since. Bloom frequently remembers Rudy’s death… read analysis of Rudolf Bloom, Jr.

Hugh (“Blazes”) Boylan

Blazes Boylan is the brash, flirtatious, and superficial (but extremely popular and successful) Dublin businessman with whom Molly Bloom starts an affair during the novel. He’s also managing her upcoming concert tour, which is the… read analysis of Hugh (“Blazes”) Boylan

Josie Breen

The baker Josie Breen is Leopold Bloom’s ex-girlfriend, who went on to marry the lunatic Denis Breen instead. When Bloom first meets her in the novel, he notes that she has aged poorly and… read analysis of Josie Breen

Cissy Caffrey

In “Nausicaa,” Cissy Caffrey is Gerty MacDowell and Edy Boardman’s outgoing, energetic, fearless friend. She plays with the baby, disciplines her younger brothers Jacky and Tommy, and asks Leopold Bloom for the… read analysis of Cissy Caffrey

Private Carr

In “Circe,” Private Carr is the occupying English soldier who gets in a drunken fight with Stephen in nighttown. Stephen’s advances towards Cissy Caffrey and insults towards the English infuriate Private Carr, who attacks… read analysis of Private Carr

Martha Clifford

Martha Clifford is the pseudonym of Leopold Bloom’s secret romantic pen pal. (She knows him only as “Henry Flower.”) Bloom opens Martha’s lusty letter in “Lotus Eaters,” thinks about it all day, and writes… read analysis of Martha Clifford

Bella Cohen

The imposing, elegant mistress Bella Cohen owns the brothel that Leopold Bloom, Stephen Dedalus, and Vincent Lynch visit in “Circe.” She briefly transforms into “Bello” to fulfill Bloom’s fantasy of being dominated and… read analysis of Bella Cohen

Father Cowley

Father Cowley is a priest with a questionable commitment to his profession. He owns back rent to his landlord, the Rev. Hugh C. Love, and enjoys playing the piano in bars. His friends Benread analysis of Father Cowley

Martin Cunningham

Easily the most sympathetic and caring of Leopold Bloom’s friends, Martin Cunningham first appears in “Hades,” when he rides with Bloom, Jack Power, and Simon Dedalus in the car to Paddy Dignam’s… read analysis of Martin Cunningham

Garrett Deasy

Stephen Dedalus’s boss at the school where he teaches, Deasy is an impassioned defender of the British Empire. He also gives Stephen the letter on foot and mouth disease that eventually gets published in… read analysis of Garrett Deasy

Simon Dedalus

Stephen Dedalus’s father is a popular, charming, but irresponsible man who prefers to spend his money drinking than taking care of his dozen children. Simon struggles to cope with his wife May Dedalus’s… read analysis of Simon Dedalus

Dilly Dedalus

The most significant of Stephen Dedalus’s many sisters, Dilly appears in two important scenes. In the first, she coaxes money out of her drunk father Simon, which points to the Dedalus family’s struggle… read analysis of Dilly Dedalus

Dixon

Dixon seems to be the most sociable and trustworthy of the drunken medical students in “Oxen of the Sun.” He is the one who first invites Leopold Bloom over, and he merrily pokes fun at… read analysis of Dixon

Reuben J. Dodd

Dodd is a Jewish moneylender whom many Dubliners dislike and disparage. In “Hades,” Leopold Bloom, Martin Cunningham, Simon Dedalus, and Jack Power pass Dodd on the way to Paddy Dignam’s funeral… read analysis of Reuben J. Dodd

Bob Doran

Bob Doran is a Dublin man who mostly avoids alcohol, but he goes on a wild drinking binge once a year. This happens to be on June 16, during the events of Ulysses. In… read analysis of Bob Doran

Haines

Haines is a condescending but well-meaning English student of Irish folk traditions who lives with Stephen Dedalus and Buck Mulligan in the Martello tower. Stephen and Buck believe that Haines is only studying in… read analysis of Haines

Zoe Higgins

Zoe is a young prostitute who works in Bella Cohen’s brothel in nighttown with Florry Talbot and Kitty Ricketts. She first attracts Bloom, grabs his lucky potato out of his pocket, and brings… read analysis of Zoe Higgins

Joe Hynes

The unscrupulous, nationalistic Dublin reporter Joe Hynes writes a piece on Dignam’s funeral, borrows three shillings from Bloom but never pays him back, and drinks with his friends, the citizen and the debt collectorread analysis of Joe Hynes

Corny Kelleher

Corny Kelleher is the assistant at H.J. O’Neill’s funeral parlor, but he also works as a police informant on the side. He helps conduct Dignam’s funeral in “Hades,” appears briefly in “Wandering Rocks,” and… read analysis of Corny Kelleher

Tom Kernan

Kernan is a Protestant tea merchant who mourns at Paddy Dignam’s funeral in “Hades” (but criticizes the rushed Catholic services), congratulates himself on a business deal in “Wandering Rocks,” and drinks at the Ormond… read analysis of Tom Kernan

Ned Lambert

Ned Lambert is a longtime friend of Simon Dedalus’s from their shared hometown of Cork. They attend Paddy Dignam’s funeral together in “Hades” and visit the Evening Telegraph office together in “Aeolus.” He… read analysis of Ned Lambert

Matt Lenehan

Lenehan is a crude, lecherous, manipulative Dubliner who frequently follows other men around, making irrelevant jokes and trying to get favors or attention. At different points, he brags about once groping Molly Bloom, harasses… read analysis of Matt Lenehan

Vincent Lynch

Lynch is one of Stephen Dedalus and Buck Mulligan’s medical student friends in “Oxen of the Sun,” and he’s the only one who follows Stephen into nighttown in “Circe.” Like Buck, he enjoys living… read analysis of Vincent Lynch

Bantam Lyons

The unsanitary Dublin gambler Bantam Lyons spends the morning in pubs and creates a controversy after misunderstanding Bloom during a conversation on the street in “Lotus Eaters.” Lyons asks to borrow Bloom’s newspaper to check… read analysis of Bantam Lyons

Gerty MacDowell

The young Gertrude MacDowell is the central character in “Nausicaa.” The first half of the episode is narrated in her sentimental, self-conscious voice and reveals her obsession with finding romance, maintaining proper etiquette, and conforming… read analysis of Gerty MacDowell

Florence MacCabe

MacCabe is a midwife who walks on Sandymount Strand with a colleague to collect cockles in the “Proteus” episode. When she passes by, Stephen Dedalus starts thinking about how the nature of human birth means… read analysis of Florence MacCabe

C.P. M’Coy

M’Coy is a small-time local conman and swindler who meets Bloom on the street in “Lotus Eaters.” He asks Bloom to put his name on the list of mourners at Paddy Dignam’s funeral (even… read analysis of C.P. M’Coy

Professor MacHugh

Although it’s unclear what or where he teaches, Professor MacHugh chats with Ned Lambert, Simon Dedalus, J.J. O’Molloy, Myles Crawford, and Lenehan in the Telegraph offices during “Aeolus.” He has strong… read analysis of Professor MacHugh

John Henry Menton

John Henry Menton is a fussy Dublin lawyer who has history with Molly Bloom. Because of this, he dislikes Leopold Bloom—even though he also doesn’t recognize Bloom at Paddy Dignam’s funeral. When… read analysis of John Henry Menton

Malachi (“Buck”) Mulligan

The buffoonish medical student Buck Mulligan is Stephen Dedalus’s roommate in the Martello tower and quite possibly his only friend. Buck takes advantage of Stephen by living in the tower rent-free and spending Stephen’s… read analysis of Malachi (“Buck”) Mulligan

Murphy

In the cabman’s shelter in “Eumaeus,” a drunk red-haired man claims to be a sailor and introduces himself as “Murphy.” But it’s unclear if anything he says is true: he tells a series of improbable… read analysis of Murphy

Joseph Patrick Nannetti

Nannetti is the Freeman newspaper’s foreman and a rising Dublin politician. During the events of Ulysses, he is a Member of Parliament representing part of Dublin, and he is also running for mayor. (Nannetti… read analysis of Joseph Patrick Nannetti

John Wyse Nolan

The nationalistic but level-headed Dubliner John Wyse Nolan appears briefly in “Wandering Rocks” and more extensively in “Cyclops.” While he agrees with many of the citizen’s beliefs about Ireland, British imperialism, and Jewish people… read analysis of John Wyse Nolan

J.J. O’Molloy

J.J. O’Molloy is a brilliant but unsuccessful Dublin lawyer. While he keeps up a façade of respectability, he is secretly drowning in debt and resorting to desperate schemes to try to stay afloat. Unlike many… read analysis of J.J. O’Molloy

Jack Power

Mr. Power is a polite but distant (and occasionally insensitive) Dublin policeman. He goes to Paddy Dignam’s funeral along with Bloom, Simon Dedalus, and Martin Cunningham in “Hades.” During the carriage ride… read analysis of Jack Power

Mina Purefoy

Mrs. Purefoy, Leopold and Molly Bloom’s family friend, is giving birth (for the twelfth time) during the events of Ulysses. In “Oxen of the Sun,” Bloom goes to the hospital to check on… read analysis of Mina Purefoy

Mrs. Riordan

Mrs. Riordan is an old woman who once lived with Stephen Dedalus’s family and later moved to the City Arms Hotel, where Leopold and Molly Bloom lived. Leopold Bloom tried and failed to get… read analysis of Mrs. Riordan

George Russell

In Ulysses, the eclectic Dublin poet George Russell is loosely acquainted with Stephen Dedalus. In “Scylla and Charybdis,” Russell loans Stephen money, but doesn’t include him in his anthology of young up-and-coming Irish… read analysis of George Russell

Skin-the-Goat

Skin-the-Goat, whose real name is James Fitzharris, is a real-life Dublin cabman and former member of the Invincibles. He famously drove the getaway car for the Phoneix Park murderers, and he appears in… read analysis of Skin-the-Goat

Florry Talbot

Along with Zoe Higgins and Kitty Ricketts, Florry Talbot is one of the three prostitutes who Leopold Bloom, Stephen Dedalus, and Vincent Lynch meet in Bella Cohen’s brothel during “Circe.” She… read analysis of Florry Talbot

Lipoti Virag

During one of the fantasy scenes in “Circe,” Leopold Bloom’s eccentric Hungarian grandfather Lipoti Virag pops into Bella Cohen’s brothel through a chimney, wearing Cashel Farrell’s monocle and a brown macintosh (a… read analysis of Lipoti Virag

The Citizen

The “citizen” is the belligerent Irish nationalist and former champion shot-putter who attacks Bloom at Barney Kiernan’s pub during “Cyclops.” His blind love for Ireland leads him to praise anything connected to his country and… read analysis of The Citizen

The Hely’s Admen

Five men walk around central Dublin wearing giant boards, each displaying one letter of “H-E-L-Y-S.” They are advertisers working for Hely’s stationery shop, where Leopold Bloom used to work. Bloom gets frustrated whenever he sees… read analysis of The Hely’s Admen

The Man in the Brown Macintosh

A mysterious character appears at Dignam’s funeral wearing a brown macintosh raincoat, but nobody can figure out who he is. Bloom mentions him to the reporter Joe Hynes, who mistakenly records his name as… read analysis of The Man in the Brown Macintosh
Minor Characters
Almidano Artifoni
Almidano Artifoni is Stephen Dedalus’s Italian voice teacher, who is named for the director of the school where James Joyce taught English in Trieste, Italy. In “Wandering Rocks,” he encourages Stephen Dedalus to pursue a career in music.
Alec Bannon
Alec Bannon is Buck Mulligan’s friend, who has recently started dating Milly Bloom. In “Oxen of the Sun,” he and Buck meet their medical student friends, Stephen Dedalus, and Leopold Bloom at the Holles Street maternity hospital. Bannon eventually realizes that Bloom is his girlfriend’s father.
Philip Beaufoy
Beaufoy is a fictional Dublin writer who wrote “Matcham’s Masterstroke,” a mediocre short story that won a prize in Titbits magazine. In “Calypso,” Leopold Bloom reads the story in the outhouse and envies Beaufoy’s success.
Richard Best
Richard Best is one of the three librarians who listens to Stephen Dedalus’s theory about Shakespeare in “Scylla and Charybdis,” along with William Lyster and John Eglinton.
Ellen Bloom
Ellen Bloom is Leopold Bloom’s mother, who appears in a flashback from the “Circe” episode to scold her son for coming home covered in mud.
Millicent (“Milly”) Bloom
Milly is Leopold and Molly Bloom’s fifteen-year-old daughter, who has recently left home to study photography in the city of Mullingar. She writes her parents a letter mentioning a boy named Bannon, which leads both of her parents to speculate about her coming sexual awakening.
Edy Boardman
Edy Boardman is Gerty MacDowell and Cissy Caffrey’s friend, who spends the afternoon with them on Sandymount Strand in “Nausicaa.” She also brings her baby brother along. Edy is much more reserved and conservative than Cissy, and she seems to be angry at Gerty about something.
Denis Breen
Denis Breen is Josie Breen’s mentally unstable husband who spends the day of June 16 obsessively seeking to hire a lawyer, figure out who sent him a postcard reading “U.P.,” and sue the sender for libel. Throughout the novel, many Dubliners make fun of him and his pointless crusade.
Seymour Bushe
Bushe is the famous lawyer who defended Samuel Childs in the Childs murder case.
Davy Byrne
Davy Byrne owns the pub where Bloom has lunch in “Lestrygonians.”
Jacky Caffrey
Jacky is Cissy Caffrey’s younger brother and Tommy Caffrey’s twin.
Tommy Caffrey
Tommy is Cissy Caffrey’s younger brother and Jacky Caffrey’s twin.
Nurse Callan
A nurse at the Holles Street Maternity Hospital and an acquaintance of Leopold Bloom, Nurse Callan repeatedly tells the medical students to be quiet out of respect to Mrs. Purefoy.
Father Coffey
Father Coffey is the priest who presides over funerals in Prospect Cemetery, including Paddy Dignam’s. Bloom imagines that his life must be dreadfully boring, since he repeats the same ceremony every day.
Private Compton
Private Compton is Private Carr’s comparatively level-headed companion.
Father John Conmee
Conmee is the priest whose diagonal journey across Dublin serves as the opening scene to “Wandering Rocks.” However, he is far more significant because of his role in Joyce’s earlier A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: he was the sympathetic rector at young Stephen Dedalus’s school.
Father Conroy
Father Conroy is the priest who performs mass at the church near Sandymount Strand in “Nausicaa.”
John Corley
John Corley is Stephen Dedalus’s old friend, who manages to borrow money from him in “Eumaeus.” The Dubliners story “Two Gallants” focuses on his and Lenehan’s attempts to seduce and steal money from women.
Frank (“Punch”) Costello
Punch Costello is the drunkest and most disrespectful of the partygoers in “Oxen of the Sun.” Leopold Bloom disdains him for repeatedly interrupting Mrs. Purefoy’s labor by singing drinking songs. The novel reveals that Punch is the good-for-nothing son of a privileged public servant.
Myles Crawford
The fast-talking, vulgar editor of the Evening Telegraph, Crawford rudely ignores Leopold Bloom and tries to convince Stephen Dedalus to publish something in his paper in “Aeolus.”
Crotthers
One of the partygoers in “Oxen of the Sun,” Crotthers largely fades into the background (except while he speculates about whether Theodore Purefoy is still capable of fathering children).
Mrs. Cunningham
Mrs. Cunningham is Martin Cunningham’s wife, who is an alcoholic.
Miriam Dandrade
Miriam Dandrade is a woman who once sold Leopold Bloom her used underwear.
Bartell d’Arcy
Bartell d’Arcy is a tenor who once worked with Molly Bloom and kissed her after a rehearsal.
Dan Dawson
Dan Dawson is a local baker and politician who gave a passionate (and unnecessarily elaborate) patriotic speech the night before the events of Ulysses.
May Goulding Dedalus
May Goulding Dedalus is Stephen Dedalus’s mother, who died just under a year before the events of Ulysses. Stephen feels guilty about failing to pray by her deathbed, and she repeatedly comes back to him in dreams and visions throughout the novel (most significantly in “Circe”).
Boody Dedalus
Boody Dedalus is one of Stephen Dedalus’s sisters.
Katey Dedalus
Katey is one of Stephen Dedalus’s sisters.
Maggy Dedalus
Maggy is one of Stephen Dedalus’s sisters.
Patrick (“Paddy”) Dignam, Sr.
Dignam was an alcoholic Dubliner who died suddenly a few days before the events of Ulysses. His funeral is central to the “Hades” episode, and the novel’s characters repeatedly lament his passing and worry about how his wife and children will survive.
Patrick Dignam, Jr.
Patrick is Paddy Dignam’s young son, who struggles to process his father’s death. Martin Cunningham leads a fundraising effort to support the young boy and his family.
Mrs. Dignam
Mrs. Dignam is Paddy Dignam’s long-suffering wife.
Moses Dlugacz
A Hungarian Jewish butcher who—ironically enough—runs a pork shop in Dublin. Despite their shared heritage, Leopold Bloom avoids looking at or chatting with Dlugacz when he visits his shop to buy a pork kidney in “Calypso.”
Ben Dollard
A popular singer with a “booming” bass voice, Ben Dollard sings “The Croppy Boy” during the climax scene in the “Sirens” episode.
Lydia Douce
In “Sirens,” Lydia Douce is one of the barmaids who works at the Ormond Hotel, along with Mina Kennedy. The women joke together before the bar opens, compete for Blazes Boylan’s attention when he walks in, and later ward off drunk men’s insistent sexual advances.
John Alexander Dowie
John Alexander Dowie is an American preacher who is coming to preach in Dublin. He is the subject of the “Elijah is coming” pamphlet that Bloom receives at the beginning of “Lestrygonians,” and in “Circe,” he briefly appears with his name reversed (as “Alexander J. Dowie”).
Mary Driscoll
Mary Driscoll is Leopold and Molly Bloom’s former serving-girl. After Leopold tried to seduce Mary, Molly accused her of stealing oysters and fired her. She appears in the “Circe” episode to formally accuse Bloom of harassing her.
Kevin Egan
Kevin Egan is an Irish expatriate and nationalist whom Stephen Dedalus met in Paris. Stephen remembers him as lonely and miserable, even though his son Patrice also lived in Paris.
Patrice Egan
Patrice Egan is a young Irish socialist who lives as an exile in Paris, along with his father Kevin Egan.
John Eglinton (William Magee)
Eglinton, who is also occasionally called Magee, is a librarian at the National Library, where he works alongside Best and Lyster. Of the three librarians, he is the most forceful and unapologetic critic of Stephen Dedalus’s convoluted theory about Shakespeare.
Sir Frederick Falkiner
Falkiner is a prominent judge.
Long John Fanning
Fanning is Dublin’s sub-sheriff.
Cashel Boyle O’Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell
Cashel is a well-known, eccentric, monocle-wearing Dubliner who often walks around town carrying a stick, umbrella, and dust coat.
Mrs. Fleming
Mrs. Fleming is Leopold and Molly Bloom’s inept, elderly housekeeper.
Nosey Flynn
Nosey Flynn is a minor Dublin character who always hangs out in the same corner of Davy Byrne’s bar and, as his name suggests, likes to ask other people annoying, unwanted questions. He asks Leopold Bloom about Molly, Davy Byrne about the horseraces, and Tom Rochford about his invention.
Lieutenant Gardner
Lieutenant Gardner was Molly Bloom’s second girlhood love interest in Gibraltar, after Lieutenant Mulvey. He died in the Boer War.
Garryowen
Garryowen is the citizen’s vicious, unkempt dog who is constantly on the brink of attacking the men in Barney Kiernan’s pub during the “Cyclops” episode. In “Nausicaa,” readers learn that his real owner is actually Gerty MacDowell’s grandfather, Giltrap.
Professor Goodwin
Goodwin is Molly Bloom’s elderly former piano teacher who had some kind of romantic relationship with her.
Richie Goulding
The sickly lawyer and eccentric opera lover Richie Goulding is Stephen Dedalus’s uncle (his mother May’s brother). Simon Dedalus despises him, and Bloom pretends to be meeting him so that he can enter the Ormond Hotel bar and spy on Blazes Boylan in “Sirens.”
Sara Goulding
Sara Goulding is Richie Goulding’s wife and Stephen Dedalus’s aunt.
Gumley
Gumley is an alcoholic night watchman who sleeps through his shift. He’s a friend of Simon Dedalus.
Ann Hathaway
Ann Hathaway was William Shakespeare’s wife. Very little is known about her, and Stephen Dedalus develops a complex theory about her and Shakespeare’s relationship in the “Scylla and Charybdis” episode.
Hornblower
Hornblower is a porter at Dublin’s Trinity College.
Georgina Johnson
Georgina Johnson is a prostitute whom Stephen Dedalus frequently visits in nighttown. He looks for her during “Circe” but learns that she married someone named Mr. Lambe and moved to London.
Bridie Kelly
Bridie Kelly is the prostitute with whom Bloom lost his virginity.
Mina Kennedy
In “Sirens,” Mina Kennedy is a golden-haired barmaid who works at the Ormond Hotel. She and her bronze-haired counterpart Lydia Douce fight off obnoxious men’s advances while fighting for Blazes Boylan’s attention.
Alexander Keyes
Keyes is a “tea, wine and spirit merchant” who hires Bloom to run his advertisement in the Freeman newspaper.
George Lidwell
Lidwell is a solicitor who flirts with Lydia Douce in the Ormond Hotel bar.
Rev. Hugh C. Love
Rev. Love is a Protestant clergyman who tours St. Mary’s Abbey with Ned Lambert. He is also Father Cowley’s landlord—which is a metaphor for British Protestant rule over Irish Catholics—and he is writing a book about the Fitzgerald family.
William Lyster
Lyster is an inquisitive Quaker librarian at the National Library who politely listens to Stephen Dedalus’s theory about Shakespeare in “Scylla and Charybdis.”
William Madden
Madden is one of the medical students who appear in “Oxen of the Sun.”
Denis Maginni
Maginni is a flamboyant Dublin dancing professor.
Lieutenant Mulvey
The soldier Lieutenant Mulvey was Molly Bloom’s first love in Gibraltar, but their relationship was cut short when he suddenly had to sail off to India.
John O’Connell
John O’Connell is the caretaker of Prospect Cemetery, where Paddy Dignam is buried during “Hades.”
Father O’Hanlon
Father O’Hanlon is a priest who conducts mass at the church near Sandymount Strand with Father Conroy.
Terry O’Ryan
Terry O’Ryan is the barman at Barney Kiernan’s.
Kitty O’Shea
Kitty O’Shea was an English aristocrat whose long affair with Charles Stewart Parnell went public, ruined Parnell’s reputation, and arguably delayed Ireland’s independence.
John Howard Parnell
The Irish Nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell’s older brother John carried on his legacy after his death, held minor political office, and occasionally appears around Dublin in Ulysses.
Pat
Pat is the bald waiter at the Ormond Hotel.
Theodore (“Doady”) Purefoy
Theodore Purefoy is Mrs. Purefoy’s husband, who the medical students at the Holles Street hospital think is too old to be the father of her child.
Nurse Quigley
Nurse Quigley is a nurse at the maternity hospital on Holles Street.
Kitty Ricketts
Along with Zoe Higgins and Florry Talbot, Kitty Ricketts is one of the three prostitutes who works in Bella Cohen’s brothel. She is thin and pale, and Lipoti Virag notices that she seems depressed. She runs off with Vincent Lynch at the end of “Circe.”
Tom Rochford
Tom Rochford is an ambitious Dubliner who invents a machine that displays who is onstage during a variety show, and he also once saved a man who fell into a sewer (which is a true story).
H. Rumbold
Rumbold is a barber who applies for a job as a hangman in Dublin and later shows up and prepares to execute Bloom in “Circe.”
Sceptre
Sceptre is a horse who is favored to win the Ascot Gold Cup race but then loses to Throwaway. Madden, Lenehan, and Blazes Boylan all lose money by betting on Sceptre.
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare is the famous English playwright, poet, and actor who is the subject of Stephen Dedalus’s complicated, improbable theories in “Scylla and Charybdis.”
Georgina Simpson
Georgina Simpson hosted the party where Leopold Bloom met Molly Tweedy.
John F. Taylor
Taylor is a genius Dublin lawyer whom Professor MacHugh praises for giving a brilliant patriotic speech about reviving the Irish language.
Throwaway
Throwaway is the underdog horse who pulls ahead of Sceptre to win the Ascot Gold Cup. (This arguably represents the underdog anti-hero Leopold Bloom defeating the intrepid seducer Blazes Boylan to win Molly Bloom’s love.)
Major Brian Tweedy
Molly Bloom’s father was a successful soldier who spent much of his career stationed in Gibraltar. Leopold Bloom greatly admires “old Tweedy,” but the novel repeatedly questions his actual rank in the military.
Reggy Wylie
Gerty MacDowell’s love interest, Reggy Wylie is a boy who once kissed her on the nose at a party and sometimes rides his bicycle by her window.
The Blind Piano Tuner
The blind “stripling” (young man) never speaks in the book, but he turns up in three different scenes: Bloom helps him cross the street in “Lestrygonians,” he walks through Dublin in “Wandering Rocks,” and he goes to the Ormond Hotel to retrieve his tuning fork in “Sirens.”
The Boardman Baby
This is Edy Boardman’s younger brother, who plays with Cissy Caffrey in “Nausicaa.”
The Old Bawd
The old bawd is an ugly, elderly prostitute in nighttown. She tries to get Bloom’s attention and set him up with a younger woman in “Circe.”
The One-Legged Sailor
A gruff beggar sings a patriotic English song in “Wandering Rocks,” and Molly Bloom tosses him a coin through the window.
The Narrator of Episode 12
This narrator is a working-class Dublin debt collector who describes the fight between Bloom and the citizen in Barney Kiernan’s bar.
The Navvy
In “Circe,” the navy is a construction worker who steals a lamppost.
The Nymph
The nymph is a figure from a picture that Bloom cut out of a smutty magazine and framed on the wall next to his bed. She comes to life in “Circe” and reminds him about all his sins and sexual improprieties.
The Old Gummy Grammy
This is an elderly woman whom Stephen Dedalus hallucinates about meeting in “Circe.” She represents an exaggerated stereotype of poor rural Irish nationalism, and she resembles the milkmaid who delivers Stephen, Buck Mulligan, and Haines’s milk in the opening episode.