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 and remember how he paid a boatman to fish his son out of the River Liffey after a suicide attempt. Other characters’ anti-Semitic remarks about Dodd point to the prejudice and exclusion that Leopold Bloom also faces in Dublin. In “Circe,” Dodd appears as “Ruben J. Antichrist, wandering Jew,” which underlines this point. In fact, even Bloom hates him and calls him a “dirty Jew.”
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Reuben J. Dodd Character Timeline in Ulysses
The timeline below shows where the character Reuben J. Dodd appears in Ulysses. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Episode 6: Hades
Cunningham, Dedalus, Power, and Bloom pass Reuben J , laugh at him, and chat about how his son tried to drown himself in...
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Episode 8: Lestrygonians
...brewery vats. He watches hungry seagulls flying over the river and remembers the story of Reuben J ’s son, who fell inside. He throws the religious pamphlet down into the water, thinking...
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...Falkiner, a judge, walking into the freemasons’ lodge. He imagines Falkiner punishing the guilty, like Reuben J , whom Bloom considers a real “dirty jew.” Bloom also passes a placard announcing a...
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Episode 10: Wandering Rocks
...of Father Cowley meeting Simon Dedalus from the twelfth vignette. Cowley reports that the moneylender Reuben J. Dodd is sending men to intimidate him, but Ben Dollard is coming to help out. Dollard...
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...to indifference. These people include nearly everyone named in this episode, such as Tom Kernan, Reuben J. Dodd , the barmaids Miss Kennedy and Miss Douce, Simon Dedalus, Reverend Hugh C. Love, Lenehan...
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Episode 15: Circe
...followed by a hungry rat. Tom Rochford shows up with his machine, then looks for Reuben J. Dodd in a manhole.
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...fake stones at Bloom and defiling him, and they do. Old friends mock him, and Reuben J. Dodd appears with his son’s corpse. The Dublin fire department sets fire to Bloom, who tells...
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...paper that the Antichrist is arriving soon, and newsboys run by, confirming the news. “ Reuben J. Antichrist , wandering Jew” hobbles into view with his son’s body, which is hanging from a...
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