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Matt Lenehan
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 off Stephen’s money and goodwill—but unlike Buck, he isn’t particularly clever or interesting. Although he has a girlfriend—and Father Conmee almost catches them having sex in the bushes at the beginning of “Wandering Rocks”—Lynch runs off with the prostitute Kitty Ricketts at the end of “Circe.” In the process, he abandons Stephen during his fight with Private Carr. This leads Stephen to compare Lynch to the Biblical traitor Judas Iscariot.
Vincent Lynch Quotes in Ulysses
The Ulysses quotes below are all either spoken by Vincent Lynch or refer to Vincent Lynch. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun Quotes
But was young Boasthard’s fear vanquished by Calmer’s words? No, for he had in his bosom a spike named Bitterness which could not by words be done away. […] Heard he then in that clap the voice of the god Bringforth or, what Calmer said, a hubbub of Phenomenon? Heard? Why, he could not but hear unless he had plugged him up the tube Understanding (which he had not done). For through that tube he saw that he was in the land of Phenomenon where he must for a certain one day die as he was like the rest too a passing show. And would he not accept to die like the rest and pass away? By no means would he though he must.
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Episode 15: Circe Quotes
STEPHEN: Here’s another for you. (he frowns) The reason is because the fundamental and the dominant are separated by the greatest possible interval which …
THE CAP: Which? Finish. You can’t.
STEPHEN: (with an effort) Interval which. Is the greatest possible ellipse. Consistent with. The ultimate return. The octave. Which.
THE CAP: Which?
(Outside the gramophone begins to blare The Holy City.)
STEPHEN: (abruptly) What went forth to the ends of the world to traverse not itself, God, the sun, Shakespeare, a commercial traveller, having itself traversed in reality itself becomes that self. Wait a moment. Wait a second. Damn that fellow’s noise in the street. Self which it itself was ineluctably preconditioned to become. Ecco!
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Vincent Lynch Character Timeline in Ulysses
The timeline below shows where the character Vincent Lynch appears in Ulysses. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun
...they toast to Purefoy’s health and drink. In attendance are the “scholars of medicine” Dixon, Lynch, and Madden, plus Lenehan, Crotthers, Stephen Dedalus, Punch Costello, and “the meek sir Leopold [Bloom].”...
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Costello interrupts with another exuberant song, but a crack of thunder silences him. Lynch jokes that God is angry at Stephen for his blasphemy. Stephen is secretly desperate and...
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Lynch and Dixon launch into a long, satirical allegory about an Irish bull. In a slightly...
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...a ringing bell, after which Nurse Callan enters and whispers something to Dixon. Costello and Lynch joke derisively about the nurse’s looks and her relationship to Dixon, who then prepares to...
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...declares that “a nice clean old man” is the best thing to desire. Madden and Lynch start arguing about Siamese twins.
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...he can bring “the past and its phantoms […] into life” through poetry. But Vincent Lynch says that Stephen hasn’t “father[ed]” enough work yet to justify this boastfulness. Adding insult to...
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...that Sceptre was about to win, but Throwaway pulled ahead at the last minute. Then, Lynch starts talking about having a “mad romp” with his girlfriend in the bushes and nearly...
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...mortality. While Buck Mulligan blames poor hygiene, for instance, Crotthers blames abuse and neglect, and Lynch attributes it to some unknown natural law. This voice then speculates that nature promotes infant...
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...starts vomiting and someone else declares their love for a woman named Mona. Stephen and Lynch look for a brothel and notice the Dowie pamphlet that Bloom threw into the River...
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Episode 15: Circe
...march through the lane. They point at “the parson,” Stephen Dedalus, who is walking with Lynch and chanting the Latin mass. An elderly bawd calls them over, but they ignore her....
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Stephen asks Lynch to hold his ashplant and explains that they’re looking for Georgina Johnson. Lynch refuses to...
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...hears church music and meets Zoe Higgins, a young prostitute, who reports that Stephen and Lynch are inside Mrs. Cohen’s brothel. Zoe asks if Bloom is Stephen’s father—he says no—and then...
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In the music room, Lynch is on the rug, keeping time with a wand. The prostitute Kitty Ricketts sits on...
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Lynch tosses Zoe a cigarette, then starts lifting up her skirt. She’s not wearing any underwear,...
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...bastard and charlatan. Kitty mentions a colleague named Mary, whose child died of convulsions, and Lynch calls the three prostitutes “three wise virgins.” Virag accuses the Virgin Mary of adultery.
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...As they chat about the clergy, Florry jokes that Stephen is “a spoiled priest,” and Lynch says that his father is a cardinal. Stephen appears as a Catholic cardinal, wearing a...
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...proclaims that immortals are “stonecold and pure,” and Bloom confesses more sins. Meanwhile, Kitty, Florry, Lynch, and Zoe comment that one of the cushions is hot, after someone sat on it....
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Zoe reads Stephen’s palm and concludes that he’s courageous, but Lynch thinks that Zoe clearly isn’t any good at reading palms. Suddenly, Father Conmee and Stephen’s...
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Lynch randomly comments, “the mirror up to nature,” quoting Hamlet. Stephen and Bloom look into the...
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...French. Stephen changes Zoe for Florry, then Florry for Kitty, and finally pairs Kitty with Lynch so that he can dance all alone with his ashplant.
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Lynch tries to contain Stephen, while Bella calls for the police. Stephen runs out the door,...
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Bloom tries to enlist Lynch’s help in getting Stephen away from Private Carr, but Lynch runs off with Kitty Ricketts...
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Episode 16: Eumaeus
...but one of Stephen’s friends abandoned him, and Stephen comments that his one loyal friend, Lynch, ended up being “Judas.”
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