Ulysses:Annotated& Illustrated
By:BrendanBoutilier
March27th,2025
Blacktext-Stephen’swords
Bluetext-GeorgeRussell(AE)
Green-ThomasWilliamLyster,Librarian
Orange/Brown-Narrator
Red-Stephen’sInteriorThoughts
Purple-JohnEglinton
Is it possible that that player Shakespeare, a ghost by absence, and in the vesture of buried Denmark,1 a ghost by death, speaking his own words to his own son's name (had Hamnet Shakespeare2 lived he would have been prince Hamlet's twin), is it possible, I want to know, or probable that he did not draw or foresee the logical conclusion of those premises: you are the dispossessed son3: I am the murdered father: your mother is the guiltyqueen,AnnShakespeare, bornHathaway?4
Butthispryingintothefamilylifeofagreatman,Russellbeganimpatiently Artthouthere,truepenny?5
Interesting only to the parish clerk. I mean, we havetheplays.Imeanwhenwereadthe poetryof King Lear6 whatisittoushowthepoetlived?Asforlivingourservantscandothatfor us, Villiers de l'Isle7 has said. Peeping and prying into greenroom gossip8 of the day, the poet's drinking,thepoet'sdebts.Wehave King Lear:anditisimmortal.
MrBest'sface,appealedto,agreed.
Flow over them with your waves and with your waters, Mananaan, Mananaan MacLir...9
Hownow,sirrah,thatpoundhelentyouwhenyouwerehungry? Marry,Iwantedit. Takethouthisnoble.
Go to! You spent most of it in Georgina Johnson's10 bed,clergyman'sdaughter Agenbiteof inwit.11
Doyouintendtopayitback? O,yes. When?Now?
1 Clothing of a deceased Dane; Hamlet was the Prince of Denmark
2 Son of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, died at age 11
3 Loss of goods or position of status
4 Wife of William Shakespeare
5 A reference to Hamlet speaking to the ghost of his father
6 A tragedy play written by William Shakespeare
7 A reference to Auguste de Villiers de Isle-Adam’s play, Axël, on love and death
8 Lies and rumors being spread or talked about by actors in a dressing room
9 Mananaan MacLir is an “Irish god of the sea who is sometimes depicted Poseidon-like driving a horse drawn chariot over the waves ”
10 The prostitute of Stephen Dedalus
11 Middle english language translated to “remorse of conscience”; more simply a sense of guilt
Well...No. When,then?
Ipaidmyway.Ipaidmyway.12
Steadyon.He'sfrombeyantBoynewater13.Thenortheastcorner.Youoweit. Wait.Fivemonths.Moleculesallchange.IamotherInow.OtherIgotpound. Buzz.Buzz.
ButI,entelechy,formofforms,amIbymemorybecauseundereverchangingforms. Ithatsinnedandprayedandfasted.
AchildConmee14 savedfrompandies15 .
I,IandI.I.16
A.E.I.O.U.17
Do youmeantoflyinthefaceofthetraditionofthreecenturies?JohnEglinton'scarping voice asked. Her ghost at least has been laid for ever She died, forliteratureatleast,beforeshe wasborn.
She died, Stephen retorted, sixtyseven years after she was born18 She saw him intoand out of the world.19 She took his first embraces. She borehischildrenandshelaidpenniesonhis eyestokeephiseyelidsclosedwhenhelayonhisdeathbed.
Mother's deathbed.20 Candle. The sheeted mirror 21 Who brought me into this world lies there,bronzelidded,underfewcheapflowers. Liliata rutilantium.22 Iweptalone.
12 Reference to Mr Deasy in the 2nd episode saying he never borrowed money in his life
13 Simple translation is ‘from beyond the river Boyne; “Beyant” is the Ulster pronunciation of “beyond” and the river Boyne is nearly 30 miles north of Dublin city
14 Father John Conmee, Jesuit priest at Clongowes
15 A punishment by slapping the hand of a school boy
16 Stepehen reflects upon his past self and the changes of emotions throughout his life
17 Stephen owes AE, also known as George Russell, money
18 Ann (Hathaway) Shakespeare born in 1556 and died in 1623
19 Her son Hamnet, died at age 11
20 Stephen’s mother dies in James Joyce's novel, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
21 Mirrors were covered in order to keep the ghost of the deceased from appearing
22 The prayer said around his mother’s deathbed in which he was not present
Pictures NationalLibraryofIreland
deVilliers,footnote7
MananaanMacLir,footnote9
RiverBoyne,footnote13
AnneHathaway
Analysis
ThepagefromJamesJoyce’s Ulysses,thatIchoosetoannotateandillustrateoccursin chapter9:“ScyllaandCharybdis”.Thelinesare9.174-9.224.Duringthispageofthechapter, StephenDedalushasjustbegunstatinghisargumentofWilliamShakespeare.Stephenbelieves thatthedeepermeaningofShakespeare’slifeishiddeninthedepictionofghostsinHamlet.In thisscenetherearemanylocalDublinscholarspresent,oneofwhichisGeorgeRussell,also knownasAE.ThedebateisheldintheNationalLibraryofIreland,wherelibrarianThomas WilliamLysterispresentaswell.ThroughoutthepageIselected,thereaderisawareof Stephen'sstreamofconsciousnessandhearshisthoughtswhilespeakingwiththeDublin scholars.Heimaginesahorse-drawncarriageridingoverthewavesintheoceanasacomparison totheShakespearianwisdomhewillbestowupontheDublinscholarsinthelibrary.Yethismind alsowandersduringthistimeasherecountsaprostitute,GeorginaJohnson.
WhilestillawareofStephen’sstreamofconsciousness,thereadergetsdetailsofevents fromthepast.Theseevents,footnotedabove,areveryimportantinthispage.Itshowsadeeper lookintowhoStephenisasapersonandthefeelinghehasduringthedebateaboutShakespeare. HethinksbacktoaninteractionwithMr Deasy,“Ipaidmyway Ipaidmyway”(9.202).This interactionoccursinchapter2,Nestor,whenMr DeasytellsStephen:“Ipaidmyway Inever borrowedashillinginmylife.Canyoufeelthat?Iowenothing.Canyou?”(2.251).Herecalls backtohistimesatClongoweswithFr Conmeesavingboysfrombeingslappedorhitinclass. Oneofthemostimportantpartsofthispageoccursonline212whenStephenthinks,“I,IandI. I.”ThisisStpehenthinkingabouthispastandhowhehaschanged.Heisaskinghimselfiflife wasbetterwhenhewasyounger.Herecountsaprostituteinwhichhespenthismoneyand Clongoweswhenhelpfulpriestswouldsavethestudents.Yet,nowhislifeismuchdifferent. ThislineisverysimilartoathoughtLeopoldBloomhasinchapter8,Lestrygonians:"Iwas happierthen.OrwasthatI?OramInowI?”(8.608)AsbothStephenandBloomhaveagedthey havelostasenseofhappinessthatwasoncepresent.
ThemostimportantpartofthispageoccurswhenStephensrecallshismothersdeathafter thinkingaboutAnneHathaway’sdeathandherson’sdeath.Thereadergetsdeeplyemotional andpowerfulthoughtsfromStephenandthesadnessthatisstillvitallypresentwithinhim. Stephenistangledwithguiltduetothefactthatherejectedhismotherswishtoprayforheron herdeathbed.Hecontinuouslydealswiththesadnessofherdeathandtheoverwhelmingguilt. Asseenearlierinthepagewhenhereferencestheprostitute,hesaysanoldenglishphrasethat translatestoremorseofconscience.Hefeelsguiltyaboutmanydifferenteventsandactionsin hislife.
WorksCited
Joyce,James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.PenguinGroup,2003.
Joyce,James. ISBN 0394743121 - Ulysses (Gabler Edition) Direct Textbook, www.directtextbook.com/isbn/0394743121.Accessed28Mar 2025.
Joyce,James. Ulysses Annotated Notes for James Joyces Ulysses (9780520253971) Don Gifford, Robert J. Seidman , ISBN-10: 0520253973 , ...: James Joyce, Ulysses, Literary Allusion,10Mar 2013.
Joyce,James. Ulysses Annotated Notes for James Joyces Ulysses (9780520253971) Don Gifford, Robert J. Seidman , ISBN-10: 0520253973 , ...: James Joyce, Ulysses, Literary Allusion,10Mar.2013.
Joyceproject.Com,www.joyceproject.com/index.php?chapter=scylla¬es=0#. Accessed 27Mar.2025.