Ulysses Characters

Leopold Bloom

Our introduction to Bloom begins, "Mr. Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts...

Stephen Dedalus

If you have read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, then you'll already have something of a...

Marion (Molly) Bloom

For seventeen of the eighteen episodes in Ulysses, we don't get anything but a fleeting glimpse...

Malachi (Buck) Mulligan

Buck Mulligan is a Dublin medical student, and a companion of Stephen Dedalus's. Like Dedalus, he...

Hugh (Blazes) Boylan

Blazes Boylan is the manager of a fighter, an advertising man, and a fellow singer of Molly's. He...

Haines

Haines features mainly in "Telemachus." He is an Englishman that is staying with Buck Mulligan at...

Garrett Deasy

Deasy is a minor character and is represented as something of a fool. In the "Nestor" episode, he...

Millicent (Milly) Bloom

Milly does not actually appear in Ulysses, except in the thoughts of Leopold and Molly and in the...

Martin Cunningham

Cunningham appears earlier in Joyce's work, in the short story "Grace" from Dubliners. According...

Simon Dedalus

Simon Dedalus was a major figure in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and he appears...

The Dedalus Sisters

Stephen's sisters only appear briefly in the novel. Half of the point is that there are a lot of...

Mary Dedalus

Mary Dedalus dies from cancer between the end of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and the...

John Eglinton

John Eglinton is actually the pseudonym of William Kirkpatrick Magee, and you'll notice that...

George William Russell

George Russell was a real-life literary giant, who was dominant in the Irish renaissance around...

Myles Crawford

Myles Crawford is the editor of the Freeman's Journal. Almost as soon as he appears in the back...

The Citizen

In "Cyclops," the citizen sits tucked away in the corner of Barney Kiernan's pub with his dog,...

Gerty MacDowell

Gerty MacDowell is a young girl who is lame in one foot. Her big role comes in "Nausicaa" when...

J.J. O'Molloy

O'Molloy is one of many examples in the novel of Dublin men who have fallen upon hard times. As...

Matt Lenehan

Lenehan appeared earlier in Joyce's work, as a character in the Dubliners story "Two Gallants."...

Rudy Bloom

Rudy is the son of Leopold and Molly Bloom. He died very shortly after birth. Ever since his...

Rudolph Virag Bloom

Rudolph Virag is Leopold Bloom's father. After the death of Bloom's mother, Rudolph lost faith...

Ellen Bloom

Ellen is Leopold's mother. It was her death that drove Rudolph Virag to his eventual suicide. In...

Lipoti Virag Bloom

Lipoti Virag is Leopold's grandfather. In "Circe," while Bloom is engaging in one of his...

Martha Clifford

Martha Clifford is a woman who responded to an ad of Bloom's in the paper requesting a typist....

Mina Purefoy

According to Gilbert's annotations, in real life Mina Purefoy was married to a Dublin...

Bantam Lyons

Lyons also appears as a character in "Ivy Day in the Committee Room" in Joyce's Dubliners. Here,...

Professor MacHugh

MacHugh appears briefly in the Aeolus episode. His biggest moment is re-enacting a speech by John...

Anonymous Narrator of "Cyclops"

If it weren't for the fact that all of "Cyclops" is told from his perspective, the anonymous...

Joe Hynes

Hynes is a minor character who briefly gets some spotlight in "Cyclops" because of his close...

Cissy Caffrey

Cissy is one of the girls on Sandymount Strand in Episode 13, "Nausicaa." She is there watching...

Edy Boardman

Edy Boardman appears in Episode 13 as one of the girls on Sandymount Strand. She is there with...

John Henry Menton

In real life, Menton was a solicitor and commissioner of affidavits. In the novel, he is...

Philip Beaufoy

Beaufoy wrote a prize-winning story for the penny weekly Titbits. Though it is made clear that it...

Davy Byrne

As with many characters in Ulysses, Davy Byrne was a real man, and his bar still exists today on...

Richard Best

Best was the real assistant director of the National Library in 1904. He translated a book on...

Thomas Lyster

Lyster was the real life librarian of the National Library of Ireland from 1895 to 1920. He...

Tom Kernan

Kernan was a real tea merchant in Dublin. In Joyce's work, he is a fictional agent for Pulbrook...

John Conmee

Conmee was the rector of Clongowes Wood College when Joyce was a student there. He then became...

Patrick Dignam

Patrick Dignam dies a few days before the setting of Ulysses. In "Hades," all of the men go to...

Patrick Dignam Jr.

Patrick is one of the sons of the late Patrick Dignam. In "Wandering Rocks," he is returning home...

Tom Rochford

According to the Gifford annotations, Rochford was a real man who was involved in the attempt to...

The Barmaids

In Joyce's schema, the two barmaids are listed as correlating to the Sirens. Many of the men that...

Ben Dollard

Ben Dollard is a renowned tenor in Dublin. His main role in the story comes in "Sirens," when he...

Richie Goulding

Goulding appears briefly in the "Sirens" episode. He is an attorney, and Bloom agrees to have...

Father Bob Cowley

Cowley is something of a spoiled priest. He has drifted away from the callings of his vocation,...

Reuben J. Dodd

Dodd is a notoriously stingy legal accountant in Dublin. In "Hades," Simon Dedalus calls out to...

The Breens

Josie Powell was a former rival of Molly's. Bloom encounters her briefly in "Lestrygonians"' and...

Alf Bergan

There was a real-life Alf Bergan who was assistant to the subsheriff in Dublin in 1904. He was a...

Bob Doran

Doran appeared earlier in Joyce's work, as a character in "The Boarding House" in Dubliners. He...

John Wyse Nolan

Nolan is a minor character that appears in "Cyclops." He agrees with many of the citizen's views,...

Andrew Horne

Horne was the former vice-president of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and one of the...

Alec Bannon

Bannon is a minor character in the novel. He is an associate of Mulligan's. Buck Mulligan...

Nurse Callan and Nurse Quigley

Callan and Quigley are nurses in the National Maternity Hospital. In "Oxen of the Sun," the women...

Vincent Lynch

Lynch has appeared earlier in Joyce's work, as a good friend of Stephen's in Portrait of the...

The Medical Students

In "Oxen of the Sun," a number of medical students are gathered along with men about town. Dixon...

Private Carr and Private Compton

In "Circe," two English Privates are wandering about Nighttown, flirting with Cissy Caffrey. When...

Two Night Watchmen

In "Circe," two Irish policeman patrol Nighttown. Before entering Bella Cohen's brothel, Bloom...

Bridie Kelly

Bridie is a young prostitute who was the first girl that Bloom slept with. The novel suggests...

Bella Cohen

Bella Cohen is the rather manly looking prostitute madame in "Circe." She herself is the double...

Bella Cohen's Prostitutes

Zoe is the first one to lure Bloom into Bella's brothel. She steals his potato, which he later...

John Howard Parnell

John Howard was the brother of the famous Charles Stewart Parnell. In 1904, he was the city...

Charles Stewart Parnell

Parnell was a Protestant Irishman who became the leading proponent of Irish Home Rule in the...

Almidano Artifoni

Artifoni is named for the owner of the Berlitz language school where Joyce taught in Trieste....

Denis J. Maginni

Maginni was a well-known dancing professor around Dublin. He was known for being exceptionally...

Joseph Patrick Nannetti

Nannetti was an Irish-Italian master printer and politician. He was a member of Parliament from...

Timothy Harrington

The late thrice-mayor of Dublin, who was particularly close to Charles Stewart Parnell in the...

Paddy Leonard

Leonard appeared previously in the story "Counterparts" from Joyce's Dubliners. Here, he appears...

Ned Lambert

Lambert is a fictional character who works in a seed and grain store in Mary's Abbey in central...

Nosey Flynn

Flynn appeared earlier, in Joyce's story "Counterparts" from Dubliners, where he is sitting up in...

M'Coy

In "Lotus Eaters," M'Coy asks after Molly, and asks Bloom to put his name in the ledger at...

Jack Power

Mr. Power is attached to the offices of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Dublin Castle. He appears...

Sir Frederick Falkner

Falkner was the real-life 1904 Dublin recorder, that is the chief judicial officer in Dublin. In...

Long John Fanning

Fanning is the fictional subsheriff of Dublin. He is referenced in the Dubliners story "Grace,"...

Reverend Francis Coffey

Coffey is the curate-in-charge and the chaplain who performs the absolution at Patrick Dignam's...

Bloom's Female Denouncers

The three women take their names from various Dublin public figures. Bellingham was a politician,...

John O'Connell

O'Connell is the Superintendent of Prospect Cemetery, where Dignam is buried in "Hades." He is...

Corny Kelleher

Corny Kelleher is the undertaker's assistant. He appears in "Hades," and is lounging in a...

Gumley

Gumley is a friend of Simon Dedalus's that appears in "Eumaeus," where he is paid to watch stones...

John Corley

Corley is an acquaintance of Stephen's and son of the Dublin Inspector. He appears in "Eumaeus."...

The Keeper

The keeper presides over the cabmen's shelter under Loop Line Bridge where Stephen and Bloom go...

W.B. Murphy

Murphy is a sailor from Carrigaloe Station that appears in the "Eumaeus" episode. Talking to...

Major Brian Tweedy

Molly Bloom's father, who she remembers fondly back in Gibraltar. He was married to Lunita...