The chapter opens with Stephen at home; he is spending the summer with his family, who have moved from Bray to Blackrock, about five miles southeast of Dublin. Stephen enjoys being with his father and his great-uncle, Uncle Charles. He begins each day observing Uncle Charles as the old man in his tall hat, humming Irish tunes, leaves the house, smoking his foul-smelling "black twist" of tobacco and making ready to perform his morning defecation ritual in the "arbour" (the outhouse).
After the ritual, Uncle Charles and Stephen take their usual daily walk through the town marketplace; their next stop is the park, where they meet, as usual, Mike Flynn, an old friend of Stephen’s father's; Mike is training Stephen to be a runner. Flynn, according to Stephen’s father, has put "some of the best runners of modern times through his hands." Stephen has noticed Mike's "flabby stubblecovered face . . . and long stained fingers through which he roll[ed] his cigarette"; he doubts his father's exaggerated endorsement of Mike’s qualifications.
Returning from his workout, Stephen accompanies Uncle Charles to the chapel, where the old man prays. Stephen doesn’t understand his uncle's serious piety and wonders why his uncle is praying so fervently.
On weekends, Stephen takes long walks with his father and Uncle Charles, listening patiently to family stories and their conversations about Irish politics. Although Stephen fails to understand the meanings of some of their grown-up words, he has begun to find pleasure in the adventurous and romantic language of The Count of Monte Cristo. Reading the novel, he is transformed into the dark and dashing lover of the beautiful and modest Mercedes; with his friend Aubrey Mills, Stephen reenacts numerous battles and deeds of daring which help satisfy his boyhood appetite for a life of romance and adventure.
At the close of summer, Stephen learns that he will not be returning to Clongowes Wood College because of his father's mounting debts. Shortly thereafter, Stephen and his family move to a "cheerless house" in Dublin; there, Stephen realizes that his father is a financial failure. He becomes self-conscious and bitter, embarrassed by the squalid "change of fortune" which painfully affects his life.
In order to escape his unhappiness, Stephen immerses himself in fantasies of love and romance. Thoughts of the beautiful Mercedes merge with his loving memories of a certain girl; he attempts to calm his young storm of emotions by writing a poem to his beloved, "To E— C—." In an artistic re-creation of a meeting with this girl, Stephen composes a poem to her in romantic, Byronesque language. Afterward, he yearns even more for the girl, puzzling over his undefined ache for satisfying physical love—which, of course, he has not yet experienced.
When Stephen learns that his father has arranged for him to attend Belvedere College, a prestigious Jesuit day school, he is humiliated to learn that his father discussed the Clongowes pandying incident with Father Conmee and with Father Dolan. To Stephen’s shame and dismay, they all "had a hearty laugh together" over Stephen's anguished confrontation with Father Conmee.
The next scene opens about two and a half years later. Stephen is probably fourteen years old, a confident young man at Belvedere, preparing to go onstage in the school play. During his years at Belvedere, Stephen has distinguished himself as an accomplished essay writer, actor, and model student.
Listening for his cue, Stephen waits outside the theater and is confronted by two classmates, Heron and Wallis, who propose a schoolboy prank. They mock Stephen's seriousness as a "model youth" and tease him about a girl who has shown interest in Stephen's upcoming performance in the play. Stephen answers their taunts irreverently; he rotely recites the Confiteor (the Roman Catholic prayer said during Mass for the confession of sin), and he recalls an earlier incident when Heron taunted him and initiated a similar response.
Stephen remembers his first year at Belvedere; it was a time when he felt terribly insecure about his home life and his future. He had begun to take pride in the success of his essay writing when Mr. Tate, the English teacher, discussed one of Stephen's essays, saying that it contained heresy. Strangely, Stephen felt a "vague . . . malignant joy" at being singled out by Mr. Tate. Afterward, Heron and two other troublesome classmates, apparently jealous of Stephen, confronted him and instigated a fight; during the incident, Stephen was forced to identify Cardinal Newman as his favorite prose writer and Byron as his favorite poet. The bullies—Heron, Boland, and Nash—all preferred Tennyson to the "heretical and immoral" Byron, and they attempted to force Stephen to "admit that Byron was no good" by beating Stephen until he finally freed himself. In spite of everything, though, Stephen remembers following after them, half-blinded by tears.
The memory is still vivid, but Stephen no longer bears the boys any malice; Stephen’s former anger has been erased by his adolescent love for the young girl who has come to see him in the play. Her admiration for him far outweighs the boys' taunts.
Stephen’s role in the play is that of a "farcical pedagogue," and he is somewhat embarrassed when he thinks about the girl viewing his schoolboy performance; as a result, after he finishes his lines, he rushes off the stage, past the audience and his family. He is confused, floundering in a sea of "wounded pride . . . fallen hope . . . and baffled desire."
We next see Stephen traveling with his father on a train toward Cork, where Simon plans to sell the remainder of his property at auction. Bored and disinterested during the train ride, Stephen observes his father—drinking from a flask and crying, on occasion, as he reminisces; he broodingly tells Stephen about old times and lost friends. Arriving at Simon’s alma mater, Queen’s College, Stephen watches as a porter humors his father, who continues his tiresome, endless tales about times past.
When at last they arrive at the anatomy theater, where Simon once studied as a medical student, Simon and the porter search for Simon’s desk. Stephen lingers behind momentarily and is stunned to look down and see the word Foetus carved deeply into a desktop. Simon is describing his college days, but Stephen hears only words. Phantoms stand around him, laughing bawdily. Suddenly, he realizes that those young men long ago shared the "brutish . . . malady" of dark thoughts about sex that trouble Stephen. Until now, Stephen has believed that his preoccupation with sex is unique; now, these young men who carved the word Foetus into a desk during an anatomy lesson are linked with Stephen. He is not alone in imagining all sorts of dark fantasies.
Meanwhile, Simon is unaware of his son’s anguish; he continues talking about old friends and gives Stephen scrap ends of advice. For example, he tells Stephen to always behave like a gentleman and to associate with students who have gentlemanly ways—the ability to sing songs, tell stories, and excel in athletics. The shallowness of Simon’s advice and his admission that he doesn’t really know how to be a father leaves Stephen feeling isolated, angry, and unsympathetic to his father's melodramatic and sentimental murmurings.
Stephen tries to escape from his feelings of alienation, but he can recall only memories of childhood experiences when he felt alienated, lonely, and restless, as he does now. Meanwhile, Simon is still unaware of his son's sensitive turmoil, and he humiliates him when he and Stephen make a round of the local pubs.
Stephen's mind whirls, and his emotions intensify as he hears about his father's (and even his grandfather's) youthful flirtations and drunken revelries. Slowly, Stephen begins to emotionally detach himself from the pub crowd and resign himself to the fact that "his childhood was dead or lost and with it his soul."
The next scene finds Stephen and his family waiting to claim the prize money for Stephen's winning essay. Excited at having so much money so suddenly, Stephen embarks on a lavish spending spree which includes dinners, gifts, and some redecoration of the Dedalus home. His elation in spending the prize money is surpassed only by his later feelings of shame as he realizes his foolishness in trying to "build a breakwater of order and elegance against the sordid tide of life."
Frustrated and disillusioned, Stephen dissociates himself from his family each evening. No longer a boy, Stephen wanders through the "dark slimy streets" of Dublin, trying to "appease the fierce longings of his heart," and, one night, feeling like a "baffled prowling beast," he arrives at the heart of Dublin's brothel district. Standing in a darkened doorway is a young, pink-gowned prostitute who invites Stephen to her room. It is here that Stephen is seduced into his first sexual experience; he "surrender[s] himself to her, body and mind . . ."
