Athos A dog that belonged to Bloom’s father, Rudolph. In his suicide note, the senior Bloom asked Bloom to care for the animal. Athos corresponds to Odysseus’s Argos, the faithful dog who waited for his master’s return; after Odysseus returned, the dog died.
Alec Bannon Bannon, part of Buck Mulligan’s circle, met Milly Bloom, Bloom’s 15-year-old daughter, after Bloom sent her away to Mullingar to study photography in order to get her out of the house during the affair of Boylan and Molly. Bannon appears with Mulligan at Dr. Horne’s hospital in “The Oxen of the Sun” and discusses Milly.
Philip Beaufoy Beaufoy writes shoddy short stories for Titbits, and Bloom, thinking that Beaufoy is a fine writer, dreams of imitating him, especially his prize-winning “Matcham’s Masterstroke.”
Richard Irvine Best Best was assistant director (and then director after 1904) of Dublin’s National Library and appears in “Scylla and Charybdis.”
A Blind Stripling Bloom reveals his charitable nature in “The Lestrygonians” by helping this young man cross the street; later, the youth turns up as the blind piano tuner in “The Sirens.” The stripling is bumped into by Lamppost Farrell in “The Wandering Rocks.”
Leopold Bloom Joyce’s 20th-century Odysseus-Ulysses figure; his wife is Molly, and he is an ad canvasser for the Freeman’s Journal. For further discussion, see Character Analyses.
Marcus J. Bloom This Bloom is the dental surgeon mentioned in “The Wandering Rocks.” He is no relation to the protagonist, and his name provides one of the “traps” in the episode.
Milly Bloom Bloom’s 15-year-old daughter (See Alec Bannon); she is attractive, as is her mother, and she is apparently also a bit hefty. Although she is dating Bannon, she has not yet lost her virginity, even though her mother is “corrupted” by Boylan on June 16. Milly is a feisty lass, and often Molly has had to curb her insolence. Bloom’s thoughts of Milly emphasize his stress concerning the passing of time: Milly is experiencing her first love at approximately the same age as Molly experienced hers, with Lieutenant Mulvey on Gibraltar.
Molly Bloom Joyce’s earth goddess, she is similar to Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. Although her appearance in Ulysses occupies only a small part of the novel, her presence is felt throughout. For further discussion, see Character Analyses.
Rudolph Bloom Bloom’s father, born Rudolph Virag sometime between 1807 and 1816; he died in 1886. Bloom’s planned trip to Ennis to commemorate the anniversary of his father’s death will prevent him from being with Boylan and Molly during the upcoming concert tour to Belfast. Rudolph became despondent after his wife’s death and finally poisoned himself.
Rudy Bloom Bloom’s son, who was born December 29, 1893, and who died January 9, 1894. Molly and Bloom have not had complete sexual intercourse since Rudy’s death, and Rudy is indeed the last of the Virag-Bloom line. Rudy appears in a vision to Bloom at the end of “Circe” at the age he would have been had he lived.
Senor A. Boudin Possibly the true name of the swaggering sailor W.B. Murphy, who appears in “Eumaeus.”
Blazes Boylan He is a singer, the owner of a prize fighter, and a “bill sticker”; Boylan has sex with Molly sometime shortly after
4:00 p.m. on June 16, 1904. For further discussion, see CharacterAnalyses.
Denis Breen Husband of Josie Breen, a half-mad eccentric who has received a postcard with “U.P.: up” written on it; he spends a good deal of time trying to find the lawyer Menton in order to file a lawsuit against the unknown jokester. Breen is ridiculed in “The Cyclops” as he passes Barney Kiernan’s pub.
Davy Byrne He runs a “moral” pub, to which Bloom escapes in “The Lestrygonians” to have a glass of burgundy and a cheese sandwich after he has left the swinish eaters at the restaurant of the Burton Hotel. He and Nosey Flynn think of Bloom as a decent, quiet man.
Cissy Caffrey Gerty MacDowell’s friend in “Nausicaa,” who abets Gerty in the “seduction” of Bloom.
Private Harry Carr He taunts Stephen at the beginning of “Circe” and then knocks him down near the end of that episode when he lets himself believe that Stephen is threatening the king. His companion is Private Compton.
The Citizen This gross, ardently nationalistic anti-Semite, who can see reality with only one eye, is Joyce’s modern-day equivalent of a cyclops. He throws a biscuit tin at Bloom at the end of “The Cyclops” as Bloom escapes in a “chariot” and ascends into “heaven.” The Citizen is based on Michael (“Citizen”) Cusack (1847-1907), whose purpose in life was to revive Gaelic games in Ireland.
Martha Clifford Bloom’s pen pal and platonic lover, with whom he corresponds under the pseudonym Henry Flower. Martha is one of at least 44 respondents to Bloom’s ad: “Wanted smart lady typist to aid gentleman in literary work.” She is one of the mysteries in Ulysses since her name is undoubtedly false.
Mrs. Clinch A respectable woman whom Bloom once almost accosted, thinking that she was a prostitute.
Cochrane An inattentive student whom Stephen calls on at the start of his class in Mr. Deasy’s school in “Nestor.”
Father Francis Coffey He performs the Absolution during the burial service of Paddy Dignam in Glasnevin Cemetery in “Hades.” He corresponds to Cerberus, the mythical dog that guards the entrance to Hell, or Hades.
Bella Cohen Joyce’s parallel to Homer’s Circe, who turns men into swine. She tries to cheat Stephen during the Nighttown Episode, but Bloom saves Stephen’s money by threatening to reveal that Bella is financing her son’s way through Oxford by her earnings from prostitution. Bella becomes Bello (masculine) during Bloom’s major masochistic “hallucination” in “Circe.”
Father John Conmee, S. J. The rector of Clongowes Wood College who saved Stephen from a beating in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; he appears in “The Wandering Rocks,” when he reminisces about his days at Clongowes.
John Corley From “Two Gallants” in Dubliners. Corley sponges money from Stephen as Stephen and Bloom are heading for the cabman’s shelter in “Eumaeus.”
“Father” Bob Cowley A spoiled priest, “Father” Cowley is one of the illusions in “The Wandering Rocks!’ since he is called by his first name, Bob, an odd appellation for a priest.
Cranly Stephen’s close friend in Book Five of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In that novel, he serves a role similar to Buck Mulligan’s in Ulysses.
Myles Crawford Editor of the Evening Telegraph; he rejects the compromise made between Bloom and Alexander Keyes over the ad for the House of Keyes (Keys), and his blithe (and drunken) attitude costs Bloom his main monetary gain of June 16.
J. T. A. Crofton From “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” in Dubliners. At the end of “The Cyclops,” he escapes from the Citizen-Cyclops along with Bloom, Martin Cunningham, and Jack Power in Cunningham’s carriage.
Martin Cunningham A sometimes kindly man who, on the way to Glasnevin Cemetery, tries to steer the conversation away from suicides (See Bloom’s father). After leaving Barney Kiernan’s in “The Cyclops,” he and Bloom go to the Dignams’ house to discuss Paddy’s insurance with his widow.
Dan Dawson His speech sentimentalizing Ireland as a land of purling rills is soundly ridiculed in “Aeolus.”
Mr. Garrett Deasy Headmaster of the school in Dalkey, where Stephen teaches; Deasy is anti-Semitic, stingy, anti-female, and pro-British. He corresponds to Nestor, the windbag orator of Homer’s Odyssey.
Boody Dedalus Stephen’s starving sister who calls her father, Simon, “Our father who art not in heaven.”
Dilly Dedalus In a pathetic attempt to extricate herself from the family squalor, this sister of Stephen’s buys a copy of Chardenal’s French Primer. Bloom sees her as a poor, hungry child who stands outside auction rooms while her father is drinking in pubs.
