James Joyce's Ulysses

What or who is Odysseus & what or who is Ulysses? Are they both different names of same people or different people? Are they two works of Literature written by same person or two different works? What is the similarity and what is the difference? So many questions.....I have attempted to throw light on these questions here in this post. Hoping that my friends who have read Ulysses will add to this data of knowledge about Ulysses....

James Joyce's novel Ulysses uses modern literary devices to narrate a single day in the life of a Dublin businessman named Leopold Bloom and chronicles his passage through Dublin during an ordinary day, 16 June 1904.  Bloom’s day turns out to bear many elaborate parallels to Odysseus’ twenty years of wandering. The title alludes to Odysseus (Latinised into Ulysses), the hero of Homer's Odyssey, and establishes a series of parallels between characters and events in Homer's poem and Joyce's novel (e.g., the correspondence of Leopold Bloom to Odysseus, Molly Bloom to Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus to Telemachus). Joyce fans worldwide now celebrate 16 June as Bloomsday.  In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Ulysses first on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

It is no secret that James Joyce's novel Ulysses mimics Homer's Odyssey. Joyce planned for the novel to be a mock heroic epic; he created characters that resembled Homer's, included Homer's major themes like the quest for a father and the intervention of gods, there are some similar situations in both works only Joyce's are modernized to the early 1900's in Ireland. Also to parallel Homer's story Joyce includes many Greek allusions and allusions to the many political happenings during the time, these correspond with Homer's stories of the gods and goddesses and other people of mythological importance. Planned out with annotated notebooks Joyce writes his Odyssey to be like the original.

In both The Odyssey and ULYSSES, Odysseus/Ulysses is initially thwarted by Poseidon, god of the Sea. Odysseus/Ulysses must pass the Sirens in order to make it home. Odysseus/Ulysses also talks to an old friend once he lands on Ithaca, then disguises himself as a beggar to get into the castle. In both versions, he successfully strings his bow, proving his identity. Also, a fight breaks out after he shoots someone with an arrow. He declares his true identity and is restored to his rightful place.

There are more differences in the two tales than similarities. The differences start with the ship. Odysseus' ship is taken by the sea in a storm. Ulysses' ship is taken by pirates. Odysseus meets with the Sirens before his ship is smashed and he does not break free of his bonds, since his crew ties him tightly and cannot themselves hear the songs. Ulysses breaks free of his bonds, only to be restrained by Xena's more alluring song. In The Odyssey, there is no doubt that Odysseus is trying to get home. In ULYSSES, Poseidon tells Ulysses that Penelope is dead, so Ulysses falls in love with Xena.

Both versions show a man who must overcome many obstacles to reach his home. The two versions have similar elements and some of the same episodes (the Sirens, the old friend, the bow stringing) but end very differently. Other episodes have taken stories or myths and deftly wound many characters  into them, making their inclusion fairly plausible.

The book can be seen as three separate stories like the Odyssey. The three parts of the Odyssey are entitled "The Quest of Telemachus", "The Wanderings of Odysseus", and "The Return and Vegeance" which correspond to chapters one through three, four through fifteen, and sixteen to eighteen, respectively. The Lotus-Eaters   chapter is basically a generalization of the Odyssey. The whole chapter is a microcosm of Odysseus wanderings. Bloom journies around Dublin and sees various stores and shops this can be seen as Odysseus travels to various islands and places of civilization.

Ulysses is divided into eighteen episodes and it’s  stream-of-consciousness technique, careful structuring, and experimental prose—full of puns, parodies, and allusions, as well as its rich characterisations and broad humour, made the book a highly regarded novel in the Modernist pantheon.