James Joyce: "Ulysses" Trivia Quiz

Answer: June 16, 1904

The story is completely set in Dublin, and only lasts 24 hours. This means there is unity of place and time, like in Greek tragedy. Aristotle wrote about this in his "Poetics". Bloomsday is celebrated every year in Dublin.

Answer: Kinch

Buck Mulligan calls him Kinch in the first chapter. Poldy is Leopold Bloom. Buck's real name is Malachi. Artifoni is Molly's Italian music teacher.

Answer: 1st century AD

It's a fragment from the "Ballad of Joking Jesus" in chapter 1. His father was a bird: the Holy Spirit in the shape of a dove. It's one of the many jokes about religion.

Answer: Ireland

Mr Deasy is the anti-Semitic school headmaster in chapter 2. The persecution of the Jews is one of the central themes in "Ulysses". Bloom had a Jewish father who turned Protestant. His mother was Catholic, and Leopold was baptized Catholic.

Answer: 7 Eccles Street

All the places in the novel really exist. 7 Eccles Street was empty in 1904, but Joyce knew someone who someone lived there in 1909. Buck Mulligan lived in the Martello Tower. Tourists still visit these places. 221B Baker Street is where Sherlock Holmes lived in London.

Answer: metempsychosis

It means transmigration of souls. It's a central theme in "Ulysses", because you can recognize the Homeric characters in Dublin in 1904: Stephen = Telemachus, Leopold = Ulysses, Molly = Penelope. "Omphalos" means "navel". Ithaca was called the navel of the sea.

Answer: Milly

He reads her letter in chapter 4. Molly is his wife, Rudy his son. Gerty MacDowell is the girl on Sandymount shore in chapter 13.

Answer: kidney

It's only a little burnt. He gives the burnt part to the cat. In spite of having a Jewish born father Leopold Bloom doesn't eat kosher.

Answer: Nosey Flynn

Leopold Bloom, Poldy and Henry Flower are one and the same person. Poldy is what Molly calls him, Henry Flower is his alias for his correspondence with Martha. Bloom and Virag (his father's name) also mean "flower". This refers to Homer's Lotus Eaters.

Answer: consciousness

It means that the thoughts of a character (or the writer himself) are written down. It's a kind of interior monologue based on free association, with a lot of elliptic sentences and grammatical errors. This is one of the things that make "Ulysses" so difficult to read. Another writer who used this device is Virginia Woolf.

Answer: a yellow flower with flatted petals

Chapter 5 is based on the Lotus Eaters, the creatures in the "Odyssey" that eat flowers. If you eat these flowers, you forget. The chapter is full of references to flowers, oblivion and eating.

Answer: Iron Nails Ran In

It's one of the many language jokes in "Ulysses". "INRI" is written on the cross of Jesus. It really means "Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum" (Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews).

Answer: a recipe for the chemist

It's a recipe for a lotion for Molly. The chemist is still able to make it. He buys the yellow wax soap at the chemist. Forgetting his key and the recipe also refers to the oblivion of the Lotus Eaters.

Answer: Davy Byrne

Davy Byrne is the pub owner in Duke Street in chapter 8. Robert Emmet is an Irish freedom fighter who died in 1803. Leopold attends Paddy Dignam's funeral in chapter 6. He remembers his dead son Rudy.

Answer: Simon

Here's a difference with the "Odyssey": Telemachus is the son of Ulysses, but Simon isn't the son of Leopold Bloom. Rudolph Virag is Leopold's father. Malachi is Buck's real first name.

Answer: Joe Hynes

This is a mistake. The man at the funeral in chapter 6 was wearing a Macintosh coat, his name is never mentioned. According to one interpretation the mysterious man in the Macintosh was James Joyce himself.

Answer: House of Key(e)s

His name is Alexander Keys. The House of Keys is the Manx parliament. Bloom says it's an innuendo of home rule for Ireland (chapter 7). Leopold Bloom collects advertisements for the Freeman's Journal. This chapter refers to Aeolus, the god of the wind. Aeolus is angry when Ulysses comes back to his island; editor in chief Myles Crawford is angry when Leopold comes back.

Answer: Throwaway

The race really took place. They still have the newspapers in Dublin with the announcement (Freeman's Journal) and the result (Evening Telegraph) of the race. Leopold says about his Freeman's Journal: "I wanted to throw it away." Bantam Lyon thinks this is a tip to bet on Throwaway.

Answer: Cyclops

Cyclops only have one eye. Another reference to the Cyclops is the one eyed view of the citizen in the pub. Joyce wiped out the original titles, but the list is still a big help to understand the relation between "Ulysses" and the "Odyssey".

Answer: on Sandymount shore

It's one of the reasons why the publication of "Ulysses" was forbidden for several years. Bloom masturbates in chapter 13 while watching Gerty MacDowell, a girl of seventeen. She sees him and lifts up her skirt. Joyce uses metaphors: Bloom's penis is called a Roman candle.

Answer: prostitute

She appears in chapter 15, which has the form of a play. It's not clear whether this scene really happens or just takes place in Bloom's fantasy. When he makes his bill in chapter 17 the cost of the prostitutes are not included. Bloom plays the role of a woman, while a woman plays the role of a man: Bella becomes Bello.

Answer: catechism

Chapter 7 is a newspaper, chapter 11 is a fugue (according to Joyce himself), and chapter 15 is a play. In chapter 17 there are only questions and answers, like in a catechism.

Answer: penknife

When Leopold and Stephen are together in Eccles Street 7 Stephen sings an anti-Semitic song: little Harry Hughes is beheaded by the Jew's daughter.

Answer: Leopold Bloom

Father Corrigan touches her bottom with his hand when she's still a child; she thinks back of this in the beginning of chapter 18. Blazes Boylan is her lover, who hits her on the bottom. Stanley Gardner is another ex-boyfriend mentioned in chapter 18. Leopold kisses his wife's bottom in chapter 17, before he falls asleep.

Answer: Molly Bloom

Apart from the full stop at the end there aren't any punctuation signs in this chapter, to create the effect of stream of consciousness. Molly thinks back of her lovers. Unlike Homer's Penelope she isn't a faithful wife.