Ulysses · Chapter
XVII explained
Bloom and Stephen walk together through Dublin, discussing a wide range of topics including music, literature, Ireland, and religion.
What happens
Bloom and Stephen walk together through Dublin, discussing a wide range of topics including music, literature, Ireland, and religion. They arrive at Bloom's home at 7 Eccles Street, where Bloom realizes he has forgotten his latchkey. After urinating together in the garden, they enter the house. Bloom reflects on past companions and the nature of existence, while Stephen departs. Bloom contemplates the stars and the universe, then returns inside.
Themes in this chapter
Fatherhood and Filial Relations
Bloom reflects on a clown who claimed Bloom was his father, and considers the irreparability of the past and the imprevidibility of the future.
The Ordinary and the Epic
The chapter juxtaposes mundane actions like forgetting a key and urinating with cosmic reflections on the stars and the universe.
Memory and History
Bloom recalls past conversations, companions now dead, and historical events like the conversion of Ireland, while Stephen corrects historical dates.
Characters to notice
- Leopold Bloom
Returns home with Stephen, forgets his latchkey, urinates in the garden, reflects on past companions and the cosmos.
- Stephen Dedalus
Walks with Bloom, discusses various topics, urinates in the garden, and departs after entering Bloom's home.
- Simon Dedalus
Mentioned as being in bed among the company that traveled from Sandymount to Glasnevin.
- Paddy Dignam
Mentioned as being in the grave, among the company that traveled from Sandymount to Glasnevin.
- Molly Bloom
Mentioned as Miss Marion Tweedy, with whom Bloom discussed subjects in 1888.
- Martin Cunningham
Mentioned as being in bed among the company that traveled from Sandymount to Glasnevin.
- Jack Power
Mentioned as being in bed among the company that traveled from Sandymount to Glasnevin.
- Tom Kernan
Mentioned as being in bed among the company that traveled from Sandymount to Glasnevin.
Key passages
“What parallel courses did Bloom and Stephen follow returning?”
Bloom and Stephen walked home along parallel routes.
Describes their journey from Beresford Place to Eccles Street.
“The sound of the peal of the hour of the night by the chime of the bells in the church of Saint George.”
They heard the bells of Saint George's church chiming the hour.
The church bells mark the time as they part ways.
“The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.”
The sky was a tree full of stars like fruit in the humid night.
Bloom's poetic description of the starry sky.