The breakdown of Isabelle's marriage
At the beginning of the text, Stephen visits his friend Rene, who lives with his wife Isabelle. Their marriage is depicted as being unhappy, with Isabelle and Stephen eventually having an affair. The unhappiness of their marriage is a metaphor for the unhappiness of industrial workers, who end up striking.
River simile
Rene asks his wife where she had been during the day, to which she replies that the was "doing errands." He responds in the following passage: “Of course, my dear. My wife is a mysterious creature, Monsieur,” he said to Stephen. “No one knows—like the little stream in the song—whither she flows or where her end will be.” Here, Rene uses a simile to compare her to a river from a song, emphasizing how mysterious she is.
Orbit metaphor
When talking about World War I, Stephen says that "I do not know what I have done to live in this existence. I do not know what any of us did to tilt the world into this unnatural orbit." Here, he uses a metaphor about the earth operating on an unnatural orbit, to describe the chaos and horror of World War I.
Jack's humor
Jack's great sense of humor is described in the following passage: "Jack himself laughed a little, but he was able to see the effect his performance had on his audience. The noise of their laughter roared like the sea in his ears." Here, the laughter of Jack's audience is described with a simile and is compared to roaring like the sea, in order to emphasize how funny Jack was.
