Ulysses Lesson Plan

Discuss the unique structure of "Ithaca."

"Ithaca" has long beguiled many literary critics; the chapter is structured as an interrogation or catechism. Through the answers to 307 posed questions, the reader gleans an account of Bloom's early morning activity. Again, an anonymous narrator accompanies Joyce's complicated narrative structure. The tone and scope of the questions alternates from philosophical to personal, effecting a new experience for the reader; all the while, "Ithaca" is bursting with the usual Joycean humor and wordplay. The narrator asks why Bloom was "doubly irritated" discovering the absence of his key; the response: "he had forgotten and because he...