JAMES JOYCE - ULYSSES (1922)

Ex 1

The plot differs from traditional plot because it covers the events of a single day , and because it is based on Homer's Odyssey , as a matter of fact Leopold is a modern Ulysses.

Ex 2

The twins go back to play.

Cissy and Edy play with the baby.

Cissy teaches  the baby to talk.

Cissy adjusts the baby and asks Edy to double the blanket under him because he is wet.

The child doesn't like it and starts crying but Cissy soothes  him.

Gerty is annoyed at the whole scene and wishes they would go away.

She is moved by the landscape, the music and the smell of incense coming from the nearby church.

The sight of his eyes makes her speculate abut his character.

Realizing how intently he is looking at her, Gerty is pleased with what she is wearing and tries to capture his attention by showing her legs.

She become conscious of the man's gaze on her and is pleasantly upset.

She feels he is the man she has always waited for.

She hopes the power of her femininity will make him fall in love with her.

She thinks that whatever the man's character is her love will rescue him.

Ex 3

a) Characters are characterized through their actions and what they are thinking.

     -Cissy  and Edy are playing with baby

     - Gerty is daydream about the man,  " her dreamhusband"

b) From reading the text I have understood  that  the three girls  belong to the middle class .

Gerty is dreamy and affectionate and friendly , Edy and Cissy are cheerful, practical, friendly and   extrovert.

c) The three girls are friends, but from analyzing the text Edy and Cissy seem to be more   accomplices as a matter of fact they are playing together with baby, while Gerty wants to be alone " Gerty wished to goodness they would take their squalling baby home ", because of she is dreaming.

Ex 4

Focus on Gerty.

She lives in a dreamlike world and  applies  to reality what she reads in popular love stories .

As a matter of fact there are a lot of textual clues that argues this thesis . At first the narrator reveal us her mood " her heart pitapat", she isolated herself " She gazed out towards the distant sea", and she focused her attention on the man, and she creates illusions " she wanted him because she felt instinctively that he was like no one else" Then mayhap he would embrace her gently ", " his ownest  girlie, for herself alone." " her dreamhusband"

Ex 5

 Narrative technique:

-Mythical method :the  use ancient myth to interpret  contemporary experience. The comparison between  modern and ancient codes of values.

- There is a third person  narrator who speaks from different points of view , and there is also the use of different linguistic styles appropriate to different characters. In this way Joyce trys to solve the problem of how to present the fragmented nature of reality .

Ex 6

To use the appropriate language for each situation ( baby language)

To add to the realism of the scene ( emphatic language, colloquial language)

To reinforce theme through the language ( unusual punctuation or lack of punctuation, onomatopoeic language).

Ex 7

The episode taken from Joyce' Ulysses and Homer's Odyssey are both analogical and antithetical.

There are the same structure: a men, a island, women and the theme of love, but the background is changed, there are another  code of values.