Ulysses · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Ulysses by James Joyce.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Stephen Dedalus
major
Also known as Stephen, Dedalus, Simon Dedalus, Stephen MacKenna, Stephen Stringendo, young Stephen, Kinch, Stephen Cardinal, Stephen Stick
Stephen shares a Martello tower with the mocking Buck Mulligan and an Englishman he distrusts, playing the cold intellectual while his mother's death gnaws at him. He teaches history to boys who barely listen and trades barbs with Dublin's literary set, refusing to bend for anyone's approval. His restless, wounded mind sets the novel's tone: a son in search of a father, and a conscience in search of peace.
Leopold Bloom
major
Also known as Mr Leopold Bloom, Mr Bloom, Bloom, Henry Flower, Leopold, Poldy, Henry, leopold, Leo, Bloom Nes, Bloom Laughing witch, Sir Leopold, sir Leopold
Bloom moves through the city as an outsider—Jewish in Catholic Dublin, cuckolded in his own mind, dodging acquaintances who want favors and funerals. He mourns a dead son, worries over his wife's coming tour, and finds odd comfort in soap, kidneys, and the shape of a woman's hat. His ordinary errands and extraordinary inner weather make him the novel's compass: unheroic, humane, and quietly heroic.
Molly Bloom
major
Also known as Mrs Marion Bloom, Mrs Marion, Marion, Marion Softly, Mrs Bloom, Madam Marion Tweedy, Marion Tweedy, Miss Marion Tweedy, Miss Tweedy
Molly is a professional singer with a Belfast engagement and a reputation that travels faster than she does. Her affair with the flashy Boylan shadows Bloom's whole day, while her half-sleeping thoughts drift through lovers, losses, and the Gibraltar of her girlhood. She matters because the novel's heart beats in her: everything Bloom does is measured against her, and her final word belongs to her alone.
Buck Mulligan
supporting
Also known as Mulligan, Malachi Mulligan, Malachi, Mercurial Malachi, Mr Mulligan, Mr Malachi Mulligan, Dr Malachi Mulligan, Dr Mulligan
Mulligan holds court in the Martello tower, shaving, whistling, and turning the Mass into a joke, with Stephen as his favorite audience and target. He is charming, generous, and casually cruel—calling Stephen 'Kinch, the knifeblade' while angling for the credit of his ideas. His easy blasphemy and easy betrayals define the friendship Stephen must outgrow, and his presence sharpens the novel's first movement.
Simon Dedalus
supporting
Also known as Mr Simon Dedalus, Mr Dedalus, Mr S. Dedalus, Mr Dedalus senior, Simon, simple Simon
Simon Dedalus moves through Dublin's pubs and parlors with a song on his lips and a story about the old days, mourning his wife and his lost prospects in the same breath. He loves Stephen but can't reach him, and his improvidence has scattered the family into rented rooms and borrowed hopes. His decline shadows Stephen's ambition and gives the novel its bitter portrait of inheritance—what fathers pass down and what sons refuse.
Blazes Boylan
supporting
Also known as Boylan, Blazes, Hugh E. (Blazes) Boylan, Hugh Boylan, Hugh, Mr Boylan, Boylan Seated
Boylan manages Molly's coming Belfast tour and, more intimately, her afternoons, moving through the city with the swagger of a man who always gets what he wants. He is loud, well-dressed, and utterly without introspection—everything Bloom fears and everything Bloom is not. His offstage presence drives the day's quiet agony: the appointment Bloom knows about and cannot stop, the rival whose shadow falls across every hour.
Mrs Breen
supporting
Also known as Mrs Breen, Josie Powell, Josie, Mrs Breen Glory Alice
Once Josie Powell, she courted the same young Bloom who eventually chose Molly, and the memory of that rivalry hums beneath their chance meetings. Now Mrs Breen, tethered to a husband whose eccentricities make her a figure of Dublin amusement, she still carries the spark of the girl who lost and kept something. Her brief, charged encounter with Bloom in the midday streets gives the novel one of its sharpest glimpses of the life he might have lived.
Haines
minor
Also known as Haines, The Reverend Mr Haines
An English student staying with Stephen and Mulligan at the tower.
Lenehan
supporting
Also known as Lenehan, Spot the Winner Lenehan, Mr Lenehan, gleeful Lenehan, the franklin Lenehan, Master Lenehan
Lenehan is the city's living connective tissue: he knows every horse, every debt, every rumor, and he trades them for pints and attention. His patter is relentless and often funny, but it masks a man perpetually on the make, hustling for shillings and a place at the bar. Through his restless rounds he stitches together Dublin's scattered talkers, giving the novel a voice for its gossipy, sideways-talking streets.
Paddy Dignam
supporting
Also known as Paddy Dignam, Paddy, Poor little Paddy Dignam, Poor Dignam, Dignam, Mr Patrick Dignam, Patrick Dignam, the late Mr Patrick Dignam, Mr Dignam, poor Dignam
Paddy Dignam is a familiar, unremarkable man about town, the kind of friend whose death arrives as a shock precisely because he seemed so ordinary. His funeral draws Bloom, Simon Dedalus, Martin Cunningham and others into a shared carriage, where grief, gossip and small talk jostle together. Though he never speaks, his absence organizes the morning and quietly reminds every character of the ordinary lives that end between one day and the next.
Martin Cunningham
supporting
Also known as Martin Cunningham, Martin
Cunningham is the kind of man Dublin leans on: capable, tactful, and trusted with other people's grief and money. In the funeral carriage and later at Barney Kiernan's, he manages the awkwardness of Bloom's presence with a decency the others lack. His quiet loyalty matters because it shows that Bloom is not entirely alone in a city that mostly mocks or ignores him.
Alf Bergan
minor
Also known as Alf Bergan, Little Alf Bergan, Alf, Bergan, Little Alf, little Alf
A clerk and friend of the newspapermen.
Joe Hynes
minor
Also known as Hynes, Burgess Hynes, Three Hynes, Joe Hynes, Joe, Decent fellow Joe, Mr Joseph M'Carthy Hynes, Joseph, Joseph Hynes
A journalist who writes about the funeral.
Ned Lambert
minor
Also known as Ned Lambert, Albert, Ned, Lambert, J., Edward, Edward J. Lambert, Mr Lambert
A seed merchant and friend of the Dedalus family.
Tom Kernan
minor
Also known as Tom Kernan, Kernan, Mr Kernan, Mr Thomas Kernan, Tom, Master Tommy, Tommy, tearful Tommy, Thomas Kernan, Tomgin Kernan
A tea merchant and former commercial traveler.
Corny Kelleher
minor
Also known as Corny Kelleher, Corny, Kelleher, Daresay Corny Kelleher, Mr Kelleher, Mr Cornelius Kelleher, Cornelius, Cornelius Kelleher, Corny Kelleher Laughs
A funeral undertaker and occasional informant.
Richie Goulding
minor
Also known as Richie Goulding, Goulding, Richie, keen Richie, Richie rift, Dick, Richie Goulding Bagweighted, Richie Goodgod
Stephen's uncle, a poor and deaf clerk.
The Citizen
supporting
Also known as the Erin, Erin, The Citizen Erin
The Citizen embodies a fierce, exclusionary nationalism, holding court in the pub with his dog Garryowen and a circle of nodding drinkers. His grievance is real, but his rage curdles into antisemitic venom when Bloom refuses to match his fervor. Their confrontation is the novel's sharpest portrait of how belonging is policed, and it forces Bloom's difference into the open.
John Wyse Nolan
minor
Also known as John Wyse Nolan, John Wyse Nolan Mr Power, John Wyse
A friend of Bloom and a regular at Kiernan's pub.
Mrs Dedalus
minor
Also known as Mrs Moll, Mary, Wilhelmina, Mrs Mary Dedalus born Goulding
Stephen's deceased mother, who appears in his memories.
Milly Bloom
minor
Also known as Milly, Milly Bloom, Millicent, Millicent) Bloom, Milly) Bloom, Silly Milly, Clan Milly
Leopold and Molly's daughter, working in Mullingar.
Rudy Bloom
minor
Also known as little Rudy, Rudy, Rudolph Bloom, Rudolph, Bloom
Leopold and Molly's infant son who died shortly after birth.
Malachi Mulligan
supporting
Also known as Malachi Mulligan, Mulligan, Malachi, Mercurial Malachi, Mr Mulligan, Mr Malachi Mulligan
Mulligan opens the novel shaving on the tower roof, intoning a mock mass and teasing Stephen with the nickname Kinch. He is brilliant, generous, and casually cruel, a friend whose wit cuts as often as it entertains, and whose easy certainties expose Stephen's raw nerves. His presence in the early chapters establishes the tone of the book: irreverent, learned, and shadowed by the guilt and grief Stephen cannot shake.
Zoe Higgins
supporting
Also known as Zoe Higgins, Zoe, Higgins, Zoe Stiffly, Zoe Gaily, Zoe The devil, Zoe Yes, Zoe - Fanny, Zoe There, Zoe Lightly, Zoe Silent, Zoe Promptly
Zoe works the parlor of Bella Cohen's establishment, where she trades barbs and caresses with equal fluency, reading clients faster than they can read themselves. She fixes on Bloom with unnerving accuracy, naming his hidden desires aloud in a voice that is part mockery, part mirror. Her presence turns the brothel from mere vice into a theater of exposed selves, making her essential to the novel's most transformative episode.
Bella Cohen
supporting
Also known as Mrs Cohen, Bella Cohen, Bella, Bella Frowns, Mrs Bella Cohen, old Cohen, old Cuck Cohen, Bella Zoe Florry Kitty Ho
Bella rules her brothel with a whistle and a glare, a massive presence who collects her fees and her dignity in the same breath. In the Circe episode she transforms into the dominatrix Bello, forcing Bloom to confront fantasies of submission, power, and shame he has never spoken. Her brothel is the novel's crucible: what happens under her roof strips Bloom to his core and prepares him to become Stephen's surrogate father.
Lynch
minor
Also known as Lynch Christ, Lynch, Christ, Mr V. Lynch, Lynch Ba, Ba
A medical student and friend of Stephen who accompanies him to the brothel.
Gerty MacDowell
supporting
Also known as Gerty, Gerty MacDowell, a MacDowell
Gerty sits on the rocks with her friends, conscious of her limp, her cheap finery, and the sailor's gaze she imagines upon her. She dreams of a dark gentleman who will love her for herself, and when Bloom watches from a distance, each becomes for the other a fantasy of escape. Her silent encounter with Bloom is the Nausicaa episode's heart: a mutual, wordless exchange of loneliness and desire that reveals Bloom's tenderness as much as his guilt.
Mrs Purefoy
minor
Also known as Poor Mrs Purefoy, Mrs Purefoy, the Poor, Mina Purefoy, Mrs Mina Purefoy, Mary
A woman in prolonged labor at the maternity hospital.
Dr Mulligan
supporting
Also known as Dr Malachi Mulligan, Dr Mulligan, Mulligan, Malachi
As Dr Malachi Mulligan, he plays the role of healer and jester, shaving atop the tower while intoning mock-Latin and needling Stephen about his Jesuit past and his dead mother. His charm is real, but so is his betrayal: he has invited Haines to stay, and he treats Stephen's grief as material for jokes. He matters because he embodies the friend Stephen cannot trust, the Irish wit that cuts rather than heals, and the rival whose shadow Stephen must escape to become himself.
Vincent Lynch
minor
Also known as Mr Vincent, Vincent, Mr Vincent O'Brien, Mr V. Lynch, Lynch
A medical student and friend of Stephen's.
Mr Deasy
minor
Also known as Mr Deasy, Mr Garrett Deasy, Garry, old Deasy, Garrett Deasy
The headmaster of the school where Stephen teaches.
John Howard Parnell
minor
Also known as Even Parnell, Parnell, John Howard Parnell, John Howard, John
Charles Stewart Parnell's brother, a minor public figure.
Mrs Breen
supporting
Also known as Mrs Breen, Mr and Mrs L. M. Bloom, Mr Bloom, Mrs Breen, old Bloom, L. Bloom, Mr L. Bloom, Mrs Breen Mr Bloom
Mrs Breen buttonholes Bloom on the street with news of her husband's lawsuit and her own faded glamour, her hat flickering in the sun as she talks. She remembers Bloom from years ago, when he and Molly were young and she was Josie Powell, and her chatter carries the weight of what might have been. Her brief scene matters because it shows Bloom's past pressing on his present, and because her warmth and gossip offer a glimpse of the ordinary social world he navigates with such careful courtesy.
Denis Breen
minor
Also known as Denny, Denis Breen, Breen
A paranoid man who is suing someone over a postcard.
John Eglinton
minor
Also known as John Eglinton, John sturdy Eglinton, John, Eglinton, John O'Gaunt
A librarian and literary figure at the National Library.
Myles Crawford
minor
Also known as Myles Crawford, Myles, Crawford, Mr Crawford
The editor of the Evening Telegraph newspaper.
M'Coy
minor
Also known as M'Coy, Mrs C. P. M'Coy
An acquaintance of Bloom, often borrowing things.
Jack Power
minor
Also known as Jack Power, Jack, Mr Power, John Power
A friend of Bloom who rides in the funeral carriage.
John Henry Menton
minor
Also known as John Henry Menton, John Henry, Menton, John, Henry, long John
A solicitor who once competed for Molly Bloom's affections.
Father Conmee
minor
Also known as the very reverend John Conmee S. J., John Conmee S. J. Father Conmee, Father Conmee, the very reverend John Conmee, Conmee, Don John Conmee, don John Conmee
A Jesuit priest who walks through Dublin on a charitable errand.
Miss Douce
minor
Also known as Miss Douce, Douce, Miss Douce of satin, Gaily Miss Douce, Douce Lydia, Lydia, Lydia Douce
A barmaid at the Ormond Hotel.
Miss Kennedy
minor
Also known as Miss Kennedy, Kennedy, Miss voice of Kennedy, Mina Kennedy, Mina, Miss Mina, Miss Mina Kennedy
A barmaid at the Ormond Hotel, colleague of Miss Douce.
Ben Dollard
minor
Also known as Ben Dollard, big Ben, Ben, old Ben, Benjamin Dollard, Ben Jumbo Dollard, Ben Dollard Nakkering
A large, bass-voiced singer and friend of Simon Dedalus.
Bob Doran
minor
Also known as Bob Doran, Doran, Bob, Bob Doran Towser
A drunken former friend of the Dedalus family.
Barney Kiernan
minor
Also known as Barney Kiernan, Barney, Bernard, Bernard Kiernan, Kiernan
The owner of the pub where the Citizen holds court.
Nosey Flynn
minor
Also known as Nosey Flynn, Flynn
A gossipy pub regular who knows everyone's business.
Davy Byrne
minor
Also known as Davy Byrne, Byrne, ben David, David, Davy, David Byrne, Mr Byrne
The owner of a popular pub where Bloom eats lunch.
Bantam Lyons
minor
Also known as Lyons, Bantam Lyons, Bantam, Bantam Lyons Prophesy who will win the Saint Leger
A small, excitable man who misinterprets Bloom's tip on a horse.
Dilly Dedalus
minor
Also known as Dilly, Dilly Dedalus, Boody Dedalus, Boody
Stephen's younger sister, struggling at home.
Mrs Riordan
minor
Also known as old Mrs Riordan, Old Mrs Riordan, Mrs Riordan, Mr Riordan
A former housekeeper for the Dedalus family, now deceased.
Kevin Egan
minor
Also known as Kevin Egan, Kevin, Patrice Egan, Patrice
An Irish revolutionary exile living in Paris, known to Stephen.
Florry
minor
Also known as Miss Florry, Florry, Florry Smirking, Florry Nods, Florry Talbot, Florry Sinking, Florry Pointing
A prostitute in Bella Cohen's brothel.
Kitty Ricketts
minor
Also known as Kitty Ricketts, Kitty, Brophy, Katherine Brophy
A prostitute in Bella Cohen's brothel.
Private Carr
minor
Also known as Private Carr, Carr, Private Carr Private Compton Cissy Caffrey, Private Carr To Cissy Caffrey, Private Carr To Cissy
A British soldier who confronts Stephen outside the brothel.
Private Compton
minor
Also known as Private Compton, Private Carr Private Compton Cissy Caffrey
A British soldier with Private Carr.
Cissy Caffrey
minor
Also known as Cissy Caffrey, Cissy, Miss Cissy, Cissy Caffrey Pulling Private Carr, Ciss, Madcap Ciss
A young woman from Sandymount who interacts with the soldiers.
Edy Boardman
minor
Also known as Edy Boardman, Edy, squinty Edy, baby Boardman
A friend of Cissy Caffrey on Sandymount strand.
Tommy Caffrey
minor
Also known as Tommy Caffrey, Tommy, little Tommy Caffrey, Tom, Peeping Tom
A young boy on Sandymount strand, brother of Jacky.
Jacky Caffrey
minor
Also known as Jacky Caffrey, Jacky, Master Jacky, Master John Fletcher
A young boy on Sandymount strand, twin of Tommy.
Dr Horne
minor
Also known as Dr Horne, Horne, Dr A. Horne, Andrew Horne
The master of the maternity hospital where Mrs Purefoy is in labor.
Punch Costello
minor
Also known as Punch Costello, Costello, Punch, Dr Punch Costello The fetor judaicus, honest Frank Costello, Francis
A drunken medical student at the maternity hospital.
Dixon
minor
Also known as Dixon, Master Dixon of Mary in Eccles, Dixon jun., Mr Dainty Dixon
A medical student and friend of Bloom's.
Alec Bannon
minor
Also known as Bannon, Alec. Bannon, Alec Bannon, Lex talionis
A medical student who is involved with Milly Bloom.
Martha Clifford
minor
Also known as Martha, Miss Martha Clifford ℅ P. O. Dolphin, Martha Clifford, Dolphin
Bloom's secret correspondent under the pseudonym Henry Flower.
Henry Flower
minor
Also known as Henry Flower, Henry, Dear Henry
Bloom's pseudonym used in his correspondence with Martha Clifford.
Mrs Clifford
minor
Also known as Martha, Miss Martha Clifford
Martha Clifford's full name; Bloom's secret correspondent.
J. J. O'Molloy
minor
Also known as J. J. O'Molloy, A Polished Period J. J. O'Molloy, So J. J., J., J. J., J. J. And Bloom
A down-on-his-luck lawyer and friend of the newspapermen.
Professor MacHugh
minor
Also known as professor MacHugh, MacHugh, Professor MacHugh, a ponderous pundit MacHugh
A classics professor who frequents the newspaper office.
Sargent
minor
Also known as Sargent, Cyril Sargent
A slow student at Mr Deasy's school.
Almidano Artifoni
minor
Also known as Almidano Artifoni, Artifoni
An Italian singing teacher who knows Stephen.
Mrs Yelverton Barry
minor
Also known as Barry, Mrs Yelverton Barry, Mrs Yelverton Barry Disgraceful, Mrs Yelverton Barry Severely
A woman who accuses Bloom in the brothel fantasy sequence.
Mrs Bellingham
minor
Also known as Mrs Bellingham In, Mrs Bellingham, Bellingham
A woman who accuses Bloom in the brothel fantasy sequence.
The Honourable Mrs Talboys
minor
Also known as The Honourable Mrs Mervyn Talboys Stamps, The Honourable Mrs Mervyn Talboys, Mrs Talboys
A woman who accuses Bloom in the brothel fantasy sequence.
Arthur Griffith
minor
Also known as Arthur Griffith, Griffith
A nationalist politician and founder of Sinn Féin.
Daniel O'Connell
minor
Also known as O'Connell, Daniel O'Connell, Danny
The Liberator, a historical figure referenced in the novel.
Charles Stewart Parnell
minor
Also known as Stewart, Parnell, Charles Stewart Parnell
The uncrowned king of Ireland, a major historical reference.
Mrs Mervyn Talboys
minor
Also known as The Honourable Mrs Mervyn Talboys, Mrs Talboys
A woman who accuses Bloom in the brothel fantasy.
Bello
minor
Also known as Bello, Mr Bello, Bello Jeers, Bello Gaily. Right, Bello Sarcastically, Bello Dungdevourer
Bella Cohen's male persona in Bloom's fantasy.
Virag
minor
Also known as Virag, Virag Lipoti, Rudolf Virag, Lipoti Virag, Virag Agueshaken, Virag Head, Virag truculent, Leopold Virag
Bloom's grandfather, who appears as a ghostly figure.
Rudolph Bloom
minor
Also known as Rudolph Bloom, Bloom, Rudolph, old Methusalem Bloom
Bloom's deceased father, who committed suicide.
Mrs Sinico
minor
Also known as Mrs Sinico, Milly, the late Mrs Emily Sinico, Mrs Emily Sinico
A woman from a story by James Joyce, referenced in the novel.
Major Tweedy
minor
Also known as Major Tweedy, Major Brian Tweedy, Brian Tweedy, old Tweedy, Tweedy, Brian Cooper Tweedy
Molly Bloom's father, a British army officer.
