# Dr Mulligan — Ulysses character guide

> Dr Mulligan in Ulysses by James Joyce.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Dr Malachi Mulligan, Dr Mulligan, Mulligan, Malachi

**First appearance:** 0014-xiii

## Snapshot

Buck Mulligan's medical persona, the mocking, brilliant companion whose blasphemous wit and casual cruelty frame Stephen's morning and shadow his day.

## Who they are

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.

## In the story

### [Oxen of the Sun](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se/chapters/xiv)

Whispers to Lenehan to preserve a druid silence, pointing to the stranger and the scarlet label.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se/characters/mulligan_dr
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se/characters