# Malachi Mulligan — Ulysses character guide

> Malachi Mulligan in Ulysses by James Joyce.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Malachi Mulligan, Mulligan, Malachi, Mercurial Malachi, Mr Mulligan, Mr Malachi Mulligan

**First appearance:** 0000-i

## Snapshot

Buck Mulligan: a plump, blaspheming medical student whose mockery of Stephen's faith and guilt makes him both irresistible and unbearable.

## Who they are

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.

## Links

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