# Zoe Higgins — Ulysses character guide

> Zoe Higgins in Ulysses by James Joyce.

**Role:** 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

**First appearance:** 0015-xiv

## Snapshot

A sharp-tongued prostitute in Bella Cohen's brothel who sizes up Bloom's secret longings and speaks the unspeakable in Nighttown's hallucinatory haze.

## Who they are

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.

## Relationships

### [Stephen Dedalus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se/characters/stephen_dedalus)

_social_

Stephen encounters Zoe, a prostitute, in Nighttown; their interaction is fleeting and transactional within the brothel setting.

### [Leopold Bloom](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se/characters/leopold_bloom)

_social_

Bloom interacts with Zoe in the brothel, where she teases and engages him in a flirtatious but impersonal manner.

### [Vincent Lynch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se/characters/vincent_lynch)

_social_

Vincent Lynch is a medical student who interacts with Zoe in the brothel, engaging in casual flirtation.

### [Leopold Bloom](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se/characters/leopold_bloom)

_social_

Bloom interacts with Zoe in the brothel, where she teases and engages him in a flirtatious but impersonal manner.

### [Stephen Dedalus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se/characters/stephen_dedalus)

_social_

Stephen encounters Zoe, a prostitute, in Nighttown; their interaction is fleeting and transactional within the brothel setting.

### [Vincent Lynch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se/characters/vincent_lynch)

_social_

Vincent Lynch is a medical student who interacts with Zoe in the brothel, engaging in casual flirtation.

### [Stephen Dedalus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se/characters/stephen_dedalus)

_social_

Stephen encounters Zoe, a prostitute, in Nighttown; their interaction is fleeting and transactional within the brothel setting.

## In the story

### [XV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ulysses_se/chapters/xv)

Zoe interacts with Bloom in the brothel, teasing him and asking for a cigarette.

## Links

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