This schema for the novel Ulysses was produced by Joyce in 1920 to help a friend (Carlo Linati) understand the fundamental structure of the book. The schema has been split into two subtables for better ease of reading.
| Title | Time | Colour | People | Science / Art | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Telemachus | 8am - 9am | Gold / white |
|
Theology | Dispossessed son in contest |
| Nestor | 9am - 10am | Brown |
|
History | The wisdom of the ancients |
| Proteus | 10am - 11am | Blue |
|
Philology | Primal matter |
| Calypso | 8am - 9am | Orange |
|
Mythology | The departing wayfarer |
| Lotus Eaters | 9am - 10am | Dark brown |
|
Chemistry | The temptation of faith |
| Hades | 11am - 12pm | Black-white |
|
- | The descent into nothingness |
| Aeolus | 12pm - 1pm | Red |
|
Rhetoric | The derision of victory |
| Lestrygonians | 1pm - 2pm | Blood red |
|
Architecture | Despondency |
| Scylla and Charybdis | 2pm - 3pm | - |
|
Literature | The double-edge sword |
| Wandering Rocks | 3pm - 4pm | Rainbow |
|
Mechanics | The hostile milieu |
| Sirens | 4pm - 5pm | Coral |
|
Music | The sweet deceit |
| Cyclops | 5pm - 6pm | Green |
|
Surgery | Egocidal terror |
| Nausicaa | 8pm - 9pm | Grey |
|
Painting | The projected mirage |
| Oxen of the Sun | 10pm - 11pm | White |
|
Physics | The eternal herds |
| Circe | 11pm - 12am | Violet |
|
Dance | The man-hating ogress |
| Eumaeus | 12am - 1am | - |
|
- | The ambush on home ground |
| Ithaca | 1am - 2am | - |
|
- | Armed hope |
| Penelope | - |
|
- | The past sleeps |
| Title | Technic | Organ | Symbols |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telemachus |
Dialogue for three and four, narration, soliloquy |
- | Hamlet, Ireland, Stephen |
| Nestor |
Dialogue for 2, narration, soliloquy |
- | Ulster, woman, practical sense |
| Proteus |
Soliloquy |
- | World, tide, Moon, evolution, metamorphosis |
| Calypso |
Dialogue for 2, soliloquy |
Kidneys | Vagina, exile, nymph, Israel in captivity |
| Lotus Eaters |
Dialogue, prayer, soliloquy |
Skin | Host, penis in the bath, froth, flower, drugs, castration, oats |
| Hades |
Dialogue, narration |
Heart | Cemetery, sacred heart, the past, the unknown man, the unconscious, heart defect, relics, heartbreak |
| Aeolus |
Simbouleutike, dikanike, epideictic, tropes |
Lungs | Machines, wind, fame, kite, failed destinies, the press, mutability |
| Lestrygonians |
Peristaltic prose |
Oesophagus |
Bloody sacrifice, food, shame |
| Scylla and Charybdis |
Whirlpools |
Brain |
Hamlet, Shakespeare, Christ, Socrates, London, Stratford, scholasticism, mysticism, Plato, Aristotle, youth, maturity |
| Wandering Rocks |
Shifting labyrinth between two shores |
Blood |
Caesar, Christ, errors, homonyms, synchronisms, resemblances |
| Sirens |
Fuga per canonem |
Ear |
Promises, female, sounds, embellishments |
| Cyclops | Alternating asymmetry | Muscles, bones |
Nation, state, religion, dynasty, idealism, exaggeration, fanaticism, collectivity |
| Nausicaa | Retrogressive progression | Eye, nose |
Onanism, feminine, hypocrisy |
| Oxen of the Sun |
Prose, embryo, foetus, birth |
Matrix, uterus |
Fertilisation, frauds, parthenogenesis |
| Circe |
Exploding vision |
Locomotor apparatus, skeleton |
Zoology, personification, pantheism, magic, poison, antidote, reel |
| Eumaeus | Relaxed prose | Nerves | - |
| Ithaca |
Dialogue, pacified style, fusion |
Juices | - |
| Penelope |
Monologue, resigned style |
Fat | - |
Famous quotes containing the word ulysses:
“At bottom there is in Joyce a profound hatred for humanity—the scholar’s hatred. One realizes that he has the neurotic’s fear of entering the living world, the world of men and women in which he is powerless to function. He is in revolt not against institutions, but against mankind.... Ulysses is like a vomit spilled by a delicate child whose stomach has been overloaded with sweetmeats.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)