The Key to Proteus and Ulysses : The Navalcord

By Aidan O’Leary · 30 September 2026 · 5 min read

Episodes one and two of Ulysses, whilst not exactly straightforward, lull the reader into a false sense of security. In episode three ‘Proteus” the reader is thrown (much like the corpse in episode one) in at the deep end. It is the first sink or swim moment for every novice reader and let’s be honest, more sink than swim.

However, on the second page of the third episode, Joyce provides the reader with the key to reading and understanding the novel. Much like the rest of the book the key is not readily obvious at first glance.

“The cords of all link back, strandentwining cable of all flesh. That is why mystic monks. Will you be as gods? Gaze in your omphalos. Hello. Kinch here. Put me on to Edenville. Aleph, alpha: nought, nought, one.”

Here Stephen imagines a physical link through time connecting all humans (female at least) back to Eve in the Garden of Eden. He humorously contemplates the idea of being able to talk to Eve via a telephone line created by the links of intertwined umbilical cords. These act as a physical connection from the present to the past.

However, there is a second less obvious reading of this passage which the reader can use as a guide to help them deal with this Protean episode. There is a conceptual connection between the present and the past, a ‘naval cord of thought’ formed by linked ideas and perceptions.

The very first interior monologue in the book is “Chrysostomos”. A thought which pops into Stephen’s mind (and is shared with the reader) upon the sight of Buck Mulligan’s gold crowned teeth. This is the first link between perception and thought and is going to be the domino effect that permeates the rest of the book.

None of Stephen’s or Bloom's thoughts comes without an augury of sorts. A cause to each effect. Sensory perceptions lead to thoughts which lead to thoughts which lead to thoughts. Ulysses is a navel cord of thoughts from beginning to end.

The first thing to remember with episode three is that it is almost entirely in Stephen’s mind. There is no dialogue, no third party narration, just a stream of consciousness. We are inside the unfiltered mind of the character. Replete with interruptions, distractions and truncated thoughts. This is a fundamental concept when trying to come to terms with Proteus.

Most readers assume (if they manage to decipher it!) that the text is just a random list of vignettes in Stephen’s mind from Plato to Aristotle, to midwives, to Paris, to imaginary trips to his uncle’s house and so on. But they are not random at all. Upon closer inspection they are sequential at least in the mind of Stephen and denote the struggle between Aristotle’s empiricism and Plato’s rationalism.

Each of the sections in Ulysses Companion’s Proteus “Reading Room Archive” deals with the moments that are catalysts of thought for Stephen. The causal links that form the thoughts that form the episode. Each vignette is an initial thought derived from the “ineluctability modality of the visual” and each subsequent vignette is caused by one of his senses.

Ulysses the novel is subjective and open to many interpretations. These are just my personal observations as I have read and reread Ulysses over the years. This resource is designed purely to help the reader come to terms with one of the most notorious chapters in all literature.

These “links” can be grouped as follows :

Stephen contemplates empiricism, that all knowledge and reality is derived from the senses.
Stephen decides to test this hypothesis by walking with his eyes closed.
Upon opening his eyes he sees two women descend the steps to Sandymount strand.
Imagining them as midwives he contemplates his own conception and existence
The weather changes arresting his daydream and his thoughts return to the present
He thinks about going to his uncle’s house in Sandymount and meeting Mulligan in The Ship
The derelict houses of Ringsend remind him of the end of times and Jesuit teaching.
This brings him back to memories of Clongowes Wood College
He has gone past his uncle’s house and realises by the sight of The Pigeon House
This reminds him of Leo Taxil’s blasphemous satire in which Mary was made pregnant by a pigeon that he was introduced to in Paris.
His thoughts turn to Paris and less fortunate times with Kevin Egan
The telegram of his mothers death shifts his thoughts to back to her
This reminds him of Buck Mulligan’s assertion “the aunt thinks you killed your mother”
The sun’s reflection on the houses brings him back to daybreak on Parisien streets
Kevin Egan’s cigarette reminds him of the Clerkenwell explosion and Irish revolutionaries over time
Egan’s exile in Paris reminds him of all people exiled and Psalm 137 (by the rivers of Babylon)
The sea lapping his feet causes him to look backwards. There is a Martello tower on Sandymount strand which switches his memory back to earlier in the Sandycove tower. He remembers he has no key and he is now in exile.
His reverie causes him to walk far out and he sits to contemplate how to get back into town.
He sees a dead dog's carcass followed by the sight of another dog running towards him.
This strikes fear into him as he is afraid of dogs but notices the dog is with two people whom he imagines are Egyptians but turn out to be cocklepickers
He imagines Vikings landing on the beach and remembers the year whales were washed up there
His fear of the dog reminds him of his own cowardice and his physical fragility compared to Mulligan
He imagines the Protean nature of the dog as to him it turns into a hare, a buck, a wolf,a bear and a leopard. The dog starts to dig and he thinks of digging up the dead much like he metaphorically keeps digging up the memory of his mother.
Stephen partially remembers a middle eastern dream introducing one of the novels many famous neologisms “almosting”
Stephen thinks of a love poem but has nothing to write it on then thinks of Deasy’s letter and tears a bit off
The love poem gets him thinking of women which ultimately brings him back to his mother
Stephen considers his body, the beach and the sea.
Which brings him back to the drowned man in Episode one.
He then decides to make his way into town but leaves one of his own ‘creations” behind
The chapter ends with the sight of a ship and the augury of a new character’s arrival.

New to the book? Start with the Beginner's guide, or read along day by day with the Daily Companion.