What does “a man of genius makes no mistakes” mean in Ulysses?
“A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” Stephen says it in the National Library in Episode 9, defending his theory of Shakespeare: a great artist's apparent errors are chosen, and lead to new truths.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Episode 9, Scylla and Charybdis. Stephen, in the National Library, answering John Eglinton's claim that Shakespeare's marriage was a mistake.
A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
What it means in plain English
Eglinton suggests Shakespeare made a mistake marrying Anne Hathaway and got out as soon as he could. Stephen snaps “Bosh!” and replies that genius does not make mistakes: the choices that look like errors are willed, and open doors.
“Volitional” means done by choice. A portal is a doorway. Then Joyce makes a joke of it: the “portals of discovery” open, and in walks the Quaker librarian.
Literary context
The whole episode is Stephen's argument that Shakespeare wrote his life into Hamlet. He admits at the end that he does not believe his own theory.
References
- Ulysses, Episode 9, “Scylla and Charybdis”
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
Who says “a man of genius makes no mistakes”?
Stephen Dedalus, in the National Library, Dublin, at about 2 pm.
Is it “errors” or “mistakes”?
The 1922 first edition has “errors”; the corrected edition used on this site has “mistakes”. Both versions are widely quoted.
Related terms
Stephen's Hamlet theory
Stephen's Hamlet theory is his argument, set out in the National Library in Episode 9, that Shakespeare is not Hamlet but the ghost of Hamlet's father, a man betrayed by his wife. Mulligan sums it up mockingly in Episode 1: Stephen proves by algebra that Hamlet's grandson is Shakespeare's grandfather.
Stephen Dedalus
The young writer who opens the novel — brilliant, grieving, and adrift. Joyce's Telemachus, the searching son.
The Gabler edition
The Gabler edition, “Ulysses: The Corrected Text” (1984), was edited by Hans Walter Gabler, who rebuilt the text from Joyce's manuscripts and proofs and made about 5,000 corrections. The most famous restores a line about love in Episode 9.