Who is Bella Cohen in Ulysses?
Bella Cohen is the madam of the brothel at 82 Tyrone Street where Circe reaches its climax. In Bloom's hallucination she changes into Bello, a man who humiliates him. She is Joyce's Circe, the enchantress who turns men into swine.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Episode 15, Circe. The stage directions of Circe, as she enters the music room.
Bella Cohen, a massive whoremistress, enters.
What it means in plain English
Bloom's fantasies of punishment come to life: Bello sits on him, mocks his manhood and sells him at auction. Then Bloom recovers himself, and stands up to her.
Back in reality she demands ten shillings for the lamp Stephen breaks.
Literary context
A real Bella Cohen ran a brothel at 82 Tyrone Street in 1904.
References
- Ulysses, Episodes 15 and 17
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
Was Bella Cohen real?
Yes, there was a brothel-keeper of that name at that address.
Related terms
Nighttown
Dublin's red-light district and the setting of 'Circe' (Episode 15), where the day's repressed thoughts erupt into hallucination.
Monto
Monto was Dublin's red-light district around Montgomery Street, north of the Liffey, one of the largest in Europe around 1904. Joyce calls it Nighttown, and Episode 15, “Circe”, is set there at midnight.
Nothung
Nothung is the magic sword in Wagner's opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. Stephen cries “Nothung!” in Circe as he raises his ashplant, like a sword, and smashes the brothel's chandelier to drive away his mother's ghost.