What is the first line of Ulysses?
The first line of Ulysses is "Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed." It opens the novel at the Martello tower in Sandycove on the morning of 16 June 1904, with Mulligan mock-celebrating Mass using his shaving bowl.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Episode 1, Telemachus. The narrator, describing Buck Mulligan on the roof of the Martello tower at about 8 am.
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
What it means in plain English
The sentence shows us Buck Mulligan, a medical student, climbing onto the roof of the tower he rents with Stephen Dedalus. He is about to shave. But he carries the bowl the way a priest carries the chalice at Mass, and a moment later he intones "Introibo ad altare Dei", the Latin words that opened the Mass: "I will go up to the altar of God."
The crossed mirror and razor matter too. Crossed objects suggest a cross, so the shaving kit becomes a little altar. Mulligan is making fun of the Catholic Church, and the joke is aimed at Stephen, who has lost his faith but cannot shake it off.
Notice the rhythm. "Stately, plump" puts two adjectives before the name, which is a slightly grand, old-fashioned way to start. Joyce begins his difficult modern novel with a perfectly clear sentence, but one that is already playing a game.
Literary context
The opening sets up the book's habit of mixing the sacred and the everyday. A shaving bowl becomes a chalice; later, a man's ordinary day in Dublin becomes an epic like the Odyssey.
It also introduces the first conflict. Mulligan is loud, confident and mocking. Stephen is silent and wounded. Their uneasy friendship drives the first episode.
References
- Ulysses, Episode 1, "Telemachus"
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
Continue in the Reading Room
Questions readers ask
Who says the first line of Ulysses?
Nobody says it. It is the narrator's description of Buck Mulligan. The first words actually spoken are Mulligan's "Introibo ad altare Dei."
Why is the first line of Ulysses famous?
It is one of the best-known openings in modern fiction: clear, rhythmic and quietly comic, it turns a shaving bowl into a chalice and sets the tone for the whole book.
Where does the first line of Ulysses take place?
On the roof of the Martello tower at Sandycove, just south of Dublin, early on the morning of 16 June 1904.
Related terms
The last line of Ulysses
The last words of Ulysses are "and yes I said yes I will Yes." They end Molly Bloom's long, unpunctuated monologue in the final episode, "Penelope", as she remembers the day Leopold Bloom proposed to her on Howth Head and she agreed to marry him.
Agenbite of inwit
"Agenbite of inwit" is Middle English for "remorse of conscience" (literally the "again-bite" of the "inner wit"). It comes from the title of a 14th-century religious book. In Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus repeats it to himself because he feels guilty for refusing to pray at his dying mother's bedside.
Buck Mulligan
Stephen's witty, blasphemous flatmate, a medical student. He opens the novel parodying the Catholic Mass at the tower.
Martello tower
The squat coastal defence tower at Sandycove where Stephen lodges in Episode 1. A real building, now a Joyce museum.