What is Là ci darem la mano in Ulysses?
“Là ci darem la mano” (“There we will give each other our hands”) is the seduction duet from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. Molly is to sing it on tour. Bloom hums it all day and worries about the line “voglio e non vorrei”, “I want to and I wouldn't like to”.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Several episodes. Bloom, humming on his way along Westland Row.
He hummed: Là ci darem la mano La la lala la la.
What it means in plain English
In the opera, Don Giovanni tries to seduce Zerlina on her wedding day. The parallel with Boylan and Molly is clear to Bloom.
He misremembers the words, wondering whether she sings “voglio” right.
Literary context
Molly first mentions it at breakfast: she is singing it with J. C. Doyle.
References
- Ulysses, Episodes 4, 5 and 15
- Mozart and Da Ponte, Don Giovanni (1787)
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
Who sings with Molly?
J. C. Doyle, a real Dublin baritone.
Related terms
Love's Old Sweet Song
“Love's Old Sweet Song” is a popular Victorian ballad by J. L. Molloy that Molly is to sing on her concert tour, organised by Boylan. She mentions it at breakfast in Episode 4, and its phrases echo through Bloom's day, especially in Sirens.
Blazes Boylan
Hugh “Blazes” Boylan is a flashy Dublin concert manager who is organising Molly Bloom's singing tour, and who becomes her lover at 4 pm on 16 June 1904. Bloom knows the meeting is coming and spends the day trying not to think about it.
Molly Bloom
Leopold's wife, a singer, whose long unpunctuated monologue closes the book on the word 'yes.' Joyce's Penelope.