Who are Martha Clifford and Henry Flower in Ulysses?
Martha Clifford is a woman Bloom writes to in secret under the false name Henry Flower. He collects her letter at the post office in Episode 5. Their flirtation is all on paper; they have never met. The letter includes a pressed flower and a famous mistake.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Several episodes. Martha's letter to “Henry”, which Bloom reads behind a railway arch.
I called you naughty boy because I do not like that other world.
What it means in plain English
Martha meant to write “that other word”. The slip, “world”, haunts Bloom all day and returns in Sirens and Nausicaa.
Bloom answers her letter in the Ormond bar in Episode 11, hiding it from Richie Goulding.
Literary context
The pen name Henry Flower links to the Bloom family's original Hungarian name, Virag, which also means flower.
References
- Ulysses, Episodes 5, 11, 13 and 15
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
Does Bloom ever meet Martha?
No. Their relationship exists only in letters.
Why the name Henry Flower?
Bloom is a flower name, and his father's original surname, Virag, is Hungarian for flower.
Related terms
Leopold Bloom
The central character: a kind, curious advertising canvasser whose wanderings give the novel its shape. Joyce's modern Odysseus.
I AM A
Bloom writes “I. AM. A.” with his stick in the sand of Sandymount Strand at the end of Episode 13, then stops: there is no room. The unfinished message to Gerty MacDowell has never been completed, and readers have offered many endings for it.
Sweny's pharmacy and the lemon soap
Bloom calls at Sweny's chemist on Lincoln Place in Episode 5 to order a face lotion for Molly, and buys a bar of lemon soap. He carries it in his pocket all day. In Circe the soap rises like a sun and sings. Sweny's is still open, run by volunteers.