What happens in Telemachus?
The day begins with Buck Mulligan on the tower's rooftop, parodying the Catholic Mass as he shaves. He and Stephen trade jokes and jabs; Mulligan needles Stephen about his refusal to pray at his dying mother's bedside, a wound that won't close. Downstairs they breakfast with Haines, an Englishman whose casual condescension Stephen quietly resents. An old milkwoman arrives — a homely figure Stephen reads as Ireland itself. Walking out toward his teaching job, Stephen hands Mulligan the key to the tower and decides he will not come back.
Why is this the opening of Ulysses?
Homer's Odyssey doesn't begin with its hero but with his son, Telemachus, searching for a missing father. Joyce mirrors that structure: we meet Stephen Dedalus, the searching son, before we ever meet Bloom. The opening plants the father-and-son pattern that the whole novel will quietly resolve. See how it fits the larger design in the Homeric parallels.
What should readers notice here?
Watch the imagery of usurpation — Mulligan, Haines, and the very tower all feel borrowed from Stephen. Notice the sea ("snotgreen, scrotumtightening"), which returns throughout the book, and the recurring guilt over his mother. Even in this relatively plain chapter, Stephen's interior monologue threads beneath the dialogue.
Why can Telemachus feel easier than later episodes?
The scene is concrete, the cast is small, and there's plenty of sharp, funny dialogue to hold onto. Joyce hasn't yet unleashed the stylistic experiments of the middle and later chapters, so Telemachus is an ideal place to find your footing. When you're ready for the harder turn, the Proteus summary prepares you for Episode 3.
Related reading
Common questions
- What happens in Telemachus, the first episode of Ulysses?
- Telemachus opens at 8 a.m. on 16 June 1904 at the Martello tower in Sandycove, where Stephen Dedalus lives with the boisterous Buck Mulligan and the Englishman Haines. Over breakfast and shaving, tension simmers between Stephen and Mulligan, and Stephen, still grieving his mother, decides he will not return to the tower that night.
- Why is Telemachus the opening of Ulysses?
- It mirrors the start of Homer's Odyssey, which begins not with Odysseus but with his son Telemachus. Joyce opens with Stephen, the searching son, before introducing Bloom — establishing the father-and-son pattern that shapes the whole novel.
- Is Telemachus easy or hard to read?
- Telemachus is one of the more approachable episodes. The scene is concrete and the dialogue is lively, though Stephen's interior monologue already runs beneath it. It's a good place to find your footing before the denser chapters.
- Who is Buck Mulligan?
- Buck Mulligan is Stephen's witty, irreverent flatmate, a medical student who mocks everything sacred. His blasphemous opening — 'Introibo ad altare Dei' — sets the book's playful, profane tone and his easy cruelty sharpens Stephen's isolation.