Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Telemachus/006
Annotations
[edit | edit source]006.12 bowsy Gurrier, lout; an uncouth or aggressive young man.[1]
006.23 g. p. i. General Paresis of the Insane is a kind of paralytic dementia which affects the brain and nervous system, resulting in seizures and other muscular reflex abnormalities. At the time, doctors did not know that GPI was caused by syphilitic infection.[2] Here, Buck Mulligan refers to GPI as Genera Paralysis of the Insane, when it is not "Paralysis," but "Paresis." Despite his medical background (014.18, 19), he is still ignorant of this fact.
006.31 dogsbody someone who does drudge work.[3]
006.34 Ursula In Christian legend Saint Ursula was massacred along with 11,000 virginal handmaidens in (probably) the 4th century AD. Mulligan's reference stresses the supposed commitment to virginity of his aunt's servant.
006.36 Caliban . . . mirror Caliban is, most famously, a monstrous character in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. However, the reference to the mirror is from another work: Oscar Wilde's preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray. In it, Wilde says that "The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is that of Caliban seeing his own face in the glass. The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is that of Caliban not seeing his own face in the glass." [4] As Mulligan pulls the mirror away from Daedalus' face, he says "If only Wilde could see you now," as if to suggest that Daedalus has somehow opposed Wilde's aphorism.