Return To The Sea On The Night Analysis

In this episode Leopold makes misjudgment regarding the beauty of a girl named Gerty that he sees on the beach, making divine beauty out of her character. Here we have Leopold, as modern Ulysses, who got hit by her ball, just like the original Ulysses was washed ashore on the land of Phaeacians got hit by a ball that Princess Nausicaa lost during a game. (BLAMIRE:40) Gerty as modern Nusicaa sees Leopold, modern Ulysses, as a dark exciting stranger whom she found on the beach. Both of them, Leopold and Ulysses, were shipwrecked on the beach in need of spiritual and physical comfort. This is shown through Gerty`s attempt to save him from his pain and sympathetic desire to offer him love. Return to the rocks on the beach side is a parallel between Stephen and Leopold indicating that both are lonely characters. Inside of mythology, this Ulysses` adventure takes part after the Trojan War which was caused by the beauty of Helena. Joyce takes Homeric goddesses and heroes and gives them all too human dimensions, making a satire out of human´s selfish reasons of

He might an ordinary man, but his thoughts and action during the day made him a hero, if not in epic sense, then at least for that day in history. He tries to see good in everyone and is ready to forgive any kind of an insult. He offers guidance to Stephen because he sees mutual benefactions that might be born from their future intellectual conversations. His act of heroism can be found in his attempts to make the world a better place. Upon his arrival home, Ulysses and his son Telemachus killed all the young men that were courting Penelope. Upon Leopold`s arrival home, although he considers divorce and thinks about its consequence to his life in the future, he decides to forgive his unfaithful wife in order to keep the comfort of married life. Stephen is still doomed to wander, but now he can do it freely without the ghost of his dead mother following