Ulysses: Notes on "Hades"

Bloom in action: skeptic, observer, calculator, debunker; keeps
his own counsel. 

THEMES: alienation, difference, separation, sympathy

HOMERIC PARALLEL:

     Odysseus voyages to the underworld to learn his own fate and
     that of his men; he is sent there by Circe. He meets with
     the ghost of Tiresias. 

     DIFFERENCES: Order of narration different. High/Low 
     contrast. Hades was full of heroic spirits, while Glasnevin
     Cemetery is full of corpses, maggots, dust, rats, and bad
     gas. Bloom's perceptions emphasize the differences. Close
     brush with Stephen, but no information gained. 


BLOOM AS CHARACTER & thematic nexus:

     Bloom's alienation, his outsider status: a Jew, a sober man,
     unromantic, modern in every way. Cf. crazy Ireland, trapped
     in history and tradition. 

          MODERN vs. HISTORIC: Mixed values or a hierarchy
               intended?
     
     Bloom as outsider: 72, 78, 78-79, 79-80, 85-86

     Bloom's anti-sentimentalism, clear headedness: 73-74, 87

     Bloom the devious: 94-95