Linati schema for Ulysses

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This schema, or explanatory outline, for the novel Ulysses was produced by its author, James Joyce, in 1920 in order to help a friend (Carlo Linati) understand the fundamental structure of the book.[1] The schema has been split into two tables for better ease of reading.

Title Time Colour People Science / Art Meaning
Telemachus 8 — 9 a.m. Gold / white Theology Dispossessed son in contest
Nestor 9 — 10 a.m. Brown History The wisdom of the ancients
Proteus 10 — 11 a.m. Green[a] Philology Primal matter
Calypso 8 — 9 a.m. Orange Mythology The departing wayfarer
Lotus Eaters 9 — 10 a.m. Dark brown Chemistry The temptation of faith
Hades 11 a.m. — 12 noon Black-white - The descent into nothingness
Aeolus 12 noon — 1 p.m. Red Rhetoric The derision of victory
Lestrygonians 1 — 2 p.m. Blood red Architecture Despondency
Scylla and Charybdis 2 — 3 p.m. - Literature The double-edge sword
Wandering Rocks 3 — 4 p.m. Rainbow Mechanics The hostile milieu
Sirens 4 — 5 p.m. Coral Music The sweet deceit
Cyclops 5 — 6 p.m. Green Surgery Egocidal terror
Nausicaa 8 — 9 p.m. Grey Painting The projected mirage
Oxen of the Sun 10pm - 11pm White Physics The eternal herds
Circe 11 p.m. — 12 midnight Violet
  • Circe
  • The Swine
  • Telemachus
  • Ulysses
  • Hermes
Dance The man-hating ogress
Eumaeus 12 midnight — 1 a.m. - - The ambush on home ground
Ithaca 1 — 2 a.m. - - Armed hope
Penelope - - The past sleeps
Title Technic Organ Symbols
Telemachus Dialogue for three and four,

narration, soliloquy

- Hamlet, Ireland, Stephen
Nestor Dialogue for 2,

narration, soliloquy

- Ulster, woman, practical sense
Proteus Soliloquy - World, tide, Moon, evolution, metamorphosis
Calypso Dialogue for 2,

soliloquy

Kidneys Vagina, exile, nymph, Israel in captivity
Lotus Eaters Dialogue, prayer, soliloquy Skin Host, penis in the bath, froth, flower, drugs, castration, oats
Hades Dialogue, narration Heart Cemetery, sacred heart, the past, the unknown man, the unconscious, heart defect, relics, heartbreak
Aeolus Simbouleutike, dikanike, epideictic, tropes Lungs Machines, wind, fame, kite, failed destinies, the press, mutability
Lestrygonians Peristaltic prose Oesophagus Bloody sacrifice,

food, shame

Scylla and Charybdis Whirlpools Brain Hamlet,

Shakespeare, Christ, Socrates, London, Stratford, scholasticism, mysticism, Plato, Aristotle, youth, maturity

Wandering Rocks Shifting labyrinth between two shores Blood Caesar,

Christ, errors, homonyms, synchronisms, resemblances

Sirens Fuga per canonem[b] Ear Promises,

female, sounds, embellishments

Cyclops Alternating asymmetry Muscles, bones Nation,

state, religion, dynasty, idealism, exaggeration, fanaticism, collectivity

Nausicaa Retrogressive progression Eye, nose Onanism,

feminine, hypocrisy

Oxen of the Sun Prose, embryo, foetus, birth Matrix, uterus Fertilisation,

frauds, parthenogenesis

Circe Exploding vision Locomotor apparatus, skeleton Zoology,

personification, pantheism, magic, poison, antidote, reel

Eumaeus Relaxed prose Nerves -
Ithaca Dialogue, pacified style, fusion Juices -
Penelope Monologue, resigned style Fat -

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Blue per Linati.[2] Corrected to green per Don Gifford.[3]
  2. ^ Fuga per canonem: Latin for "fugue according to rule", a musical term for a round.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Ellmann, Richard, Ulysses on the Liffey, Oxford University Press, 1986, ISBN 978-0-19-501663-5, pp. 186-190.
  2. ^ Ellman, p. 188.
  3. ^ Gifford, Don, with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses, Second Edition, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 978-0-520-06745-5, p. 44.

External links[edit]