The Cabman's Shelter

After the chaotic dissonance of the climactic "Circe" chapter, Joyce begins the third section of the book ("The Homecoming") with "Eumaeus." As if to call attention to exhaustion on the part of the two main characters (and, perhaps, on the part of the reader by this point!), Joyce writes the chapter in a boring, tired, cliche-ridden style. Eumeaus was Odysseus's faithful swineherd friend, the first person approached by Odysseus (in disguise) upon his long-awaited homecoming to Ithaca. The chapter is full of red herrings and frustrated identifications. Here we meet a seafaring wanderer (Murphy) whose tales of adventure seem to make him a Ulyssean character … but this proves to be a falsehood, as Bloom, despite his obvious external differences, is actually more akin to Ulysses in his moderation and intelligence. The long-awaited meeting between Bloom and Stephen proves somewhat anticlimactic, taking place amid a series of deceptions, falsehoods, and miscommunications. Despite our expectations, Joyce here frustrates the reader, refusing to give us an overly dramatic or emotional scene. Finally, the chapter calls into question Truth and Fiction – Bloom reads a “factual” newspaper account of Dignam’s funeral, which, despite it pretenses to accuracy, does not come close to portraying exactly what occurred. (Paradoxically, Joyce’s novel Ulysses, like other great works of fiction, comes closer to portraying Truth than do most works/forms that claim to do so.)