The Role of Solitude in James Joyce's UlyssesHave you ever had one of those days when the world seems cold and uncaring? Where the people around you are distant and indifferent? Ulysses is about one such day, and two people stuck there, desperate for a way out. Solitude runs like a common thread through Ulysses, the novel by James Joyce. It constantly tugs at the characters' minds and directs their lives in subtle ways. Joyce drives the point home by giving a dull and gray description of the character's life. Ulysses takes place in 1904, Dublin, Ireland. Joyce's book was first published in 1922. The plot of Ulysses is quite simple. The novel recreates the days of two Irishmen, Leopold Bloom, the main character, and Stephen Dedalus, the son of Bloom's good friend Simon Dedalus. The story begins with both characters waking up and follows their lives throughout a single day. Stephen is a school teacher and Léopold works as an advertising solicitor for local newspapers. For Stephen, it's only a partial school day, so after receiving his paycheck, he goes to visit a close relative and then take a walk on the beach. Meanwhile, Leopold woke up and prepared breakfast for himself and his wife. After going to the butcher and the post office, he goes to the funeral of an old friend, Paddy Dignam. After the funeral, he goes about his business in town and meets Stephen twice. Eventually, while Bloom is visiting a friend in the hospital, he sees Stephen, extremely drunk, with a group of medical students. They all go to a pub. At the pub they all get bombed and Bloom takes Stephen on a drunken rampage through the town. When Bloom realizes the state Stephen is in, he takes him home and offers to let Ste... middle of paper ... the death of Stephen's mother still fills his mind - during his drunken madness, Stephen actually thinks his mother has come back to haunt him. Bloom, on the other hand, after unconsciously wandering around Dublin since his son's death, found someone to help him and be a father figure to them. Although Bloom's act of kindness is rejected by Stephen, Bloom took the first step out of the dark grip of loneliness by trying to help another. Ulysses by James Joyce is a story about the dull lives of two miserable Irish people. The setting described in this book is dark. Both characters are absorbed in their own loneliness and lack the perspective to see beyond it. Although Ulysses may seem long and extremely confusing, Joyce creates an in-depth description of this human condition. Works Cited Joyce, James. Ulysses. New York: Random House, 1961.