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John Henry Menton
The buffoonish medical student Buck Mulligan is Stephen Dedalus’s roommate in the Martello tower and quite possibly his only friend. Buck takes advantage of Stephen by living in the tower rent-free and spending Stephen’s money on beer, but he also shares his own clothes with Stephen. Although Buck is intelligent and extremely well-read, just like Stephen, his cynical and often obscene sense of humor contrasts strongly with Stephen’s completely serious attitude towards his life and art. As a result, Buck repeatedly undercuts Stephen’s goals and ambitions through satire. For instance, in the novel’s opening scene, Buck both mocks the Catholic mass and ridicules Stephen’s fear that he failed his dying mother by refusing to pray for her. Later, in “Scylla and Charybdis,” he responds to Stephen’s complex theory about Shakespeare by scribbling a short comic play about masturbation on a piece of scrap paper. He calls Stephen nicknames like “Kinch” (the sound of a cutting knife, meaning that he’s sharp) and “the bard,” but it’s never clear if he sincerely believes in his friend’s brilliance or is just mocking his pretentious belief in his own genius. For instance, Buck and Haines frequently make fun of Stephen in private. In fact, Buck’s shameless vanity, narcissism, and opportunism haunt Stephen because they remind him that he is also guilty of all the same personality flaws. Adults like Leopold Bloom and Simon Dedalus clearly see how Buck takes advantage of Stephen, and Stephen labels Buck a “usurper” at the end of the first episode, when he decides not to return home to the Martello tower. Buck Mulligan’s character is based on James Joyce’s real-life friend Oliver St. John Gogarty.
Malachi (“Buck”) Mulligan Quotes in Ulysses
The Ulysses quotes below are all either spoken by Malachi (“Buck”) Mulligan or refer to Malachi (“Buck”) Mulligan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Episode 1: Telemachus
Quotes
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him on the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:
—Introibo ad altare Dei.
Halted, he peered down the dark winding stairs and called out coarsely:
—Come up, Kinch! Come up, you fearful jesuit!
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In a dream, silently, she had come to him, her wasted body within its loose graveclothes giving off an odour of wax and rosewood, her breath, bent over him with mute secret words, faint odour of wetted ashes.
Her glazing eyes, staring out of death, to shake and bend my soul. On me alone. The ghostcandle to light her agony. Ghostly light on the tortured face. Her hoarse loud breath rattling in horror, while all prayed on their knees. Her eyes on me to strike me down. Liliata rutilantium te confessorum turma circumdet: iubilantium te virginum chorus excipiat.
Ghoul! Chewer of corpses!
No, mother! Let me be and let me live.
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I will not sleep here tonight. Home also I cannot go.
A voice, sweettoned and sustained, called to him from the sea. Turning the curve he waved his hand. It called again. A sleek brown head, a seal’s, far out on the water, round.
Usurper.
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Get the entire Ulysses LitChart as a printable PDF.
Malachi (“Buck”) Mulligan Quotes in Ulysses
The Ulysses quotes below are all either spoken by Malachi (“Buck”) Mulligan or refer to Malachi (“Buck”) Mulligan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Episode 1: Telemachus
Quotes
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him on the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:
—Introibo ad altare Dei.
Halted, he peered down the dark winding stairs and called out coarsely:
—Come up, Kinch! Come up, you fearful jesuit!
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In a dream, silently, she had come to him, her wasted body within its loose graveclothes giving off an odour of wax and rosewood, her breath, bent over him with mute secret words, faint odour of wetted ashes.
Her glazing eyes, staring out of death, to shake and bend my soul. On me alone. The ghostcandle to light her agony. Ghostly light on the tortured face. Her hoarse loud breath rattling in horror, while all prayed on their knees. Her eyes on me to strike me down. Liliata rutilantium te confessorum turma circumdet: iubilantium te virginum chorus excipiat.
Ghoul! Chewer of corpses!
No, mother! Let me be and let me live.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
I will not sleep here tonight. Home also I cannot go.
A voice, sweettoned and sustained, called to him from the sea. Turning the curve he waved his hand. It called again. A sleek brown head, a seal’s, far out on the water, round.
Usurper.
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Explanation and Analysis:
