Keys Symbol Analysis

Keys represent the loss of home and the quest to recover it. At the beginning of the novel, Stephen Dedalus gives Buck Mulligan the key to his Martello tower and decides not to return. Meanwhile, Leopold Bloom leaves his key in the wrong pair of pants in the morning and forgets to retrieve it before Dignam’s funeral. Thus, Stephen and Bloom both leave home without their housekeys, which represents their sense of dispossession after other men (Buck and Boylan) usurp their authority over their houses. In turn, this loss of home represents their deeper sense of loneliness, confusion, and frustration with their lives in turn-of-the-century Dublin.

Meanwhile, the protagonists’ search for a key to their homes represents their search for a sense of belonging, connection, and purpose in life. But it’s not clear that they find it. Stephen ends the day literally homeless, wandering Dublin without a key or place to stay. Bloom ends the day comfortably in bed, but he has to break into his house through the basement because he doesn’t have his key. (In contrast, Blazes Boylan walked right through the front door when he visited to have sex with Molly.)

Secondarily, “keys”—or, in this case, Keyes—also represent Ireland’s quest for home rule (or independence from the English). A beverage merchant named Alexander Keyes hires Bloom to run an ad featuring a pair of crossed keys. This image is the logo for the House of Keys, the Isle of Man’s semi-independent parliament, which was a model for Irish nationalists seeking independence. In the context of the novel as a whole, these crossed keys also represent how Bloom and Stephen offer each other a fleeting sense of comfort and belonging when they cross paths.