Ulysses

“The nickel shavingbowl shone, forgotten, on the parapet. Why should I bring it down? Or leave it there all day, forgotten friendship?”

Stephen pictures the shaving bowl as a symbol of his waning friendship with Buck Mulligan. The responsibility of bringing the bowl in from the top of the tower belongs to Mulligan, who has forgotten to do so. Stephen does not want to be the friend who makes all the effort and cleans up after his friend’s mistakes. Mulligan takes advantage of Stephen and his sense of responsibility, with Stephen fixating on minor issues such as the shaving bowl as being indicative of their friendship. Stephen’s poetic tendencies lead him to search for symbols of his friend’s most aggravating habits, then elevate these to meaningful heights.

“He put the huge key in his inner pocket.”

From the opening episodes of the novel, Stephen and Bloom are portrayed as both opposite and alike. Stephen is sure to take the key to the tower, while Bloom forgets his own key. Stephen’s key weighs heavily on him, the concept of “home” burdening his consciousness, while Bloom may feel annoyed by his oversight of the key but seems to willingly stay away from home long enough for his wife’s visitor to conclude his business. Both men are bound together by access to their home, but the inherent irony is that the man who takes the key (Stephen) is the man who never plans to return to this home, while the man who forgets his key (Bloom) is framed as the titular Ulysses, returning home and even bringing Stephen with him.