Ulysses, Episode III: Proteus

In this chapter, Stephen walks along Sandymount Strand, a beach along Dublin Bay. The opening word 'ineluctable' meaning inescapable relates to the unavoidable thoughts that fill Stephen's mind throughout this chapter. He is a spectator as he walks across the beach, then he sits and attempts to write a poem:

'Won't you come to Sandymount,

Madeleine the mare?' (p.37).

The narrative in this chapter is weaved with Stephen's monologues and so at times it is confusing who is speaking. However, the attention is on Stephen as he urinates and picks his nose, that is until it is what he sees becomes important. 'The two midwives, the sea, the sand, boulders, a man and a woman cockle-picking, a dead dog, a live dog, his shadow, Cock Lake, no black clouds and a ship' (p.782, explanatory notes), these are all the things Stephen notices whilst on the beach. He then plunges into thoughts of Denmark, Dublin and London as well as philosophical and religious musings. The erratic placing of these thoughts between narrative is characteristic of Joyce and recurs frequently throughout Ulysses. Stephen thinks of a woman he saw outside a bookshop and his friend Kevin Egan, who will appear later. Proteus, like Nestor, features the inescapable nightmare of history, but here Stephen is out of the classroom and distracted by the world around him. The chapter concludes with the sighting of 'a silently moving, a silent ship.' (p.50).