“(Kevin Egan of Paris in black Spanish tasseled shirt and peep-o-day boy’s hat signs to Stephen.) KEVIN EGAN: Bonjour! The vieille ogresse with the dents jaunes” (Joyce 483).
If you haven’t been introduced to Kevin Egan at this point in Ulysses, or with Stephan’s connection with Paris (mentioned more than 8 times in the span of 4 pages), then this Eiffel Tower charm would be a great place to stop and learn.
Stephen Dedalus went away and left his shifty and father-full Dublin behind in search for a more intellectually stimulating hub – Paris. While there, like we saw in Proteus, Stephen developed a relationship with Kevin Egan, an Irish revolutionist now working as a typesetter, still loudly voicing his opinions (The Joyce Project).
Here in the Eiffel Tower may lie the false nostos (or travel home) that Stephen wishes we could return to, wishing to escape Ireland in search of bigger and better things, particularly unrelated to his father. One could look further into this representative role that Paris plays in Stephen’s life by checking out his last name, Dedalus, and noticing that his own father, Simon, has a name that looks eerily similar (because it’s an anagram) to Minos, the spiteful King who had Dedalus build the labyrinth in which the Minotaur was trapped.
One could view Ireland as Stephen’s labyrinth, particularly because of the ample amounts of connections and influences that his father holds in Dublin. Dublin is his father’s city, there’s no question, and a son, not very admiral of this father, dreaming about his intellectual escape isn’t a wild concept. Though, Paris may also be a place of guilt for Stephen because it was while he was there that his father sent him a terse telegram telling him of his mother’s eminent death.
Paris was his escape and attempt at new cultural exploration, with the ultimate goal of literary success in mind, but it also marked his cutting of ties with his family, and his losing connections with Ireland.
Fiona Bardhoshi
Works Cited
The Joyce Project, n.d. <http://m.joyceproject.com/notes/030051kevinegan.html>.