3.Proteus

Though this chapter builds on the themes and motifs of the previous two it is a great departure. The first chapter sees Stephen, Buck, and Haines, three, in the tower, It introduces the characters, and introduces Stephen’s dilemma; that he did not pray when his mother asked him on her deathbed. It establishes the dynamic of the group and the prejudices of the time and place. The second chapter sees Stephen and Deasy, two, in the school, dealing with history and continuing where the last chapter left off- usurper… This third chapter sees Stephen, and then there was one, by himself walking to deliver Deasy’s letter. Along the way Joyce uses both a mix of first and third person. This stylistic choice gives the impression of being in Stephen’s head and has a dizzying effect. It seems as though this part is the most heavy in references thus far, most being of a religious tone. It feels like a bridge, between what has come before and what will follow. It has a pensive tone and follows Stephen on what is essentially a walk along the water. Sight and vision emerge, yet again, and meander with perception. Stephen looks around and almost free-associates to what he “sees” which complicates sight when the references to Aristotle are introduced; “Aristotle argues that color is the ‘peculiar object’ of sight, as sound is that of hearing” (Gifford, 45).
Blamires suggests “Stephen’s starting- point is that things are presented to us under the shifting mode of their visibility.” (Blamires, 14) It is within this web of visibility that Stephen is struggling to ‘see’ who he is. There are a number of deaths by water alluded to in this very personal chapter, which makes sense, in the Odyssey Odysseus is still lost at see and presumed dead, though Menelaus discovers that he is marooned on Calypso's island.

1. “A drowning man. His human eyes scream to me out of the horror of his death. I….With him together down…I could not save her. Waters: bitter death; lost” (46). Here drowning and death mingle with the memory of his mother and his powerlessness. This couples with the idea that the Irish are helpless against the British- He envies Buck who had the courage to save someone (45). Also the idea of destiny- there is a higher power at work, this idea is made more interesting in reference to themes and structure borrowed from the Odyssey, a story obsessed with destiny.

2. A corpse rising saltwater from the undertow, bobbing landward, a pace a pace a porpoise. There he is. Hook it quick. Sink though he be beneath the watery floor. We have him. Easy now” (50). This references, perhaps, the man that was mentioned in the previous chapter, that they were waiting to surface.

The most significant line for me is when Stephen hypothesizes about Kevin Egan: “They have forgotten Kevin Egan, not he them” (44). This doubles back on the idea of history and memory- the two are closely related, yet not necessarily the same thing, and curiously both have a great deal to do with sight.