Chapter 5 Summary

Stephen eats crusts of fried bread scattered near him on the table. The clock in his house is an hour and twenty-five minutes fast. He is now a university student who does not know the day of the week and cares too little for his lectures to be on time for them and, when he does arrive, does not have paper for class.

He has his mother wash him because he says it gives her pleasure. He begins walk to the school, and a mad nun screams in the nun's madhouse behind the wall very near Stephen's family home. Various noises threaten to humble the pride of his youth, but the daylight, the dripping trees and the smell of the wet leaves and bark help to free his soul from her miseries.

Many of the places he walks past in the city evoke...