Eumaeus: Comments by Joyce

"The Eumaeus episode – I remember Joyce's insisting on this point – was meant to represent the intercourse and mental state of two fagged-out men. Stephen is suffering from a mild hangover and inclined to be snappish, while Bloom, half asleep, rambles on – perhaps even intending his talk to have a mildly sedative effect on his young protégé. Bloom can talk and think intelligently when he makes an effort, but he's too tired to make an effort. Personally I find him rather endearing in this episode, and so I think did Joyce."

(letter from Stuart Gilbert to Richard Ellmann in 1958, quoted in Ellmann, James Joyce [1982], p. 362n)