Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
Joyce based Mulligan on Oliver St. John Gogarty, with whom the author briefly shared the Martello tower in Sandycove. Oliver St John Gogarty (August 17, 1878-September 22, 1957) was an Irish physician and ear surgeon, who was also a poet and writer, one of the most prominent Dublin wits, and for some time a political figure of the Irish Free State. ... Martello towers are small defensive forts built by the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the Napoleonic Wars onwards. ... Sandycove is a small village on the east coast of County Dublin. ...
At once callous and complex, Mulligan is a Falstaffian student of medicine who has offended Stephen Dedalus by calling his mother "beastly dead." Yet later, Mulligan is portrayed as a hero for having saved a man from drowning.
Stately, plump BuckMulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
Buck talks to his friend about their mutual friend, Bannon, who is in Westmeath—Bannon apparently has a girlfriend (we learn later she is Milly Bloom).
Buck and Stephen’s relationship is fraught: Buck seeks to establish superiority over Stephen through mockery, yet he also trots out his cultural and intellectual knowledge to impress Stephen.
Buck is associated with the consumption, recycling, and marketing of art, not the creation of it—he is likened to a medieval patron of arts and encourages Stephen to market his witticisms to Haines.
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