*In this chapter, there are questions put to Stephen about Hamlet.
*Stephen wants to prove that Shakespeare is the Ghost of Hamlet's Father rather than Hamlet himself.
*Shakespeare had a son named Hamnet who died. Hamnet is supposed to be a real life representation of Hamlet.
*In the play Hamlet, Hamlet is responsible for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
*Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead -
*Which is a play in which nothing happens.
*Waiting for Godot is another play in which nothing happens.
*Waiting for Godot is about two guys like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
*Waiting for Godot was written by Samuel Beckett.
*Samuel Beckett incidentally was Joyce's secretary when Joyce was writing Ulysses.
*Beckett was obviously influenced by Joyce.
*But Waiting for Godot is about two clowns sitting by a tree.
*They are waiting for Godot.
*Godot never comes.
*He's, what one might say, ghost-like.
*Godot never appears in Waiting for Godot, he also never appears in this chapter, but neither does Leopold Bloom.
*Where's Poldy? He doesn't appear in this chapter.
*Leo Bloom is Godot!!!
*Ergo - a ghost.
*Bloom is the Ghost of Hamlet's Father.
*Stephen is Hamlet because Bloom is Stephen's spiritual "Father."
"Agenbite of Inwit" means remorse of the conscience.
Stephen talks about the importance of names and through this Joyce plays with the names in this chapter, changing Eglinton and Buck Mulligan's names throughout.
Most of the chapter deals with father/son relationships. It is Stephen's way of exploring this archetypical relationship - through Hamlet.