Nestor

In the "Nestor" episode, Joyce develops Dedalus' social personality along two lines: his external behavior and his internal psychology. Unlike the "Telemachus" episode, Dedalus is shown around people who are not his peers. Rather they are his subordinates and his superior. The way he behaves around his students and his "mentor" Deasy give the reader a nuanced idea of who Dedalus is in the world.

Dedalus is awkward. His jokes and riddle fall flat on the boys. He cannot guage his audience, and must seem weird to their prepubscent perceptions. Like an adjunct professor, he is not inclined towards rules or norms. We see this in the way he responds to Armstrong, the class clown. Rather than punish the boy, he humours him. Also he does not favor Comyn, the teacher's pet, over the others; he has no special respect for the boy's pedantry. He doesn't care very much for what he's teaching them, recognizing it as rote learning of a certain class, not true edcuation.

With Sargent, Joyce develops Dedalus' empathy. The ironically named boy who asks for help with his algebra is not Dedalus' younger analogue; like Dedalus he is physically weak, but unlike him he is also stupid. Dedalus identication is misguided, then; it is more a reflection of his lingering sadness over his mother, who he melodramatically reflects "saved him from being trampled underfoot and had gone, scarcely having been". There is a sad humour to his heavy handed line of thought. Neither is Dedalus' identificaton with Sargent accurate, nor can his guilt ridden reflection be taken too seriously, and so the passage is ironic, but touchingly so. With Sargent we see Dedalus as, alas, a little boy.

Empathy and awkardness are at play with Deasy; the uncomfortable (and funny) conversation is pitch perfect. Importantly he does not ignore the man's request to have his letter published, he internally resolves to do it, despite the fact that he recognizes Deasy as a fool. More interesting to me are Dedalus' non sequitors: "Histor is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake". "That is god...a shout in the street". Deasy's facile response is first (basically) "God is great"; and second "I am happier than you", which is undoubtedly true, but leaves the modernistic sentiment hanging in the air, for the reader to ponder.