Who Is M‘Intosh?

Abstract

Bloom’s description in “Ithaca” of the worst human fate he can imagine—“Nadir of misery: the aged impotent disfranchised rate-supported moribund lunatic pauper” (U 17.1946–47)—is Joyce’s intended solution to the enigma “Who is M‘Intosh?” The description precisely matches the various bits of information we receive about the man in the macintosh from his several brief appearances. In the light of this solution, the character becomes intriguingly enmeshed in Ulysses’s themes of time and change, of suffering and life’s incertitude. As the novel’s image of lowest misery, he stands in opposition to its image of highest joy: Bloom on Howth with Molly. And he is Joyce’s modern equivalent of the old wandering beggar Odysseus pretends to be when he finally returns to Ithaca. M‘Intosh, like Homer’s beggar, embodies the instability of human happiness.