In Episode 15 of Ulysses, Joyce presents us with brief and bizarre illusions that occur in Bloom’s mind. It becomes apparent that in each illusion, there are elements from the story, that we’ve already seen, appearing once again (in almost a recap fashion). Not only that, we learn more about each character and about things that occurred before the story began.

In one of Bloom’s illusions, two police officers question his identity, to which Bloom responds with different answers. He starts off by saying that he is a highly-regarded dentist who owns half of Egypt. Interestingly enough, he does use his real name in this first “fake” introduction. However, following this, he does introduce himself afterwards as Henry Flower, a member of the Junior Army and Navy. This introduction is prompted only because a card falls out of his hat with the name Henry Flower on it (which I would argue could be a direct connection to his real name Leopold Bloom).

When asked for his alibi, Bloom pulls out a yellow flower from his jacket and simply states that,”This is the flower in question. It was given me by a man I don’t know his name. (plausibly) You know that old joke, a rose of Castile. Bloom. The change of name. Virag” (U 15.738-741). There appear to be many misconceptions of who Bloom is in this illusions of his that also seem to be projecting an “ideal” Bloom, no matter how ridiculous. These identities that Bloom takes on seem to all be interesting, well-regarded characters that he projects as admirable.