《尤利西斯》一書呈現了許多被忽略或者視而不見的女性勞工。這些女性在文本中的模糊隱匿反映出女性在就業市場以及愛爾蘭社會的邊緣地位。儘管如此，一九○四年的愛爾蘭女性在經濟上的表現遠比一般所認知的更為積極、更有實力。本文嘗試以此觀點切入，探究一群喬氏文本中隱約提及的女性勞工：女傭。幫傭業乃是十九世紀與二十世紀初愛爾蘭女性的三大有薪工作之一，於此期間經歷了相當程度的變化。無論是一份在十九世紀被視為體面、合適的工作，或者是一門在二十世紀被視為卑微、不受歡迎的行業，幫傭讓許多愛爾蘭女性得以養活自己和家人；然而其貢獻往往不被承認。喬伊斯文本中輕描淡寫的女傭反映了此一積極參與社會和經濟活動卻被忽略漠視的情形。「僕人」一詞不僅僅是殖民地卑屈處境的暗喻，更是社會現實，是愛爾蘭生活與歷史不可抹滅的一部分；喬氏裂鏡中確實可見僕人之隱約身影。在以史提芬、布盧姆、莫莉為代言人建構愛爾蘭歷史之際，喬伊斯也同時呈現了一頁女性勞工隱匿、破碎的歷史──儘管可能出於無意。

A close reading of Ulysses reveals that a large number of ignored, if not invisible, working women are incorporated and represented in the text. Their obscurity in the text reflects their marginalization in the work market and in Irish society. In spite of this, Irish women in 1904 were far more active and productive economically than was previously thought. Re-viewing the Joycean text in this light, this paper attempts to investigate a group of working women hinted at in the Joycean text: slaveys. One of the major employments for women in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ireland, domestic service had undergone tremendous change. Whether as a respectable and favorable job in the nineteenth century, or as an inferior and unacceptable form of work in the twentieth century, domestic service had allowed many Irish women to support themselves and their families; their contributions, however, were little recognized. The shadowy representation of Joyce’s slaveys exemplifies the active but disregarded participation of women in Irish society and economy. The term “servant” was not merely a metaphor for colonial subjugation, but a social reality, an indispensable part of Irish life and history; the shade of the servant could be surely glimpsed in Joyce’s cracked lookingglass. In his reconstruction of Irish colonial history with Stephen, Bloom, and Molly as spokespersons, Joyce represents—simultaneously but probably unintentionally—an obscure and fragmented history of working women in Ireland.