This paper focuses on the “Telemachus” episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses and explores  how the artist  Stephen  attempts to resist and escape from an oppressive reality through the lens of intertextuality. Joyce reconstructs Ulysses by  using  Homer’s  Odyssey  as  a  hypotext,  exposing  how  the  symbols  of authority—nation,  religion,  and  family—reproduce  ideological  control  and induce the voluntary submission  of  the oppressed.  Stephen,  aware of  these power structures, seeks to break free, and through an intertextual link with the biblical figure of Stephen the martyr, is portrayed as a martyr-like artist. He rejects ideological obedience to country, religion, and family, choosing instead a path of self-imposed exile to escape the nightmare of history. Joyce thereby invites the reader not to uncover a singular authorial intent, but to construct layered meanings, suggesting through literature that only those who discern the mechanisms of ideology can engage in existential resistance and move toward truth.