The classified ad is used and re-appropriated by James Joyce in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake in a number of ways. It appears in the form of Leopold Bloom's ad searching for a “smart lady typist” in “Ulysses, as well as the imaginary ad written by Molly offering £5 for an imaginary runaway Bloom in “Ithaca.” It resurfaces in “Shem the Penman” and other episodes of "Finnegans Wake." Operating as a means of negotiation between the private and the public spheres, the classified ad provides a language which can be re-used and re-appropriated, for example for erotic ends. The treatment the classified ad receives in Joyce diverts it from its original function of communication about goods and services; it becomes a minor form of fiction in itself, as well as a vehicle for parody and the return of the repressed.