In many forms of literature, writers will look at the relationships between gender and sexuality. What gender norms decree are that men are expected to be and play the part as dominant, whereas women are placed in the position to be submissive. In the novel, “Ulysses”, the representations of gender and sexuality in Irish culture are purposely inverted to illicit gender stereotypes of men and women, and thus in doing so, Joyce looks to show, through use of diction, allegory and metaphor how Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, Bella Cohen and Molly Bloom represent both the feminine and masculine parts of Irish culture.
In relation to Irish culture in the novel, both gender and sexuality are perceived from a pre-dominantly patriarchal stance. In the setting of the novel which takes place in Ireland of 1904, men are perceived to be the dominant and superior sex whereas women are viewed as subordinate. Regarding women, their ideas, voices, opinions and physical bodies seem to hold no importance. Joyce’s choice to also have a man open the novel distinctively shows the separation of the two sexes socially. Though the setting of the novel incorporates both male and female characters, each character on their own represents a unique stance on the way how men and women behave and are perceived. In the few opening episodes, the first characters that we are introduced to are only men. Joyce has done this because it sets the tone for the entirety of the novel, as it man who has the first word. The types of men that Joyce has us encounter in the novel vary from the intellectual, the sexual deviant and the brute. Joyce’s choice to incorporate these different types of stereotypes of men in the novel show the copious traits of how men are or how they are perceived. In the first episode, “Telemachus”, we are introduced to the party of men which are Buck Mulligan, Stephen Dedalus, etc.. Furthermore, When Stephen is with Buck Mulligan, Buck cleverly reverses the image of Jesus into that of a female,
“—For this , O dearly beloved, is the genuine Christine: body and soul and blood and ouns” (3). This reversal of the religious image of Christ being transformed into a female may be Joyce’s way of describing the insignificance of religious rituals and in doing so, he is also satirizing women in relation to religion as the image of a Christ being female is considered unorthodox.
In the opening episode, we meet the character of Stephen Dedalus who, as Joyce will have it acts as the “intellectual” of this epic. In the first description of him, we are given the following, “Stephen Dedalus, displeased and sleepy, leaned his arms on the top of the staircase and looked coldly at the shaking gurgling face that blessed him, equine in length, and at the light untonsured hair, grained and hued like pale oak” (3). Stephen resembles a scholarly man and someone who is methodological. This description in relation to men in Irish culture is distinctive because this shows Stephen’s separation or alienation from the rest of Irish society as men of the time were not necessarily considered scholars. Moreover, Stephen as a son, being conceived from both a mother and father, one would think that his relationship with his parents would be exemplary considering his status. As the novel begins and persists, we are introduced to his relationship with his mother and as well as his father. Stephen’s mother, who, is now deceased is how we are introduced to the melancholic restlessness which is what Stephen is plagued with,
“In a dream, silently, she had come to him, her wasted body within its loose graveclothes giving off and odour of wax and rosewood, her breath bent over him with mute secret words, a faint odour of wetted ashes. Her glazen eyes, staring out of death, to shake and bend my soul. The ghostcandle to light her agony. Ghostly light on the tortured face. Her hoarse loud breath rattling in horror, while all prayed on their knees. Her eyes on me to strike me down….No, mother. Let me be and let me live.” (10). From this narration from Stephen, what one can conclude is that Stephen’s ailment, mental instead of physical is the inability to get over the ghostly image of his deceased mother plaguing his mind. This is only intensified when Stephen and Buck are having a discussion regarding the memory of his mother,
“Stephen, depressed by his own voice, said:
–Do you remember the first day I went to your house after my mother’s death?
Buck Mulligan frowned quickly and said:
… – Yes? Buck Mulligan said. What did I say? I forget.
–You said, Stephen answered, O, it’s only Dedalus whose mother is beastly dead.
–And what is death he asked, your mother’s or yours or my own? …I didn’t mean to offend the memory of your mother.
He had spoken himself into boldness. Stephen, shielding the gaping wounds which the words had left in his heart, said very coldly:
–I am not thinking of the offence to my mother.
–Of what, then? Buck Mulligan asked.
–Of the offence to me, Stephen answered” (8,9). This is significant because from Stephen is describing the love that he has for his mother. He is describing the type of love, that for him is uniquely tied to a mother and child, a sort of bond that is shared and unbreakable. For Stephen, he believes that any insult or disregard to the mother is also an insult to the child. In Episode two, “Nestor”, Stephen makes a claim about his mother and motherhood, “Amor matris: subjective and objective genitive. With her weak blood and wheysour milk she had fed him and hid from sight of others his swaddling bands” (28). Stephen’s claim about motherhood, according to Joyce is both socially exclusive and inclusive. When he refers to Amor matris, it has two meanings, “love for the mother” and “love of the mother”. “Love for the mother” denotes a child’s love for its mother, and “Love of the mother” denotes a mother’s love of the child. To Stephen, the relationship that he has with his mother is the foundation of his being. His love for his mother comes from the fact that she carried him and bore him, and in return he feels like he, as he child must love her too. However, this idea is ultimately broken, in comparison to his father. In Episode nine, “Scylla and Charybdis”, Stephen makes a grand claim about paternity in relation to Amor matris, “Upon incertidude, upon unlikelihood, Amor matris, subjective and objective genitive, may be the only true thing in life. Paternity may be a legal fiction. Who is the father of any son that any son should love him or he any son?”(199). Here, he expresses that anyone can pick another man as one’s father from a spiritual aspect since Stephen in the novel has disassociated himself from his own father. The comment that he makes expresses how he feels that nothing is stronger than the bond between a mother and son, whereas for the relationship between sons and their fathers are not. He further goes on to say, “Sons with mothers, sires with daughters, lesbic sisters, loves that dare not speak their name, nephews with grandmothers, jailbirds with keyholes, , queens with prize bulls. The son unborn mars beauty” born, he brings pain, divides affection, increases care. He is a male: his growth is his father’s decline, his youth his father’s envy, his friend his father’s enemy” (199). However, what is ironic is that though Stephen loved his mother, what he ultimately is lacking love from a mother figure since what his actual mother brings him is nothing but mental anguish.
For the character of Leopold Bloom, we are introduced to him in the Calypso episode. The description we are given about Bloom is the following, (50) “Mr. Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liver slices stuffed with crustcrumbs, fried hencod’s roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine. Kidneys were in his mind as he moved about the kitchen softly, righting her breakfast things on the humpy tray” (53). From a literal standpoint, the reader is immediately taken into a setting of consumption. What is important about this passage is that what Joyce introduces to us is the first instance of Bloom’s sexual appetite and masochistic ways. Considering that both masochism and a lascivious sexual appetite may be considered far from the norm for Bloom, what is discovered is that this is what ultimately brings him gratification. Furthermore, we are introduced to not only Bloom but a “her”, the she in this instance being Bloom’s wife. The fact that she is not named immediately shows the notion of the oppressive female voice in the novel. Joyce’s use of diction is rather important to the significance of Bloom, because of Bloom’s connection to sexual violence and the corporeal. The “giblet, gizzards, heart, liver, roe and kidney” are all body parts or organs of an organism. His insatiable appetite not only emits somewhat of a sexual tone as Bloom seems to not be able get enough, but it also is a metaphor for is tendency to objectify other women besides Molly. However, in relation to his wife, this naming of body parts of which he is consuming holds importance as he enjoys the devouring of the animal and ignores the “devouring” of his wife. This point reflects the initial status of the relationship that is Bloom and Molly. Though they are married, their relationship is stagnant as there does not seem to be any intimacy. As the novel continues in the Calypso episode, we are given a glimpse into Bloom’s epistolary adultery with another woman. Due to Bloom’s lack of sexual release, he looks for his passions through other means. In Episode Five, “The Lotus Eaters”, Bloom takes on a pseudonym known only to himself and the mystery woman where he takes on the name of Henry Flower. When looking at the choice of name that Bloom uses to correspond with Martha, both of his surnames are representative with nature. From an etymological standpoint, Bloom’s name is a direct translation to the name of Virag in Hungarian, and when taking the name of Virag, it literally translates into both the Latin of masculinity from the pre-fix and flower. Joyce places an importance on names in the book, in that both names and identities are transformative. When Bloom changes his name to send letters to Martha, he becomes a different person. He becomes someone who is neglectful and passive, which in turn reinforces the paralysis of his morality. His infidelity to Molly and role as a husband to her are neglected due to his correspondence with Martha. Joyce here, seems to make the reader now recognize Bloom’s fault and where we now see him as vulnerable. We see him as someone who cannot tackle his marital issues head on, and looks for ways out of them. Joyce’s takes Bloom’s role as a man and juxtaposes it with the notion of flowers, as a dichotomy of masculinity versus the feminine, “He foresaw his pale body reclined in it at full, naked, in a womb of warmth, oiled by scented melting soap, softly laved. He saw his trunk and limbs riprippled over and sustained, buoyed lightly upward, lemonyellow:
his navel, bud of flesh: and saw the dark tangled curls of his bush floating, floating hair of the stream around the limp father of thousands, a languid floater flower” (83). This lasting passage denotes Bloom’s passivity. There is an element of the feminine with Bloom descending into a scented bath and with an image of his flaccidness. Part of Bloom’s masochism stems from his epistolary relationship with Martha Clifford, though the two never consummate the nature of their sexual relationship. In this example, we are thrown into the battle between dominant and submissive. Where in Ireland of 1904 should have it that men perform the role as dominant and women as submissive, Joyce inverts this dynamic. When Bloom receives the letter from Martha and begins to read it, what we discover is that the roles are inversed. Bloom becomes and performs the role of submissive to Martha, “I am awfully angry with you. I do wish I could punish you for that. I called you naughty boy because I do not like that other world…Dear Henry, when will we meet? I have never felt myself so much drawn to a man as you…Please write me a long letter and tell me more. Remember if you do not I will punish you So know you know what I will do to know you, you naughty boy, if you do not wrote” (74-75). Joyce reversals gender roles to show Bloom’s reaction to learning about the eroticism of Martha’s letter, “He tore the flower gravely from its pinhold smelt its almost no smell and placed it in his heart pocket…Having read it all he took it from the newspaper and put it back in his sidepocket. Weak joy opened his lips” (75). Joyce ties Bloom’s direct passivity to Martha’s direct erotic message and for Bloom, this is where we begin to see a glimpse into Bloom’s subconscious. Furthermore, we encounter Bloom’s masochistic ways in the Circe episode. Joyce utilizes many reversals, such as the whoremistress Bella Cohen becoming the male “Bello” and Bloom’s transfigurations into a woman and like that of his characters, Joyce transforms the traditional narrative and has it perform like that of a drama. When Stephen accompanies Bloom into a brothel where there is a meeting with Bella Cohen and she is characterized as the following, “The door opens. Bella Cohen, a massive whoremistress enters. She is dressed in a three-quarter ivory gown, fringed round the hem with tassled selvedge and cools herself, flirting a black horn fan like Minnie Hauck in Carmen. On her left hand are wedding and keeper rings. Her eyes are deeply carboned. She has a sprouting mustache. Her olive face is heavy, slightly sweated and fullnosed, with orangetainted nostrils..”(494). Joyce’s physical description of Bella resembles that of both the masculine and the feminine. This is the first instance where Joyce combines both the feminine and the masculine into one body. The masochistic element comes in when Bloom speaks to Bella and declares that he wishes to be dominated by her, “Exuberant female. Enormously I desiderate your domination. I am exhausted, abandoned, no more young..”(496). Bloom once again performs the role of a man who is submissive to the female. This transformation not only confounds the reader but Joyce’s use of pastiche, not in a literary sense as a narrative work, but more as a mirror to reflect Bloom’s sexually deviant behaviour onto Bello speaks once more to Bloom’s closet desire to be dominated by a female,
Bello
“Feel my entire weight. Bow, bondslave, before the throne of your despot’s glorious heels, so glistening in their proud erectness” (498).
Bloom
“I promise never to disobey” (498).
Bello
“Holy smoke! You little know what’s in store for you. I’m the tartar to settle your little lot and break you in! I’ll bet Kentucky cocktails all round I shame it out of you, old so. Check me, I dare you. If you do tremble in anticipation of heel discipline to be inflicted in gym costume” (498).
This image of stark submissiveness from Bello to Bloom solidifies Bloom’s love of aggressive sexual domination. Joyce sees it that the masochism of Bloom is associated to the internalized patriarchal structures as visited upon women who accept their subordination.
Women in the novel seem to hold a lower place of respect. The females in the book seem to barely have a voice or opinion. Joyce’s characterization of women in the book are viewed from the image of the bawd, the mistress and the wife and mother, and these stereotypes are seen in the representations of Bella Cohen, Molly Bloom and Martha Clifford. The lack of a female voice throughout the book shows the dominance of masculine culture in Ireland of 1904. Specifically, in relation to Molly, the role of wife denotes unconditional love for the spouse, preparing food and taking care of the family. What is observed is that through Bloom’s infidelity and lustful ways that his duties to Molly are neglected, so much to the point that Bloom begins to believe that, Molly too is being adulterous,
“A strip of torn envelope peeped from under the dimpled pillow. In the act of going he stayed to straighten the bedspread.
—Who was the letter from? he asked.
Bold hand. Marion.
Boylan, she said. He's bringing the programme.”(61). When Bloom asks about the letter he concludes that Molly is also not being unfaithful but he dismisses this idea. Joyce’s choice to have Bloom dismiss this idea, ultimately dismisses this idea for the reader and ultimately shuts down Bloom’s own argument. This quality in Bloom to not face his problems directly can be interpreted as almost feminine, which would express a reversal of expectations between Bloom and Molly, as one would assume in marriage that if Bloom believed that Molly was unfaithful, he would in fact demand an answer rather than dismissing this idea overall.
Though Joyce’s epic is dominated by men and the male gaze towards the female body, what can be argued is that Molly’s character as representative for the female sex, can be a considered a feminist for her time. This is true because, Molly is debatably the only female character in the novel who, like her spouse, objectifies men for sexual satisfaction. In the last episode, “Penelope”, is when we get Molly as the domineering voice. Molly says in the opening of the episode, “Yes because he never did a thing like that before as to ask to get his breakfast in bed with a couple of eggs since the City Arms hotel when he used to be pretending to be laid up with a sick voice doing his highness to make himself interesting to that old faggot Mrs. Riordan that he thought he had a great…” (690). This first opening statement describes Molly’s internal dialogue with herself and Joyce inviting us into her world. We are immediately thrown into the dismay of Molly’s reaction to Bloom asking her to present him with breakfast in bed, as a duty of the housewife. This is crucial because till now, Joyce did not invite or allow any of the female characters to speak their thoughts. What is also compelling is how, like Bloom, Molly sexualizes and catalogues her male conquests, like that of her husband. Joyce takes traditional gender norms and reverses them to recognize Molly as another sexually dominant female instead of Bloom. In Lestyrogonians, when Bloom recounts his time with Molly, Joyce has Molly play the part of dominant as Bloom remembers the sensation of kissing Molly, “O wonder! Coolsoft with ointments her hand touched me, caressed: her eyes upon me did not turn away. Ravished over her I lay, full lips full open, kissed her mouth. Yum. Softly she gave me the seedcake warm and chewed” (167). This reversal is indicative of Molly as a dominant female, as she takes the domineering role, like that of Bella Cohen. However, Joyce then quickly re-establishes the norms of men and women by Bloom consuming the desert, “Mawkish pulp her mouth had mumbled sweet and sour with spittle. Joy: I ate it: joy. For her lips gave me pouting” (167). This reversal from Joyce brings back the notion of consumption and Bloom. This consuming is literal and both metaphorical. His consuming of the desert, to Bloom, is just as exciting as engaging in sexual congress. She also looks back on her prior relations, Bloom’s interactions with other women and compares them to her own status with Bloom, “I suppose he was glad to get shut of her and her dog smelling my fur and always edging to get up under my petticoats especially then still I like that in him polite to old women like that and waiters and beggars too hes not proud out of nothing but not always if ever he got anything really serious the matter with him its much better for them go into a hospital..”(690). Moreover, Molly goes onto to explain that, though in the social norms between men and women, men will tend to whine for attention or if they are in pain, whereas women will hide it, “theyre so weak and puling when theyre sick they want a woman to get well if his nose bleeds youd think it O tragic…I hate bandagaing and dosing when he cut his toe with the razor pairing his corns afraid hed get blood poisoning but if it was a thing I get sick then wed see what attention only of course the woman hides it not to give all the trouble they do…”(691). This passage shows the reversal of gender and gender stereotypes, in that, though men are supposed to perform the role as masculine and assertive, Molly subverts this by declaring men to be inferior by their incessant complaining and need for the assistance by women. Joyce, in this monologue from Molly, has her express her desires as overtly sexual, like that of a man, “A young boy would like me Id confuse him a little alone with him if we were Id let him see my garters the new ones and make him turn red looking at him seduce him I know what boys feel with that down on their cheek doing that.. I wish some man or other would take me sometime when hes there and kiss me in his arms theres nothing like a kiss long and hot down to your soul almost paralyzes you…”(692). This type of inner thought for Molly is almost masochistic like that of Bloom. Molly, unlike that of Bloom owns her sexuality and owns that. Additionally, Molly’s constant parallels between her past and present draw relevance to her status with Bloom and her sexuality. With each memory she draws upon, she relates it to her present, “when I made him pull it out and do it on me considering how big it is so much the better in case any of it wasnt washed out properly the last time I let him finish it in me nice invention they made for women for him to get all the pleasure but if someone gave them a touch of it themselves theyd know what I went through with Milly” (694) … “I think I saw his face before somewhere I noticed him when I was tasting the butter so I took my time Bartell dArcy too that he used to make fun of when he commenced kissing me on the choir stairs after I sang Gounods Ave Maria what are we waiting for O my heart kiss me straight on the brow and part which is my brown part he was pretty hot for all his tinny voice too my low notes he was always raving about if you can believe him I liked the way he used his mouth singing” (697)… “Ive a mind to tell him every scrap and make him do it in front of me serve him right its all his own fault if I am an adulteress as the thing in the gallery said O much about it if thats all the harm ever we did in this vale of tears God knows its not much doesnt everybody only they hide it I suppose thats what a woman is supposed to be there for or He wouldnt have made us the way He did so attractive to men” (730). All of these examples of Molly remembering her past experiences with men explain her reasoning behind why she believes men are problematic, yet she cannot live without them. Though in her monologue, she chastises men for their lascivious acts and behavior, she herself is not guilty for embracing her sexuality and behaving the same way as any other man.
For Bloom, his awakening about his own gender and sex occurs in the episode, “Oxen of the Sun”. When Bloom goes to visit Mrs. Purefoy when she gives birth, is one time when Bloom sympathizes with women and his own femininity. It is one of his moments of epiphany in the novel. This is a crucial moment because though the notion of women in the novel, from the viewpoints of both Stephen, Bloom, and Joyce himself have not been positive, Bloom finds the time to find the beauty in a woman bringing new life into this world. Symbolically, this is representative of Stephen’s claim of “Amor Matris”. When Bloom goes to the hospital to check up on Mrs. Purefoy, this can be described as Bloom interpreting his own “love of the mother” and “love for the mother”, “I am positive when I say that if need were I could produce a cloud of witnesses to the excellence of her noble exercitations which, so far from being a byword, should be a glorious incentive in the human breast” (387). What is also significant about Bloom’s hospital visit is Bloom’s role as father. Bloom’s place in the hospital, as a place of conception allegorically speaks to the fact that Bloom has produced two children, yet only one has survived. He has produced no male heir, only female, though through experience has produced Stephen. Stephen’s unsettled mental anguish comes from the unresolved feelings he has with his mother and the fact that he dislikes his father and ultimately argues against conception, which he believes is wicked. Overall, the maternity hospital becomes a place where both Bloom and Stephen develop and regress. Bloom attempts to become that father, where he produces his male heir, whereas Stephen cannot make the effort to change and almost remains child-like, thus becoming the “son” that Bloom was lacking. Furthermore, for Bloom and Molly, in “Penelope”, is where Joyce takes Molly’s internal dialogue to solidify her relationship with Bloom. In the last lines of her monologue, Molly remembers the day Bloom had decided to ask for her hand in marriage, “on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes” (731). This for Molly was her moment of recognition that though she was aware of Bloom’s faults, and the faults of all men, she knew that he ultimately understood her as a woman and her gender as a whole, “I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down Jo me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes” (732).
To conclude, Joyce’s transformations and representations of gender and sexuality in Ulysses ultimately show how men and women do not adhere to typical stereotypes. It goes to show how gender and sexuality are not normative. Joyce’s characterization of Stephen, Bloom, Bella and Molly, though are different, they each in their own way construct their own views of how men and women are meant to be embodied and thus, in doing so, bring a greater substance to this contemporary epic.