Ashplant
Reading, Smashing, and Playing Ulysses
Lavers, Michael. "‘To No End Gathered’: Poetry and Urination in Joyce's Ulysses." Joyce Studies Annual 2013, no. 1 (2013): 297–306.
Related topics:
Creation and Making
Thought and Action
Water
Lavers argues that, by following the motif of urination for both Stephen and Bloom throughout Joyce's Ulysses, one can see how the duo represents "contrasting, yet complementary, categories of artistic expression" (297). The following article is broken into two sections: one dedicated to Stephen and one to Bloom.
In the first section, Lavers connects Stephen's poetic flow and his urination habits, drawing significantly from "Proteus" (U 3.453-60). Through this section, Lavers argues that Stephen's urination is a symbolic act of rebellion "against Ireland itself, including an Irish literary establishment," a refusal—albeit futile—to be contained by the parameters set by his predecessors (300). However, according to Lavers, in "Ithaca" (U 17), Stephen's more peaceful urination suggests poetic promise.
The next section focuses on Bloom, an unwitting poet, whose 'art' is filtered through a business-centric, scientific lens. Lavers analyzes Bloom's urination habits, beginning with his morning trip to the bathroom in "Calypso" (U 4) and moving on to Bloom's feminization in "Circe" (U 15), partially demonstrated by his sitting down while urinating, which he supposedly does in the name of scientific curiosity. Finally, Lavers moves to "Lotus Eaters" (U 5), in which, he argues, Bloom's reflections on porter barrels (U 5.308-312, 314-317) parallel Stephen's urination scene in "Proteus" (U 3). Lavers theorizes that just as Bloom tries to rationalize his excretions and thus contain them, so too does Joyce attempt to "contain an entire world within the form of a novel" (303). Having drawn creative parallels to both Stephen the poet and Joyce the author, Lavers establishes Bloom's bathroom habits and overall perspective as a form of "intellectual artistry," making accessible the otherwise abstract in an attempt to shape "chaos into a meaningful form" (304).
Ultimately, according to Lavers, urination represents the overlapping artistic struggles of Stephen and Bloom. With Stephen, urinating "represents various attempts to contain artistic expression within the limits of poetic form"; with Bloom, "the artist's attempts to contain and order a chaotic world" (305). Connecting these perspectives, Lavers concludes that the "urine/poetry motif" reflects Joyce's own battling with form while writing Ulysses, walking the line between "strict realism and postmodern metafiction" (305).
Citations and Related Sources