My obsession, “consumption and spending”, gave me a tenuous grip on Ulysses that was frequently expounded upon through other peoples’ related topics. The concepts of spending and consumption were entangled with sexuality, morality, and pertinent world events through repetitive association and clever allusions. Bloom’s seedcakes, Stephen’s poverty, and Dublin generally (through seedy bars or unruly landlords) paints a morbid picture of overconsumption. British imperialism (“The British Hyenas”), the catholic church (“free money, free rent, free lay”), Irish politicians and citizens, prostitutes, and many more are all critiqued for obsessing over money. While the text stops short of completely disavowing capitalism, the novel solidly places obsessive money grubbing as a major cause of conflict.
This relatively straightforward reading of consumption in the novel is complicated by the constant entanglements that surround the concept. Bloom in particular has a strange relationship with consumption, taking great relish in course and barbaric seeming meals, while experiencing revulsion when others eat around him. Interestingly, his discourse around consumption reflects many of his other attitudes surrounding the people around him. His relative outsider status is reflected in his personalized approach to eating, while the conflation between food and sex is reflected in his inconclusive response to Molly’s fidelity. Does he truly resent Molly and Boylan, when he actively facilitates their relationship?
Bloom’s relationship with prostitutes, who Joyce frequently metaphorizes as uncommitted adultery or enticing quasi-consumption reveals more about the role of consumption and spending in the plot. Bloom’s “saving” of Stephen from the whore-house unites the two characters and underlines how consumption is something to be protected from. In this way consumption is placed on either side of a diametrically opposed divide. On the one hand consumption is necessary to life; on the other overconsumption leads to lethargy, corruption, and death. In this way Joyce establishes another seemingly contradictory concept, in which a balance must be established between over and under consumption.
