Bar

Forms:

Bar (N) [musical term], Bar (N) [ legal term], Bar (N) [Slang for currency] Bar (N) [geographic]

Related:

Barmaid, Barrister, Crown

Explication:

It is hard to pin down the usage of the term bar in Ulysses, as it is not used with any particularly consistent meaning. With numerous brief, one-off uses as slang for money or geographical features, it is difficult to find a unifying symbolic meaning tying all uses together. Despite this, there are certain instances where individual uses of the word fit well into analysis of other related words. I expected to find it used in reference to a tavern frequently throughout the novel, simply because of how central bars are to so much of the book. However, it is used in this sense almost only to refer to the role of Barmaids. There is an instance where Bloom tries to remember something he has heard about MR Power’s wife. He remarks to himself, “Not pleasant for the wife… there is no carnal. You would imagine that would get played out pretty quick… What is this she was? Barmaid in Jury’s.” (U.6.245-248). Additionally, in Sirens, the episode is kicked off with a long interaction between Miss Douce and Miss Kennedy, a pair of barmaids at the Ormond bar. They begin to talk about the horrors of “being married to a man like that” (U.11.169) which echoes the sense of unpleasantness that Bloom thought of while recalling Power’s wife. Bloom’s remark of how unpleasant his barmaid wife may be is echoed by Douce and Kennedy’s expression of how unpleasant it would be marrying greasy Bloom.

Bar appears as a geographic marker carrying the meaning of a riverbank or something blocking the entrance to a harbor. Its use in this form appears a few times through the novel, seeming only to provide a location present or remembered.

 Bar appears in terms of its musical definition as a unit of measurement of a written piece of music. It has a literal meaning as a physical line used to measure music on a page, as well as is used to refer to a section in recital. In this form, it is used as “He drones bars of Ferrando’s aria di sortita,” (U. 3.) to refer to the brief excerpt whistled to Stephen, not written on a page. The frequent act of recalling and singing brief pieces of songs tends to invoke this use of the word, even if Joyce does not explicitly use it.

Bar is used in Episode 12 to refer to “The Bar” in a legal sense, as a profession and as an institution. An interesting amalgamation of this meaning and the musical meaning is found in the moment when the Irish singer Caruso Garibaldi is described, and it is said that “His superb highclass vocalism, which by its superquality greatly enhanced his already international reputation, was vociferously applauded by the large audience among which were to be noticed many prominent members of the clergy as well as representatives of the press and the bar and the other learned professions” (U. 12). Here, the obvious use of the bar is in reference to the profession. However, in describing the skill of this singer, saying that other musicians, or representatives of the bar in this different sense of the word also noticed his skill would also get the point of his skill across. With a term like bar that is used most frequently in colloquial slang, the overlap and blending of these two meanings in this instance demonstrates the possibility of creative usages for a word with so many meanings. Another occurrence of bar in the legal sense is in Aeolus, lines 705-710, where J.J. O’Molloy and Myles Crawford are having a conversation about the state of law in Ireland, pining after the days of famous and great barristers “like Whiteside, like Isaac Butt, like silvertongued O’Hagan.” Crawford remarks that the current members of the bar are “in the hook and eye department” and “in the halfpenny place,” meaning that they are of significant lower quality than these great, famous barristers. While this usage does not carry the musical double meaning with it, it is still a useful and interesting example of characters’ thoughts on the Irish governmental and legal system outside of an explicitly colonial context. Much of the discourse regarding the state of Ireland centers on England’s involvement in Irish affairs, while here we have Irish people talking about Irish affairs on their own terms. Joyce occasionally uses “The Crown” as a stand in for the Bar, both referring to the same legal institution as a proper noun. This is important to keep in mind as it offers a similar double meaning with bar used as a slang for currency.

Bar is used briefly in this sense Wandering Rocks, referring to the value of a pound. While this is brief usage, it opens the door to examining another double meaning of the word bar. Crown is also used as a slang for currency (e.g. U.8.1132: “Send her a postal order two shillings, half a crown.”) This means there are two usages of bar that Joyce equates to two different usages of crown, a great demonstration of the interesting games that he plays with language and meaning, as well as the possibility that comes from blurring the intended meaning of a word with other synonymous and slang usages.

Definitions and Examples:

1. In Music. ‘A vertical line drawn across the stave to divide a musical composition into portions of equal duration, and to indicate the periodical recurrence of the accent’ (F. Taylor in Grove Dict. Music); also, the portion contained between two such lines, technically called the ‘measure.’ double bar: two parallel vertical lines, marking the close of a strain or section. attrib. in bar-line.
2. “He drones bars of Ferrando’s aria di sortita. The grandest number, Stephen, in the whole opera. Listen.” (U. 3.100)
3. “These opening bars he sang and translated extempore.” (U.16.1817)

 

1. In Law. The whole body of barristers, or spec. the barristers practising in a particular court, circuit, or country. (Cf. 23b.)
2. “His superb highclass vocalism, which by its superquality greatly enhanced his already international reputation, was vociferously applauded by the large audience among which were to be noticed many prominent members of the clergy as well as representatives of the press and the bar and the other learned professions.” (U.12.922-926)
3. “Where have you a man now at the bar like those fellows, like Whiteside, like Isaac Butt, like silvertongued O’Hagan. Eh?… Only in the halfpenny place. (U.7.706-708)

 

3. See Crown: 3. The sovereignty, authority, or dominion of which a royal crown is the symbol; the rule, position, or empire of a monarch.

• “The Crown had no evidence, Mr Power said.” (U.6.473)

 

 

• A pound; esp. in half a bar, ten shillings. slang.

1. “Two bar entrance, soldiers half price.” (U.10.1136-1137)

 

1. See Crown: British or English coin (latterly silver) with a face value of five shillings or (now) 25 pence, now minted only for commemorative purposes. Hence: a monetary unit based on this, the sum of five shillings.

• “Send her a postal order two shillings, half a crown.” (U.8.1132-1133)

 

1. A bank of sand, silt, etc., across the mouth of a river or harbour, which obstructs navigation.
2. “Were there schemes of wider scope?

A scheme to be formulated and submitted for approval to the harbour commissioners for the exploitation of white coal (hydraulic power), obtained by hydroelectric plant at peak of tide at Dublin bar or at head of water at Poulaphouca or Powerscourt…” (U. 17.1710-1714)

 

1. Barmaid: A female who sells food and drink at the bar of a tavern or hotel.
2. “Not pleasant for the wife. Yet they say, who was it told me, there is no carnal. You would imagine that would get played out pretty quick. What is this she was? Barmaid in Jury’s.” (U.6.245-248).