As the day continues for Bloom, his increasing anxiety regarding Blazes Boylan and his likely affair with Molly begins to rule his emotions and his actions. Similar to the previous episodes, Joyce relies on the constant presence of sports and competition to draw additional attention to Bloom’s rising tensions about seeing and interacting with Blazes, as well as his nervousness about going home to Molly. In this episode, Joyce brings in a new sport, boxing, which certainly serves as a good metaphor for this somewhat low-level war between Blazes and Bloom. Blazes continues to appear, with a punch to Bloom’s gut, even if Bloom is merely reminded by him, and more than anything, Leopold is desperate to respond.

In Episode 10, the tenth “section” highlights his obsessiveness towards matching up to Boylan, who Joyce portrays as an ideal man, especially compared to his descriptions of the lowly Bloom, who seems lucky to have landed Molly. Bloom’s efforts to match up are on display as he goes to extreme lengths to find some sexually pleasing literature to bring back to Molly, in an attempt to rival Boylan’s desirability. As Bloom shops, Joyce points out his rather hopeless attempts to measure up in great detail: “Onions of his breath came across the counter out of his ruined mouth. He bent to make a bundle of the other books, hugged them against his unbuttoned waistcoast and bore them off behind the dingy curtain” (596).

In thinking about the extreme lengths Bloom is willing to go to defeat Boylan, is he doing this for the sake of Molly or merely to beat her new lover? Given that Bloom has acknowledged their dysfunctional relationship and sex life, what are his motivations behind engaging this in this uneven boxing match that he seems guaranteed to lose?