{"id":607,"date":"2016-11-22T05:40:11","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T05:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/?p=607"},"modified":"2016-11-22T05:40:11","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T05:40:11","slug":"final-lexicon-entry-tooth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/uncategorized\/final-lexicon-entry-tooth\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Lexicon Entry: Tooth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tooth<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forms\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

toothless, toothache, toothsome, gaptoothed, toothed, buckteeth<\/p>\n

Related Terms<\/strong><\/p>\n

shell, dentist, chew, milk, bite<\/p>\n

Explication<\/strong><\/p>\n

Teeth<\/strong> are mentioned many times over the course of\u00a0Ulysses<\/em>. Throughout the text, they\u00a0serve as symbols of power and carnality. In Episode II, Stephen refers to stone lions as “toothless<\/strong> terrors” (U<\/em> 2.429-30). When Bloom is disgusted by the meat-eating men in Laestrygonians, he observes how one man has “no teeth<\/strong> to chewchewchew it” (U\u00a0<\/em>8.660).\u00a0The ever-virile Blazes Boylan keeps a red rose “between his smiling teeth<\/strong>” (U<\/em> 10.335). In\u00a0Ulysses Annotated<\/em>, for the annotation to line 3.495 mentioned above, Don Gifford quotes J.E. Cirlot’s\u00a0A Dictionary of Symbols<\/em>, writing that “Teeth are the ‘primogenal weapons of attack’; thus their loss or decay is symbolic of ‘fear of castration or complete failure in life, or inhibition” (Gifford<\/em> 66).<\/p>\n

Teeth<\/strong> are also frequently associated with animals throughout the text. In Episode 5 Bloom encounters a horse’s “gently champing teeth<\/strong>,” (U<\/em>\u00a05.214)\u00a0and in Episode 4\u00a0he contemplates his cat’s “milkwhite teeth<\/strong>” (U<\/em>\u00a04.34). The latter example invites connections involving\u00a0milk, such as the scene with the old milkwoman, or Bloom’s fascination with lactation as described in Penelope<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Finally, teeth<\/strong> also serve as indicators of health and hygiene. In Episode I, Buck Mulligan describes\u00a0Ireland as a “country full of rotten teeth<\/strong> and rotten guts” (U\u00a0<\/em>1.412). Most notably, Buck Mulligan frequently refers to Stephen as “toothless<\/strong> Kinch.” Stephen also muses on his poor dental hygiene\u00a0in Episode III: “My teeth<\/strong> are very bad. Why, I wonder. Feel. That one is going too. Shells. Ought I go to a dentist, I wonder, with that money?” (U\u00a0<\/em>3.495-6).<\/p>\n

Though not encompassing many puns or double-meanings,\u00a0teeth<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>are connected to many other words and topics in the text. One of these is the word shells<\/a>, inserted seemingly randomly into Stephen’s interior monologue as he muses about has bad teeth (quoted above). The lexicon offers a variety of meanings for “shells”, including\u00a0“a symbol for wealth and power,” places of comfort and security, and battlefield explosives.\u00a0In this particular example, the connection between shells in the sea is interesting, given Stephen’s hydrophobia and fear of drowning.<\/p>\n

Teeth\u00a0<\/strong>are also the bodily organs upon which dentistry is practiced, opening up another realm of connections. In line 1638 of Cyclops<\/em>, Jack Power asks if Leopold Bloom is a cousin of “Bloom the dentist.” This case of mistaken identity reappears in\u00a0Circe<\/em>, when Bloom introduces himself to the Watch as “Dr [sic] Bloom, Leopold, dental surgeon” (U\u00a0<\/em>15.721). This, then, relates to both Bloom’s interest in science, his tendency toward voyeuristically peering at bodily orifices, and (given the associations between teeth and power, and the fact that dentists heal teeth), perhaps even Bloom’s complicity with Molly’s infidelity.<\/p>\n

Definitions and Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n

I. tooth, n (OED 1.a) “In plural, the hard processes within the mouth, attached (usually in sockets) in a row to each jaw in most vertebrates except birds (but also in some extinct birds), having points, edges, or grinding surfaces, and serving primarily for biting, tearing, or trituration of solid food, and secondarily as weapons of attack or defence, and for other purposes; in singular, each of these individually.”<\/p>\n

“Blazes Boylan looked in her blouse with more favour, the stalk of the red flower between his smiling teeth<\/strong>.” (U 10.335)<\/em><\/p>\n

II. (OED 2.b) “Referring to biting or gnawing; hence denoting a hurtful, hostile, destructive, or devouring agency or quality.”<\/p>\n

“Every fellow for his own, tooth and nail.” (U 8.701)<\/em><\/p>\n

III. (OED 3.a) “As an artificial structure, in an implement, machine, etc.; e.g. one of the pointed projections of a comb, saw, file, rake, harrow, fork, etc.; a prong, tine; one of the series of projections on the edge of a wheel, pinion, etc., which engage with corresponding ones on another; a cog.”<\/p>\n

“He is prematurely bald from selfabuse, perversely idealistic in consequence, a reformed rake, and has metal teeth<\/strong>.” (U 15.1781-2)<\/em><\/p>\n

“Eeltraps, lobsterpots, fishingrods, hatchet, steelyard, grindstone, clodcrusher, swatheturner, carriagesack, telescope ladder, 10 tooth rake<\/strong>, washing clogs, haytedder, tumbling rake, billhook, paintpot, brush, hoe and so on.” (U 17.1564)<\/em><\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bodies
\nMedicine
\nScience
\nAnimals
\nGender\/masculinity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tooth Forms\u00a0 toothless, toothache, toothsome, gaptoothed, toothed, buckteeth Related Terms shell, dentist, chew, milk, bite Explication Teeth are mentioned many times over the course of\u00a0Ulysses. Throughout the text, they\u00a0serve as symbols of power and carnality. In Episode II, Stephen refers to stone lions as “toothless terrors” (U 2.429-30). When Bloom is disgusted by the meat-eating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":615,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions\/615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eriksimpson.sites.grinnell.edu\/Ulysses16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}