The Carnivalesque Use of Numbers in James Joyce’s Ulysses

Abstract

The medieval culture gave great importance to numbers. Numbers like 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14 and 40 held great spiritual and symbolic significance during that time. Numbers were not only sacred to religion but also significant to art, science, astronomy, architecture, mathematics and music. Numbers were generally used to create order and maintain hierarchy in society. The concept of the ‘golden ratio’ or ‘golden number’ was maintained to create balance, visual appeal and harmony. It is in this religious and historical background of numbers that the French Renaissance writer Francois Rabelais makes comic and distorted use of numbers in his
novel Gargantua and Pantagruel.