7. Dying Without a Safety Net – Zürich James Joyce Foundation

Ulysses is an experimental modernist novel but nevertheless also depicts the daily reality of Dublin in 1904 in a very detailed manner – even contemporary insurance law.

The Dread of Surviving Dependents

Social security payments like pensions for widows barely existed in Ireland around 1900. To be able to protect one’s dependents, one either had to have a sufficiently large fortune or to take out a life insurance. Over the course of the 19th century, several insurance companies had developed models that made it possible for persons with limited means to insure themselves accordingly.

And yet, having a life insurance also constituted a temptation for these customers. If one happened to be in dire straits, it was easier to obtain a loan if one deposited one’s insurance assets as a security. This often led to legal disputes between creditors and surviving dependents. Lawmakers reacted by passing the 1867 Policies of Insurance Act. Among other things, this law determined that creditors could only be paid directly by an insurance
company if the latter had previously been notified of the existence of a debt.

Friends with Legal Expertise

Ulysses shows the consequences of this legal framework when Paddy Dignam, one of Leopold Bloom’s acquaintances, dies unexpectedly. During Dignam’s funeral, Bloom learns that the latter’s life insurance policy is “heavily mortgaged.” The widow and her children might thus end up empty-handed – if Dignam’s creditor learns of his death and informs the insurance company before they pay out the insurance.

Fortunately Bloom, who had previously worked with an insurance company, knows the legal situation well. Now he intends to advise the widow and her children accordingly because he knows that the sooner the dependents claim the insurance payment, the better the chances that Dignam’s creditor will not be able to do so first.

Ulysses does not tell us if Bloom’s plan to help actually works. But Dignam’s wife at least has a better chance to be paid out the total insured sum. This, in turn, will allow her to try and defend herself against any claims by her late husband’s creditor.

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One of the paintings by Aidan Hickey that accompanied the exhibit.

^{Sources: Hardiman, Adrian. Joyce in Court: James Joyce and the Law. 2017. Paperback ed., Apollo Books/Head of Zeus, 2018, pp. 191–202. | Savige, Jaya. “Underwriting Ulysses: Bloom, Risk and Life Insurance in the Nineteenth Century.” James Joyce in the Nineteenth Century, edited by John Nash, CUP, 2013, pp. 77–94.}