Our Bloom, the wandering Jew, makes up half of the character Faust, in Goethe’s great play, Faust. After Faust makes the deal with the devil, on the terms that he will employ the devil to help him find satisfaction, he wanders the earth in search of a time when he can say ‘I wish to keep this moment for the rest of eternity’.
“If ever I recline, calmed, on a bed of sloth, you may destroy me then and there. If ever flattering you should wile me that in myself I find delight, if with enjoyment you beguile me, then break on me, eternal night! This is the bet I offer.” (Faust, lines 1692-1700)
Just as Ulysses wanders the earth in search of Ithaca, a place where he may be at rest and at home, Faust searches for love, for happiness, contentment, and state of mind that cures his wandering as Ithaca would cure Ulysses’. Leopold Bloom adopts this struggle and so far in the book we have seen him conduct his day similarly to the fantastical adventures of both Ulysses and Faust.
Bloom is a creature of the distraction of earthly pleasures. We meet our ‘hero’ as he stuffs his face with breakfast and (as readers) accompany him on his long list of gluttonous daily chores. This is not to say that his life is purely pleasurable, he does his share of obligations. He attends the funeral, and he goes to work (for a brief time). Bloom’s constant attraction to distraction couples him with Faust. The pursuit of happiness is easily corrupted by glutton and lascivious desire, as seen in both Faust and Ulysses (the courting of Margaret and Calypso’s island).
Bloom’s wandering (for the most part) is reified in thought. His mind wanders from thought to thought. As he moves through the day, he thinks of women and food and other earthly pleasures. At the end of chapter eight he ventures into the museum, where he goes to view the naked female form. “His heart quipped softly. To the right. Museum. Godesses. He swerved to the right.” (p.183)