Readers get only fragmentary glimpses of Bloom after he walks
out of the Ormond hotel, but they can chart his course by the
plan he makes at the outset, by the two shops he passes, and
by one explicit stage direction: "Up the quay," i.e., westward
along the river. His walk, which will take him to the pub in
which Cyclops is set, begins fully four pages before
the end of Sirens, but the amount of ground he covers
in the chapter is minuscule. This feels psychologically
significant.
Bloom replies to Martha Clifford's letter in the
dining room of the Ormond ("Better write it here. Quills in
the postoffice chewed and twisted"), and then he thinks of
mailing the letter before going on to meet Martin Cunningham
and Jack Power at the pub: "Done anyhow. Postal order, stamp.
Postoffice lower down. Walk now. Enough. Barney Kiernan's I
promised to meet them." There was a post office at 34
Ormond Quay––technically up the quay from the Ormond at number
8, not "down"––and Kiernan's pub lay about a quarter of a mile
north of these two addresses.
After leaving the restaurant––perhaps he is still "in the
Ormond hallway" on the far side of the bar, or he may have
gone out onto the street––Bloom thinks of the post office
again, noting that it is in the same building where Reuben J.
Dodd has his office: "Postoffice near Reuben J's
one and eightpence too. Get shut of it. Dodge round by
Greek street. Wish I hadn't promised to meet." He must
turn north after visiting this post office, but the route he
mentions is not the most direct way to get from there to
Barney Kiernan's. Greek Street starts at the top of Pill Lane
(now Chancery Place) and goes due north, avoiding the fish and
produce markets. It is shown on the second map here. The first
map shows Bloom taking Charles Street and then walking between
the two markets. That it is mistaken in this one detail is
made clear even by the text of Gunn and Hart's book, which
notes that Bloom "follows a slightly devious route" via Greek
Street to avoid running into people he knows on the busier
path (61). That Bloom does go by the slightly longer route is
confirmed in Cyclops when the narrator says that he
saw him "sloping around by Pill lane and Greek street."
Having decided on his itinerary, Bloom appears several
sentences later proceeding west on Upper Ormond Quay: "Up
the quay went Lionelleopold, naughty Henry with letter
for Mady, with sweets of sin with frillies for Raoul with met
him pike hoses went Poldy on." A full page later the narrative
notes that "Bloom went by Barry's." J. M. Barry &
Co., merchant tailors and outfitters, was at number 12, not
far at all from the Ormond. After still another page of text,
the narrative locates him at number 16: "In Lionel Marks's
antique saleshop window haughty Henry Lionel Leopold
dear Henry Flower earnestly Mr Leopold Bloom envisaged
candlestick melodeon oozing maggoty blowbags." Here he sees
the framed poster of Robert Emmet's last words that he
is still contemplating at the chapter's end. Bloom has
traveled a total of about 100 feet––surprisingly little
distance for what feels like a fairly long time to a reader of
the chapter.
The narrative method is at least partly responsible for this
disjunction: jumping back and forth between the departing
Bloom, the people still in the bar, and the blind stripling
who is tapping his way toward it creates a false sense of
temporal and spatial extension. But it also appears that Bloom
is not going anywhere fast, and his slow progress is
associated with a reclusive state of mind. Throughout these
pages he shies away from human society. He leaves the bar
before people can rush together to congratulate Ben Dollard on
his performance of The Croppy Boy: "General chorus off
for a swill to wash it down. Glad I avoided." He schemes to
avoid the crowds around the markets: "Get shut of it. Dodge
round by Greek street. Wish I hadn't promised to meet." He
turns and stares into Marks's window to avoid meeting "the
whore of the lane": "Hope she. Psst! Any chance of your wash.
Knew Molly.... Too dear too near to home sweet home. Sees me,
does she?... Look in here."
Bloom's wish to avoid the prying judgmental eyes of human
beings at this time has an obvious cause: he has just seen
Blazes Boylan leave the bar for Eccles Street. His halting
progress, so unlike Boylan's jigging jogging impatience a few
pages earlier, creates a sense of indirection and stasis much
like the one sketched by his footsteps in Lotus Eaters.
The two chapters are linked by a strong emotional commonality:
the hour after leaving Molly in the morning held anguish and
embarrassment, and this time must be no less painful. But
Bloom's efforts to avoid running into people who know him are
doomed: arriving at Barney Kiernan's in Cyclops, he
finds himself out of the frying pan and into the hottest fire
of social contempt he faces all day.
