Sadly, though, there are too many differences between Stephen and Bloom in order for them to be truly compatible and complementary, and "Eumaeus" contains the seeds of the dissolution of their temporary friendship, which will end after June 17. The gap between these two men is ultimately too great, and at the end of the novel, we are left with only Molly's thoughts as Stephen (now usurping the role of the Chaplinesque "little tramp") wanders off to an unknown destiny. Even as Bloom and Stephen enter the shelter, Joyce makes it clear that misunderstanding is the key to this episode. Bloom praises the Italian spoken by a group of people standing around an ice cream cart, and Stephen deflates his adorational "a beautiful language" by explaining: "They were haggling over money." Bloom again points out the dangers of prostitution (the spread of venereal disease), and Stephen asserts that the Irish people have sold much more than their bodies — he means, of course, their souls. Also, Bloom's point that Shakespeare's plays may have been written by Bacon is pathetic, following, as it does, Stephen's highly abstruse discussion of Shakespeare in "Scylla and Charybdis." Again, Bloom's insistence that in his new, proposed socialistic state everyone must work falls wide of the mark, and he hurriedly explains that Stephen would be acceptable too, since writing poetry could be defined as "labor," of a sort. Bloom's assurance that both the "brain and the brawn" belong to Ireland elicits merely Stephen's enigmatic retort: "Ireland must be important because it belongs to me."
It is in matters of religion, though, that Bloom and Stephen are furthest apart, philosophically and spiritually. Ironically, Bloom thinks that Stephen is a "good catholic"; he states and restates this judgment, summing it up finally in the statement: "orthodox as you are." However, it is the word "simple" that Stephen uses in discussing the human soul that clearly delineates the contrast between the two men. Bloom responds: "Simple? I shouldn't think that is the proper word." What Stephen has in mind is the scholastic definition of "simple" — that is, having no parts. God is simple; so is the soul. But Bloom just does not have the intellectual capacity to appreciate such complexities; he is too mired in the real world of money and politics — as he always will be.
