No More Learning

The character of Shaun (Kevin), the folk-shepherd brother, the politi- cal orator, prudent, unctuous, economically successful favorite of the people, policeman of the planet, conqueror of rebels, bearer of the white man's burden, is developed by Joyce elaborately and broadly. He is the contra- puntal opposite of Shem: the two brothers are the balanced ends of the human dumbbell. And if it is the typical lot of Shem to be whipped and despoiled, Shaun is typically the whipper and despoiler.
When he turns from making empires and preserving the peace of the world to the writing of best sellers, the favored son does not himself de- scend to those dangerous, obscene, and forbidden depths from which the other brings forth his mad productions; his works are never in danger of censorship and rejection; they are the censors and the rejectors. Indeed,
? ? ? A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake Introduction to a Strange Subject ? ?
? ? Shaun is not concerned with spiritual or esthetic matters except in so far as he can exploit them; the life of the flesh and the senses is good enough for him. In a diverting passage beginning on page ? ? ? , Shaun addresses the little daygirls of St. Bride's Academy, smiting their tender ears with admo- nitions of good counsel and very practical advice. "Collide with man, col- lude with money" is a typical Shaunian saw. In sum: Shaun is a man nai? vely and shrewdly outgoing, whereas Shem, his brother, has been touched by the "agenbite" which probes back again to the source. Shaun execrates Shem, maligns him, with the frank but not altogether unfearful disdain of the man of action for the man of thought. Under the title of Shaun the Postman, he delivers to mankind the great message which has been actually discovered and penned by Shem, and enjoys thereby all the rewards of those who carry good tidings.
Shem's business is not to create a higher life, but merely to find and utter the Word. Shaun, on the other hand, whose function is to make the Word become flesh, misreads it, fundamentally rejects it, limits himself to a kind of stupid concretism, and, while winning all the skirmishes, loses the eternal city.
HCE, the father of this pair, represents the unity from which their po- larity springs. Compared with the rich plasticity of HCE, the boys are but shadow-thin grotesques. Their history plays like a strange mirage over the enduring core of the basic presence of HCE. The energy generated by their conflict is but a reflex of the original energy generated by the father's fall. Furthermore, antipodal as the brothers may be, they are both easily em- braced by the all-inclusive love of their wonderful mother ALP. (See, for instance, the charming passages on pages ? ? ? to ? ? ? . )
Toward the close of the work (specifically during the third chapter of Book III (pp. ? ? ? -? ? ? )), the forms of the son's world dissolve and the ever- lasting primal form of HCE resurges. The all-father is reunited with his wife in a diamond-wedding anniversary, as if to demonstrate that behind the complexity of their children's lives, they still continue to be the motive- givers. Together, they constitute the primordial, androgynous angel, which is Man, the incarnate God.
What, finally, is Finnegans Wake all about? Stripping away its accidental features, the book may be said to be all compact of mutually supplementary antagonisms: male-and-female, age-and-youth, life-and-death, love-and-hate;
? these, by their attraction, conflicts, and repulsions, supply polar energies that spin the universe. Wherever Joyce looks in history or human life, he discov- ers the operation of these basic polarities. Under the seeming aspect of diver- sity--in the individual, the family, the state, the atom, or the cosmos--these constants remain unchanged. Amid trivia and tumult, by prodigious symbol and mystic sign, obliquely and obscurely (because these manifestations are both oblique and obscure), James Joyce presents, develops, amplifies, and re- condenses nothing more nor less than the eternal dynamic implicit in birth, conflict, death, and resurrection.
? ? Synopsis and Demonstration
? Synopsis
Finnegans Wake is divided into four great Parts, or Books, not named, but numbered from I to IV. In leaving these books untitled, Joyce is not wan- tonly casting the reader adrift without such chart or compass as chapter headings ordinarily provide. Rather, he intends that the subject matter of each Book shall develop organically out of its own life cell, making known its nature and direction as the development proceeds. The titles we have as- signed to these Books in the following synopsis are based on the relationship of Joyce's fourfold cycle to the Four Ages of the Viconian Corso-Ricorso. As here presented, the titles, and the synopsis itself, are intended to serve as a handrail for the reader groping his way along unfamiliar galleries.
Book I: The Book of the Parents
Chapter ? : Finnegan's Fall (pp. ? -? ? )*
The first four paragraphs are the suspended tick of time between a cycle just past and one about to begin. They are in effect an overture, resonant
? ? * Our titles for the sixteen chapters into which the work is subdivided are adaptations from phrases in Joyce's text.
? ?
? ? A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake ? ? Synopsis and Demonstration ? ?
? with all the themes of Finnegans Wake. The dominant motif is the polylingual thunderclap of paragraph ? (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronnton- nerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk! ) which is the voice of God made audible through the noise of Finnegan's fall.
Narrative movement begins with the life, fall, and wake of hod carrier Finnegan (pp. ? -? ). The Wake scene fades into the landscape of Dublin and environs. Whereupon we review scenic, historic, prehistoric, and leg- endary evidences of Finnegan's all-suffusing presence (pp. ? -? ? ). The Wake scene re-emerges. At the sound of the word "whisky" (usqueadbaugham! ) the deceased sits up and threatens to rise, but the company soothes him back. The whole structure of the new day has been founded on the fact of his demise (pp. ? ? -? ? ). Primeval Finnegan has already been supplanted by HCE, who has arrived by sea to set up family and shop (pp. ? ? -? ? ).
Chapter ? : HCE--His Agnomen and Reputation (pp. ? ? -? ? )
A half-trustworthy account is given of the earliest days of HCE and of how he came by his curious name. The rumors of his misconduct in the Park are reviewed. We next are regaled with the story of how these rumors grew after his encounter with a certain tramp in Phoenix Park. The scurrilous tales culminate in a popular lampoon, "The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly," which fixes on HCE the blame for all local ills.
Chapter ? : HCE--His Trial and Incarceration (pp. ? ? -? ? )
Through the fog screen of scandal little can be clarified. As the author points out, it all happened a long time ago and the participants are no longer alive--yet their counterparts dwell among us. A series of personages voluntarily arise to explain HCE's case. Somehow they all resemble the ac- cused. Passers-by are interviewed for their opinion of the celebrated wrong- doer (pp. ? ? -? ? ). The story is told of his arrest. His fate is compared to that of an American sugar-daddy. The women in the case are said to have come to unhappy ends. After the hurly-burly is over, HCE, the eternal scapegoat, is incarcerated for his own protection and roundly insulted through the keyhole of his cell by a visiting hog-caller from the U. S. A. (pp. ? ? -? ? ).
? Chapter ? : HCE--His Demise and Resurrection (pp. ? ? -? ? ? )
Various thoughts pass through the mind of the captive HCE. Meanwhile, a subaqueous grave is prepared for him at the bottom of Lough Neagh, which, presently, he is induced to enter. During the general chaos that im- mediately ensues, phantom apparitions of HCE are variously reported from several battlefields (pp. ? ? -? ? ).
The filthy paganism of his day and the origin of a certain mud mound in which a letter was deposited are described by the scrubwoman, Widow Kate. This is the first hint of the great Letter theme which foliates hugely throughout the book (pp. ? ? -? ? ).
A fresh encounter and arrest, and the trial of a certain Festy King, re- produce with important variations the case of HCE. Festy King is Shaun the Postman; his accuser, Shem the Penman; they are the sons of the great figure. All now await a certain letter which, it is expected, may reveal the whole truth. Meanwhile, the Four Old Judges ruminate the days of HCE (pp. ? ? -? ? ).
It is found that the inhabitant of the watery tomb has escaped and may be anywhere. He is perhaps incarnate in the newly elected Pope. But having heard his story, what we want to hear now is the history of the suffering and forgiving wife (pp. ? ? -? ? ? ).
Chapter ? : The Manifesto of ALP (pp. ? ? ? -? ? )
This chapter discusses at length the origin and calligraphy of the Great Letter, which has gone by various names in various times and places. It was dug from a mud mound by a hen, was saved by Shem, but then passed off by Shaun as his own discovery. Scholarly analysis of the letter by a professor- figure shows it to be pre-Christian, post-Barbaric, and peculiarly Celtic. The scribe responsible for this letter manuscript, working under the dicta- tion of ALP, is suggested to have been much like Shem the Penman.
(This letter, which is to go through many metamorphoses during the course of Finnegans Wake, is Mother Nature's partial revelation of the majesty of God the Father; simultaneously, it is the broken communication of that revelation through poetry and myth--ALP the Muse, Shem the scribe; finally it is the germ and substance of Finnegans Wake itself.
? ?
A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake ? ? Synopsis and Demonstration ? ?
? Chapter ? : Riddles--The Personages of the Manifesto (pp. ? ? ? -? ? )
In the form of a classroom quiz the professor who has just analyzed the let- ter manuscript now propounds a series of riddles touching the characters therein revealed: (? ) The Father, (? ) The Mother, (? ) Their Home, (? ) Their City, (? ) The Manservant, (? ) The Scrubwoman, (? ) The Twelve Sleepy Customers, (? ) The Temptresses, (? ) The Man's Story,* (? ? ) His Daughter, dreaming Love into her Mirror, (? ? ) The Battle Polarity of his Sons, (? ? ) That Cursed Shem.
Question ? ? is answered by a ponderous Professor Jones, who discusses at great length the history and metaphysics of the brother conflict and demonstrates the relationship of the Shem-Shaun-Iseult triangle to HCE- ALP. To aid those unable to follow his complex thesis he supplies the par- able of "The Mookse and The Gripes" (pp. ? ? ? -? ? ), wherein the conquest of Ireland by Henry II with the encouragement of Pope Adrian IV is presented as an Alice-in-Wonderland fable translated from the Javanese. ? Professor Jones is of the Shaun type and his speech is an apologia pro vita sua.
Chapter ? : Shem the Penman (pp. ? ? ? -? ? )
The low character, self-exile, filthy dwelling, vicissitudes, and corrosive writings of the other son of HCE comprise the subject matter of this chap- ter. This is a thinly veiled burlesque of Joyce's own life as an artist. It is a short chapter, highly amusing and comparatively easy to read.
Chapter ? : The Washers at the Ford (pp. ? ? ? -? ? ? )
Two washerwomen rinsing clothes on opposite banks of River Liffey gos- sip about the lives of HCE and ALP. Every garment reminds them of a story, which they recount with pity, tenderness, and ironic brutality. The principal tale is of ALP at her children's ball, where she diverts attention from the scandal of the father by distributing to each a token of his own destiny. The mind is thus led forward from recollections of the parents to
? the rising generation of sons and daughters. As the stream widens and twi- light descends, the washerwomen lose touch with each other; they wish to hear of the children, Shem and Shaun; night falls and they metamorphose gradually into an elmtree and a stone; the river babbles on.
Book II: The Book of the Sons
Chapter ? : The Children's Hour (pp. ? ? ? -? ? )
The children of the taverner play in the evening before the tavern. Shem and Shaun, under the names of Glugg and Chuff, battle for the approval of the girls. Glugg (Shem) loses out, and retreats with a rancorous threat to write a revenging Jeremiad. The children are summoned home to supper and to bed. Again playing before sleep, they are finally silenced by the thunderous noise of their father slamming a door.
Chapter ? : The Study Period--Triv and Quad (pp. ? ? ? -? ? ? )
Dolph (Shem), Kev (Shaun), and their sister are at their lessons. Their little tasks open out upon the whole world of human learning: Kabbalistic Theology, Viconian Philosophy, the seven liberal arts of the Trivium and Quadrivium, with a brief recess for letter-writing and belle-lettristics. The mind is guided by gradual stages from the dim mysteries of cosmogony down to Chapelizod and the tavern of HCE (pp. ? ? ? -? ? ).
While the little girl broods on love, Dolph assists Kev with a geometry problem, revealing to him through circles and triangles the mother secrets of ALP. Kev indignantly strikes him down; Dolph recovers and forgives (pp. ? ? ? -? ? ? ).
The chapter concludes with a final examination and commencement. The children are ready to create their New World, which will feed upon the Old (pp. ? ? ? -? ).
Chapter ? : Tavernry in Feast (pp. ? ? ? -? ? )
This chapter, nearly one-sixth of Finnegans Wake in bulk, is ostensibly a great feast held in the tavern of HCE. Yarns go round and the radio and television break in constantly. We overhear the tavern customers telling the fabulous histories of a Flying Dutchman sea-rover whom we come to
? ? * [[Question (? ) may also be about the complex Universe itself. --ELE]]
? [[Or from Greek; "Javan" was the ancestor of the Ionic Greeks in the Bible (Genesis ? ? :? ,
? ). --ELE]]
? ? A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake ? ? Synopsis and Demonstration ? ?
? suspect is HCE in an earlier phase. The whole story of HCE's presence in the town, and of his misadventure in the Park, is being rehearsed under cover of the Flying Dutchman yarn (pp. ? ? ? -? ? ).
As the drinks and stories go round, we reach the midpoint of Finnegans Wake with an installment of the television skit of "Butt and Taff. " These vaudeville characters rehearse the story of how one Buckley shot a Russian General at the Battle of Sevastopol in the Crimean War. Amidst echoes of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" the figure of the Russian General ap- pears on the television screen; he is the living image of HCE (pp. ? ? ? -? ? ).
When the radio and television are shut off the entire company sides with Buckley. But the tavernkeeper arises to the support of the Russian General. The company agrees in a powerful condemnation of their host who, it appears, is running for public office. It is nearly closing time. From afar come sounds of an approaching mob, singing a ballad celebrating the guilt and overthrow of HCE. Feeling that he has been rejected by his people whom he came to rule, the tavernkeeper clears his place and is at last alone. In desperation he laps up the dregs of all the glasses and bottles, and collapses drunkenly on the floor. He now beholds, as a dream, the vi- sion of the next chapter (pp. ? ? ? -? ? ).
Chapter ? : Bride-Ship and Gulls (pp. ? ? ? -? ? )
HCE, dreaming on the floor, sees himself as King Mark, cuckolded by young Tristram, who sails away with Iseult. The honeymoon boat is cir- cled by gulls, i. e. , the Four Old Men, who regard the vivid event from their four directions. HCE, broken and exhausted, is no better now than they.
Book III: The Book of the People
Chapter ? : Shaun before the People (pp. ? ? ? -? ? )
HCE has gathered himself up to bed with his wife. His dream vision of the future unfolds. Shaun the Post is seen to stand before the people recom- mending himself to their votes, and abusing his rival, Shem. To illustrate the brother contrast Shaun recounts the Aesopian fable of "The Ondt and the Gracehoper" (pp. ? ? ? -? ? ). His principal point against Shem is that his language is beyond the pale of human propriety. The vision fades and a keen is lifted for the departed hero.
? Chapter ? : Jaun before St. Bride's (pp.