journey backward to annihilation: 'we follow receding on your photophoric
pilgrimage
10 your antipodes in the pa.
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
,u",", them, '" Shem and Shaun and all their paired corrdative.
, .
piralling around their orbits, find that each scenu puny to the other yet mighty to himself.
The second type of counterpoint i, much more difficult to bring off but altogether richer in pouihilitie? . Thi. involVe! the me of opposing cycle> centrW. , $0 to . peak, in the same ,ub- stance, but moving in contrary direction. . , always preserving an ovcrall balance ofmotion. 'nu,other type ofstructural counter_ point;' no more original inJoyce than;' the fi. . . . t. Indeed he has taken it ovcr virtually unchanged fr"m Yea'" and Blah--from
A V"icn and 'The lI-kntal Traveller' in particular':
'a h<:ing racing into the future pU! CS a. h<:ing racing into the past, two foot_prints perpetually oblilr. rating one another, toe 10 heel, heel to toe. '
Around a central ""ction, Book iI, Joyce build. two oppooing
, . -I Vi';"', p. >10: 10)'0' ,cad. of Vi';'" in both the r"" and ><<ODd (r"""""l editions, publi>hed m 19>6 &nd 1937 ,=v<<,jvo:ly. &. Elimann, p. 608: T. E. Connolly. T k P",,,,04 (,j. "'"? ifJ"""J')<', mel <<I". , IlufWo.
='
t" E~< Job>, ",gr""jng <h>. t 'Yea" 66
1~~7,
did not put . U (hi. into a CKa'i~ W(M"k', OJ,,,,,,,,, p. I~.
p. 4'; ct. aool0)'0'"
? Cyclic Form
cycks oonUlling of Boob I and III. In these two Book! there is e. ;tablished a pattern of oorreapondenccs of the major event> of each, th= in Book In occurring in revc= order and having inV<'l"lC (. b. aracteri,(ics. ' Whereas Book I begins with a rather ohvioul hiTth (~6-9) and enw with a Iymb:. >lk death (2'5- ,6), Book III begirn with death (-lOS) and endo with a birth (590): 'roadl" and the meeting with the King (I. ~) reap! ",ar in III. 4. the trial of I. S-4 in TH. S, the Letter of 1. 5 in III. I, and the fables of 1. 6 . ,. din in III. I. In ru. oollopondcnce Joyce
implicitly referred to tm. pattern':
'I wanted it [,. 6. 11 ) as ballast and the whole piece [1. 6] il 10
balance /I. abed [Book III] more ao::uratdy . . . 1\ """ot i; " bit hUlky bwide the mOre melodious Shaun ofthe third pari . . . ' " had a rather . trange dT"am the other night. I was looking at a Turk. eated in a bazaar. He had a framework On his knees and on one oide he had a jumble of alI. hade, of red and yellow skeins and on the other ajumble of greens and bluo of ill ,hado. He was picking fTom Tight and left very calmly and wea,? ing away. It is evidently . . ,piit rainbow and also Parts' and lII. '
To FraIlk Budgen he described the pTOCcU of oomposing Finrllg= W. . t. . :
'I am boring through a mOWltall from two . ide. . The question i,. how to meet in the middle. '
Thi, inven<: relaUoll. 'lhip explain. what Joyce meant by hi; ,tatement that Book III is 'a deocriplion ofa postman travelling backward, in the night through the even" already narrated'. ' Th. dream-vision, of Book III are a mirror-image Qf the legend. of Rook 1, while both drealIl. '! and legends "Te Tation- ali,cd in the nnderlying natura. lism ofJlook IT, on I<. > which they
oonverge. On this ground. plan Joyce builds up a dynamic $CI. of rclali(m3hip' between youch and age which reproduce the outline of the 'Mental Traveller' situation. The pattern i;
, ce. Bradky", n\W> ? wh<> ,. . . . " ,. . . ,he. . . . . . ,hiotO<)' "';tn 0Il<><1v<>, bu, in Ih< oppooi'" dir<ctiOtl', F. IT. 1hIdley, . lfP' . . "" "'" RI"'-ilJ, London,
1l! g3. p . ''1 .
? Lm"" p. '3'.
? uti"" Pl>. 256. >6t.
? Oi,"""". p. 't. , Utkf',P? ? 14?
"
? Cyclic Form
dearest {owa:rd the end of Flook TV but pervades lhe whole of
Fiiwgmu WaM . . . a gcncnolliru: "fdevelopment. Shaun;. king rejuvenated; during Book III he rno"". toward the dawn of cc<aliem, and hu final appearencc in Book IV . . . the 'child
Kevin' cone/udes a long and complicated pmc. " by which he retrt:a~ through cloud. of glory 10 {he moment of hi. OWn birth and the con<<:plion which precrded it: 'wurming along gradu- ally for our . avings bac. klowaro. motherwatml' (84. 30). Con- lemporaneow with Shaun', hopeful rejuvenati. :m i. Anna'. d. . pairing prog. . ,ss toward, her ? Id r,rone. Li" IS/ad al the end
of Fj"'''g411J WaM. She, the pas$iv~ clement, ! nOV"" with time', arrow (with which, a. the pTin~ipk of nux, she U in any case to be identified); Shaun, the aclive, move> agairut it. As an inVO'ted form of that 'youth who daily farther from the Eastl MWI lrav. ! ' {. ugg~"ed by Wonhworthian <<hoe' al f29. '7}, h~ literally grows youn~T a. \ Book In prngrem:s. In Ill. I hi. . Iwin brother Shern i, old enough to be 'CcI~brAIed' (421,2' ) ; in Ill. , Shaun h"" becomo tIu: young Iov~r,. Jaun; in lIl'3 be
i< likened to '50m~ chubby boylx>ld of an an~1' (474-'S); during Hl. 4 he app<':"n m",[ of the time as an infant in Ihe nu=ry. It docs nOl seem 10 have been nOliced that at the end of III. 4 we have work<:d, 'ulmugh the grand tryomphal arch', right back to the hirth, which . . described with many detail, at 589"""9". We are, in fact, ',,"kipping the cloxkback' (579. o. ~). 1 At 472. ? 6 the Ass allude' dittctly to Shaun'.
journey backward to annihilation: 'we follow receding on your photophoric pilgrimage 10 your antipodes in the pa. \t'. Immediately after his reapp<':arance for a moment in Book IV "" the newborn baby" he retires ~iI1. the vagina- 'amiddle of meeting walen', which . . 10 s. oty ;nUt W'in,u . Ifaues-into the womb- 'the ventri_ fugal principality' (605. '7)~urrounds himself with amniotic fluid in ever-decreasing voiumel and crouch", like a foetus until, a dimini,hing embryo, he disapp<':an with a fla,h and an
exdamation- 'Yec! . . . u tinguu h'; a moment later he re- enters as the two simple sewS from whi~h he was comJ'O'Cd,
1 Cf. ~lso 585. 3',
? A l tIUo ~nt ~un" . ,'" pL. yi,~ lh< p. rt ofChri. . imm<dia. ely. fter dte R",urrectton; '" a. . . p,,,," Four.
? Cyclic Form
r<:procnted by that oppoocd yet amalgamating ( ouple, Berkeley and Patri~k. Th<: pru:agraph /i'llowing th~ 'Kevin' epioode is tinged with ,uitably ropuiatory imagery.
This is all primru:ily applied Blake, and the analogy with 'The Mental Traveller' also hold. with re'pect to the other characte. . . in FiMt! l= W. zk,. Earwicker, approaching the end his u",ful career in II. I, ente. . . at the conclusion of that chapter as:
An "g,d SluuIow. . .
W,,"d'Tillg "m""anEarrirJ. 1 (At
and subsequently reappean (11. 3) as the Host, who: ? . ,imls riot B'gg4T & riot P/)OT
Arul riot wa:d",illg TT",~lkr
The love, of Blake', 'Female Babe' who 'prings from the hearth (h. y) and the 'Man . he lov",' (Triltan, 1I. 4), 'drive out the aged Host' who tries to win a Maiden (bi. incestuoU! love for his daughter), and though from this love of old man and maid a1110cial and physical d. . . . . . ter 'pring. , it is, in Finntgam W. zk, as in 'The Mental Traveller', the nnly mean, whereby Ear_ wichn may be rejuvenated as Shaun,. Joy~e'. Babe, Kcvin- 'TI,e child, a natural child'- i. kidnapped C~9. 'j. 34), as i, Blah', Babo:, and must then be nailed down upon the Rock of the Church by the I'rankquean 'with the nail ofa top' (2~. I. '>> a, the ""ven,tim", circumscribed Saint 50 that Anna, the 'weeping
woman old', may turn full circle bad: to her youth as a rainbow, girl. C1O! Clyallied to th;' use of Blake is Joyce', 'pecial applica, tion nf Yeau' description of the soul', fJrut "",,"urn prog",ss through an inverted form of dream-life (the Dr,,. ,,,ing Back, R,tr<,. ,. and Shiftings), but a. thi, concerru the complex dream- structure of the book T have delayed a doc"",ion of it until the
next chapter.
III: WHAT IS THE "fl. . ? {. '>OLO. '>}
From th~ initiating . permatic f1cod of creation, 'rivermn', tn
the . ort syllable 'the'-the most comm()n in tIle English
"
? Cyclic Form
languagel-<m which it W! lle$ to ilJ whimpering end, the gr. a! m""" ofFinlltllVlS W<lk. "'pr=nlJ eternity; at the opposite atume it '''''flUto ""p~nt the fleeting, infinitesimail1\()men. during which it used 10 be thought that even the long"'[ drum
took place:
'he it a day Or a year Or even . uppo>ing, it ,hould eventually turn out to be a serial number ofgoodnes, gracious alone know, how many day1 or yea. . : (I,1l,oS; and d . 194. 06 If)
Within th""" macro_ and miCTOCD$mic limits Fin~. gmu Wd.
functiolU at a number ofsymbolic levels, ~ach hased Qn iu own particular lime_period. As the main tcmpnral cycles have not hitherto been propcrly undcntood, I . hall sketch them;n here,
a, briefly a. possible, tldor. going "Il to anal)",: the rdated dream-<yclC:l. At the naturaliuic levd, <:orr">p"",Ung to 'Bloo! ruday? . Fi""'IIOtu Wakt i1lhe detailed a<;(ount of a ,ingle day" activ;tk. ; at the next rt:move it depi(ts a typiGal w<:ek of human exilten",,; and, next ;n importan(~ 10 the archetypal daily cyde, the book ruIU through a full liturgical year, Tlu:re
are many other time_schemes, ofCOUl''', but th= thr-x are the mOllt important.
The na. lural;'t;c plot, such", ;t ll, U concerned with events at a public howe near Dublin on one day fairly early in this century, while at the = n d level {he individual incidents of thi& ,;ngle day a", divided up by Joyce and d;otributed in ord~r throughout an entire w-xk, th", cxpand;n. ~ a daily into a weekly
cycle. A morning event, fur ""ample, takes place on a \Voones- day, an evening event On" Friday, and 10 on. Confusion ","uh_ ing from the fai1"r~ of the critic", to appreciate this technique of time-expamion and oomptes$ion h~ 100 to a misunde",tanding abom the day orthe week on which the whole twenty. four hour cycle take! plac. <:. Thi. i, a Friday, not, '" Mr. Edmund Wilson has it, a Saturday' (S,24. 18{. 3~, 399,~', 433. ,\I). T hat the day ofthe Wake could not in any c<t. l<: he a Saturday i. indicated by th~ fact that Dublin public. howel in J oyce'. day dosed al
,G. lJ. :wq. R4Wi. ft,~'I/'&. t. /i! ",puc"~,c. . m~,~1. :Lo$. , '9'3. 1'1'. 46, '01, ,>6.
, r. . W;~"'" "1"0 o. . ,. m of n . c. F,. . ,. . ,. ;o,,,,,', -no. W,""" aod ,iI< B-, L o n d o n , '9~2, p . " 9 .
7'
? Cydic F(ffm
(0 p. m, on Saturday nights, wherea" as I point out below, Earwickcr', e'tabli,hment cle<<, at I ( p,m. (370), which wa; th~ Mrmal d~ing time /i,r Monday_Friday. ' Joyce had not forgotten about Dublin'l Saturday night early. c\o:! ing, since he alludes to it at 39". 06.
At thil point il iJ u. uallo ,ay that f! iNugan. r Wake is a night_ piece, balancing joyce', day_book, Uly",s. Finntgaos W"", i. indeed a night_book in that il" supposed to be taking place in the mind of a sl. epcr, while Uf1JSts is a day-book in that it naTratts the events of the waking-hours, but otherwi. . the dichotomy i, not so complete. At leaat half of UIySStS, and that the mOre important, takes plac<: after dMk, while well ovcr a third of FinlUga", W"", iJ concerned with day_time activitie? . Alm~t the whole of Book I take. place in daylight; Book IT
repre. ent> the hours between dusk and midnight; Book Til I",ts from midnight to dawn; Book IV is the moment of lunri,e. TIle plot of the novel can be understood only if this temporal pattern is kept dearly in mind. Aa with the gcn~ral cydi<; organi. ! ation,joyce stem, to have arrived at a dear concepli()n
or the timc-! dlcme only after m~t of Book I had been com- pleted. Boo'" II, liT, and TV therdore ,how much greatu detail of temporal organisation, but, with this res. ervation, the overall ,chem~ i. fairly dear.
Book I opcru with the morning'. drinking in th~ public house (6. I. ! ,). T be whole book, '''Y; Anna in her utter, begiO. 'l at Ihe magical hour of 11. 32 a. m. : 'Femelle! will be preadaminant
a. from twentyeight to twelve' (6'7. 23), which seem. to mean that Eve will prrcedc Adam as from 11. 32 a. m. This . he doe. in the first line of FilllUgfl/u WQ. u : 'rivenun, past Eve and Ad"m'" .
The second type of counterpoint i, much more difficult to bring off but altogether richer in pouihilitie? . Thi. involVe! the me of opposing cycle> centrW. , $0 to . peak, in the same ,ub- stance, but moving in contrary direction. . , always preserving an ovcrall balance ofmotion. 'nu,other type ofstructural counter_ point;' no more original inJoyce than;' the fi. . . . t. Indeed he has taken it ovcr virtually unchanged fr"m Yea'" and Blah--from
A V"icn and 'The lI-kntal Traveller' in particular':
'a h<:ing racing into the future pU! CS a. h<:ing racing into the past, two foot_prints perpetually oblilr. rating one another, toe 10 heel, heel to toe. '
Around a central ""ction, Book iI, Joyce build. two oppooing
, . -I Vi';"', p. >10: 10)'0' ,cad. of Vi';'" in both the r"" and ><<ODd (r"""""l editions, publi>hed m 19>6 &nd 1937 ,=v<<,jvo:ly. &. Elimann, p. 608: T. E. Connolly. T k P",,,,04 (,j. "'"? ifJ"""J')<', mel <<I". , IlufWo.
='
t" E~< Job>, ",gr""jng <h>. t 'Yea" 66
1~~7,
did not put . U (hi. into a CKa'i~ W(M"k', OJ,,,,,,,,, p. I~.
p. 4'; ct. aool0)'0'"
? Cyclic Form
cycks oonUlling of Boob I and III. In these two Book! there is e. ;tablished a pattern of oorreapondenccs of the major event> of each, th= in Book In occurring in revc= order and having inV<'l"lC (. b. aracteri,(ics. ' Whereas Book I begins with a rather ohvioul hiTth (~6-9) and enw with a Iymb:. >lk death (2'5- ,6), Book III begirn with death (-lOS) and endo with a birth (590): 'roadl" and the meeting with the King (I. ~) reap! ",ar in III. 4. the trial of I. S-4 in TH. S, the Letter of 1. 5 in III. I, and the fables of 1. 6 . ,. din in III. I. In ru. oollopondcnce Joyce
implicitly referred to tm. pattern':
'I wanted it [,. 6. 11 ) as ballast and the whole piece [1. 6] il 10
balance /I. abed [Book III] more ao::uratdy . . . 1\ """ot i; " bit hUlky bwide the mOre melodious Shaun ofthe third pari . . . ' " had a rather . trange dT"am the other night. I was looking at a Turk. eated in a bazaar. He had a framework On his knees and on one oide he had a jumble of alI. hade, of red and yellow skeins and on the other ajumble of greens and bluo of ill ,hado. He was picking fTom Tight and left very calmly and wea,? ing away. It is evidently . . ,piit rainbow and also Parts' and lII. '
To FraIlk Budgen he described the pTOCcU of oomposing Finrllg= W. . t. . :
'I am boring through a mOWltall from two . ide. . The question i,. how to meet in the middle. '
Thi, inven<: relaUoll. 'lhip explain. what Joyce meant by hi; ,tatement that Book III is 'a deocriplion ofa postman travelling backward, in the night through the even" already narrated'. ' Th. dream-vision, of Book III are a mirror-image Qf the legend. of Rook 1, while both drealIl. '! and legends "Te Tation- ali,cd in the nnderlying natura. lism ofJlook IT, on I<. > which they
oonverge. On this ground. plan Joyce builds up a dynamic $CI. of rclali(m3hip' between youch and age which reproduce the outline of the 'Mental Traveller' situation. The pattern i;
, ce. Bradky", n\W> ? wh<> ,. . . . " ,. . . ,he. . . . . . ,hiotO<)' "';tn 0Il<><1v<>, bu, in Ih< oppooi'" dir<ctiOtl', F. IT. 1hIdley, . lfP' . . "" "'" RI"'-ilJ, London,
1l! g3. p . ''1 .
? Lm"" p. '3'.
? uti"" Pl>. 256. >6t.
? Oi,"""". p. 't. , Utkf',P? ? 14?
"
? Cyclic Form
dearest {owa:rd the end of Flook TV but pervades lhe whole of
Fiiwgmu WaM . . . a gcncnolliru: "fdevelopment. Shaun;. king rejuvenated; during Book III he rno"". toward the dawn of cc<aliem, and hu final appearencc in Book IV . . . the 'child
Kevin' cone/udes a long and complicated pmc. " by which he retrt:a~ through cloud. of glory 10 {he moment of hi. OWn birth and the con<<:plion which precrded it: 'wurming along gradu- ally for our . avings bac. klowaro. motherwatml' (84. 30). Con- lemporaneow with Shaun', hopeful rejuvenati. :m i. Anna'. d. . pairing prog. . ,ss toward, her ? Id r,rone. Li" IS/ad al the end
of Fj"'''g411J WaM. She, the pas$iv~ clement, ! nOV"" with time', arrow (with which, a. the pTin~ipk of nux, she U in any case to be identified); Shaun, the aclive, move> agairut it. As an inVO'ted form of that 'youth who daily farther from the Eastl MWI lrav. ! ' {. ugg~"ed by Wonhworthian <<hoe' al f29. '7}, h~ literally grows youn~T a. \ Book In prngrem:s. In Ill. I hi. . Iwin brother Shern i, old enough to be 'CcI~brAIed' (421,2' ) ; in Ill. , Shaun h"" becomo tIu: young Iov~r,. Jaun; in lIl'3 be
i< likened to '50m~ chubby boylx>ld of an an~1' (474-'S); during Hl. 4 he app<':"n m",[ of the time as an infant in Ihe nu=ry. It docs nOl seem 10 have been nOliced that at the end of III. 4 we have work<:d, 'ulmugh the grand tryomphal arch', right back to the hirth, which . . described with many detail, at 589"""9". We are, in fact, ',,"kipping the cloxkback' (579. o. ~). 1 At 472. ? 6 the Ass allude' dittctly to Shaun'.
journey backward to annihilation: 'we follow receding on your photophoric pilgrimage 10 your antipodes in the pa. \t'. Immediately after his reapp<':arance for a moment in Book IV "" the newborn baby" he retires ~iI1. the vagina- 'amiddle of meeting walen', which . . 10 s. oty ;nUt W'in,u . Ifaues-into the womb- 'the ventri_ fugal principality' (605. '7)~urrounds himself with amniotic fluid in ever-decreasing voiumel and crouch", like a foetus until, a dimini,hing embryo, he disapp<':an with a fla,h and an
exdamation- 'Yec! . . . u tinguu h'; a moment later he re- enters as the two simple sewS from whi~h he was comJ'O'Cd,
1 Cf. ~lso 585. 3',
? A l tIUo ~nt ~un" . ,'" pL. yi,~ lh< p. rt ofChri. . imm<dia. ely. fter dte R",urrectton; '" a. . . p,,,," Four.
? Cyclic Form
r<:procnted by that oppoocd yet amalgamating ( ouple, Berkeley and Patri~k. Th<: pru:agraph /i'llowing th~ 'Kevin' epioode is tinged with ,uitably ropuiatory imagery.
This is all primru:ily applied Blake, and the analogy with 'The Mental Traveller' also hold. with re'pect to the other characte. . . in FiMt! l= W. zk,. Earwicker, approaching the end his u",ful career in II. I, ente. . . at the conclusion of that chapter as:
An "g,d SluuIow. . .
W,,"d'Tillg "m""anEarrirJ. 1 (At
and subsequently reappean (11. 3) as the Host, who: ? . ,imls riot B'gg4T & riot P/)OT
Arul riot wa:d",illg TT",~lkr
The love, of Blake', 'Female Babe' who 'prings from the hearth (h. y) and the 'Man . he lov",' (Triltan, 1I. 4), 'drive out the aged Host' who tries to win a Maiden (bi. incestuoU! love for his daughter), and though from this love of old man and maid a1110cial and physical d. . . . . . ter 'pring. , it is, in Finntgam W. zk, as in 'The Mental Traveller', the nnly mean, whereby Ear_ wichn may be rejuvenated as Shaun,. Joy~e'. Babe, Kcvin- 'TI,e child, a natural child'- i. kidnapped C~9. 'j. 34), as i, Blah', Babo:, and must then be nailed down upon the Rock of the Church by the I'rankquean 'with the nail ofa top' (2~. I. '>> a, the ""ven,tim", circumscribed Saint 50 that Anna, the 'weeping
woman old', may turn full circle bad: to her youth as a rainbow, girl. C1O! Clyallied to th;' use of Blake is Joyce', 'pecial applica, tion nf Yeau' description of the soul', fJrut "",,"urn prog",ss through an inverted form of dream-life (the Dr,,. ,,,ing Back, R,tr<,. ,. and Shiftings), but a. thi, concerru the complex dream- structure of the book T have delayed a doc"",ion of it until the
next chapter.
III: WHAT IS THE "fl. . ? {. '>OLO. '>}
From th~ initiating . permatic f1cod of creation, 'rivermn', tn
the . ort syllable 'the'-the most comm()n in tIle English
"
? Cyclic Form
languagel-<m which it W! lle$ to ilJ whimpering end, the gr. a! m""" ofFinlltllVlS W<lk. "'pr=nlJ eternity; at the opposite atume it '''''flUto ""p~nt the fleeting, infinitesimail1\()men. during which it used 10 be thought that even the long"'[ drum
took place:
'he it a day Or a year Or even . uppo>ing, it ,hould eventually turn out to be a serial number ofgoodnes, gracious alone know, how many day1 or yea. . : (I,1l,oS; and d . 194. 06 If)
Within th""" macro_ and miCTOCD$mic limits Fin~. gmu Wd.
functiolU at a number ofsymbolic levels, ~ach hased Qn iu own particular lime_period. As the main tcmpnral cycles have not hitherto been propcrly undcntood, I . hall sketch them;n here,
a, briefly a. possible, tldor. going "Il to anal)",: the rdated dream-<yclC:l. At the naturaliuic levd, <:orr">p"",Ung to 'Bloo! ruday? . Fi""'IIOtu Wakt i1lhe detailed a<;(ount of a ,ingle day" activ;tk. ; at the next rt:move it depi(ts a typiGal w<:ek of human exilten",,; and, next ;n importan(~ 10 the archetypal daily cyde, the book ruIU through a full liturgical year, Tlu:re
are many other time_schemes, ofCOUl''', but th= thr-x are the mOllt important.
The na. lural;'t;c plot, such", ;t ll, U concerned with events at a public howe near Dublin on one day fairly early in this century, while at the = n d level {he individual incidents of thi& ,;ngle day a", divided up by Joyce and d;otributed in ord~r throughout an entire w-xk, th", cxpand;n. ~ a daily into a weekly
cycle. A morning event, fur ""ample, takes place on a \Voones- day, an evening event On" Friday, and 10 on. Confusion ","uh_ ing from the fai1"r~ of the critic", to appreciate this technique of time-expamion and oomptes$ion h~ 100 to a misunde",tanding abom the day orthe week on which the whole twenty. four hour cycle take! plac. <:. Thi. i, a Friday, not, '" Mr. Edmund Wilson has it, a Saturday' (S,24. 18{. 3~, 399,~', 433. ,\I). T hat the day ofthe Wake could not in any c<t. l<: he a Saturday i. indicated by th~ fact that Dublin public. howel in J oyce'. day dosed al
,G. lJ. :wq. R4Wi. ft,~'I/'&. t. /i! ",puc"~,c. . m~,~1. :Lo$. , '9'3. 1'1'. 46, '01, ,>6.
, r. . W;~"'" "1"0 o. . ,. m of n . c. F,. . ,. . ,. ;o,,,,,', -no. W,""" aod ,iI< B-, L o n d o n , '9~2, p . " 9 .
7'
? Cydic F(ffm
(0 p. m, on Saturday nights, wherea" as I point out below, Earwickcr', e'tabli,hment cle<<, at I ( p,m. (370), which wa; th~ Mrmal d~ing time /i,r Monday_Friday. ' Joyce had not forgotten about Dublin'l Saturday night early. c\o:! ing, since he alludes to it at 39". 06.
At thil point il iJ u. uallo ,ay that f! iNugan. r Wake is a night_ piece, balancing joyce', day_book, Uly",s. Finntgaos W"", i. indeed a night_book in that il" supposed to be taking place in the mind of a sl. epcr, while Uf1JSts is a day-book in that it naTratts the events of the waking-hours, but otherwi. . the dichotomy i, not so complete. At leaat half of UIySStS, and that the mOre important, takes plac<: after dMk, while well ovcr a third of FinlUga", W"", iJ concerned with day_time activitie? . Alm~t the whole of Book I take. place in daylight; Book IT
repre. ent> the hours between dusk and midnight; Book Til I",ts from midnight to dawn; Book IV is the moment of lunri,e. TIle plot of the novel can be understood only if this temporal pattern is kept dearly in mind. Aa with the gcn~ral cydi<; organi. ! ation,joyce stem, to have arrived at a dear concepli()n
or the timc-! dlcme only after m~t of Book I had been com- pleted. Boo'" II, liT, and TV therdore ,how much greatu detail of temporal organisation, but, with this res. ervation, the overall ,chem~ i. fairly dear.
Book I opcru with the morning'. drinking in th~ public house (6. I. ! ,). T be whole book, '''Y; Anna in her utter, begiO. 'l at Ihe magical hour of 11. 32 a. m. : 'Femelle! will be preadaminant
a. from twentyeight to twelve' (6'7. 23), which seem. to mean that Eve will prrcedc Adam as from 11. 32 a. m. This . he doe. in the first line of FilllUgfl/u WQ. u : 'rivenun, past Eve and Ad"m'" .
