No More Learning

miBd'. " 'l1Iue is no ~
which would teem to establish tbe imJlO'Ullt point thaI Joyce thought ofF"""lmll WIlL . . . a unified dream? whole centrW on a :tingle mind. Though Or. O'Brien'. claim can represent no more than a part of the 1I'\Ilh, there seem. 10 be a little internal evidence 10 lupport it. . If my ruding of Ihe ninth qUCltiQn of
n \0 doubt the accuracy of the repOl't,
1. 6 it correct, it ooruiou. Qf a diSCwRon of the n"tu. . . , Qf the dream~ituation in FilrMgmu W. ,q and repraenu the Dreamer'. mQlt honea( and dir<<tiy intmWile<! consideration ofhit prescnt dre:aming state. There an:: thm: consecutive four-pan eyel. . in 1. 6,formingamictoo:>JmofJ\oob I-III. Themaleprotagonu" in tbe 6nt question ofeach ofthese cyclCl (quCltiont I, 3. and 9) are aU drcam? rcpracnllloo. lJ of Finn- F. arwickcr at different . taget of his career: fiC$t, the youthful vigour of Finn'. aUotted
, Ad",rtQn, p. '7.
? A. Oto. . llern, '0. , of My Ceoouo', no "~'" DO. XVII, '9~, p. '3.
?
8,
? 1M Dr(am? SlrUClure
( w o hund",d yean of full pow~r (equivalent to the Earwicker of Book I) ; second, }'inn in the decline and decrepitude of his l""t thirty yean (the wiudy but dTete Earwicker of Book 11); finally, the moment of death, the 'auctual fumle pretmting OO$laut' (143. 07) of transition from one world to the next, a . tate 'of su'pen,ive exanimation' (the rimaUy murdore<! Ear. wicker falling aileep ill Book III). In this lau . tltge, Finn, depicted as a 'mall from the city' (Dublin), ;. repr=nted as d",aming of M sc. ~pegoat",urrogate, HeE, and of h;' family and alfai. . . . Joyce's identification ofFinn as the Dream~t would
,,,,,m to corroborate th" ,"ading.
Whatever our oondmioru about the identity of the Dr~amer,
and no matter how many varied caricatures nf him we may find projected into the dream, it is clear that he mu. t alwaY' be ronside",d . . . . """"ntially external to the book, and . hould be left there. Speculation about the 'real penon' behind th~ guises of the dream_surrogate> or about the fnnction of the dream in rela,ion to the un""",lved streoses of thio hypntheti<:al mind . . fruidess, fur the teruiollll and psychological problems inFi""'glmS
Wok concern the dream-figures living within the book itself. The d",am explo,. . ,. all th= penonalities atlei,ure and moves freely among them, considering them from within and without; the characterisation i, thorough and makes no appeal to the p,ychc]ogical peg on which the whole ;" hung. It must be: emphasised that Joyce w. . . . not writing anything remotely like a p"ychoanalytical (a<< -Mtory. Indeed, h~ despised psycho- analysis and uS<<! only So much of its techniques and 1IIt1/all- scMuung M he f"und user,,! . ' In( dream-framework;' employed
because it is a r. onvenient device f"r the ~xplo"'tion ofpenon_ ality and hecau<< it offen a nexibl~ r. . . . nge of mean. < by which t<> 'order and . . . present a given material'. ' I. ike the anony_ mou. narmt<>t of m<>re ronventional 'third_penon' novels, the Dreamer . . <>Inniscient; we a", involved in h" dream aJ we are inV<llv~d in any narrative; in each caSe the narrator'. identity
, F. Budg<-n, 'l"umer RreoIk. o,ioo> ofJ"""" Joy<<', p",,;,. ,. , iU<i<w, Fall, '956, p. 536.
, F. B~n, 'Furtb<r RocoUOCIions of. l>m<iJoy<<', p " " , - Rm-1A1, fall, ,956, P. ~33?
8,
? The Duam-Shl4ture
is . 1DV? ' eotitdy irrekvant. Lib Stepheo'. Artist-God,Joya'. Dreamer has been ? refio. . . . o" t (J{ aistenu'.
One of tM principal difficultiQ in the way of an adequate undUitatldJng of tho: dream-'tnI~rnn: has beer! a curiouJ, and penistent error of inu. rpretation of the evenlS in nI+ It is reasonably clear from the doscription On p~ 559-60 that the protagonist of We film or nagc aequenoeo which make up the ~hapter, the old man called POTter, iI yet another incamation of HCE, and probably an iDQlmation from . . patt century: 'You can ken tIw. they come or a rarely old family by their costn- maDOC' (560. 32). Since Poru:r is awake during lbe arty boun of the morning, and since he and his bedroom are described wilh considerable n:alistic detail. IUpportcn of the tbCOl')' that E. arwi. tker is the Drumer have usually made the unruxessa. ry aDumption that the dn:am iI broken at this point. However, if Euwieker (or Porter) is the Dreamer, and if he h", been dreaming about his waking self in Boo"- I and II, were is clurly no reason to IUPpose that hi. further appearance in the waking llate in 111. 4 brings us . . . ,y closer to real COnsciOlWlest than do the Kales in the pn:ading Book' The: assumption that the Dreamer wu . ,,"aUentail~ Ihe conclusion Wt the con- tinued usc of dre. . . . . . . . language and d""am_tccbnique through_ out the chapter wat in",nded to ""prescnt We fuddled state of the mind at ,ucil an early hour in the morning. This is the CXpl"CSll position of the SJ:. dtl. ~ KU' and, however "e"'hetically dilpleasing, it i. at le. . . t <;on,inent with Mr. Campbdl'. tn:at-
menl of the whole book u a rympuhetic commentary on the drum. There are, however, . pecifit ir><licatioru in FitrN'~1II W. r. k that the drum ~ CQIltinuous from. lIut to finish. In the
tludy-du. p"'r, for eumple, the children td1 us that . . . . " dn. . n", our dreams k ll Bappy retlll1l$. And Sein anncws' (~77. t8), whicb seema to mean that wo: continue clruming until An. . . (the riV(! " Seine) ;1 rcnewed al her ""'! "te, when we ! hall have
? . . ,arrived' It 'Happy', or HCE, on ~c 3.
Mr. M. J. C. Ilodgart leenu 10 haVl) been the fInt to refu",
the Skdtlc~ li"dl uscrtion that we O. . ,. mer Wikel fur,. while in , S K ' K ~-? S-
'3
? ~ Drttml-Stru&ture
ilL! , but, not being primarily concerned with this question in the context in wbich he mentioned it, be offered no alternative intup~tation of tM way in wbich thiI hijbly individual and importllOt chapter fits into tbe ,true! ure of the book. ' Along with mOlt other entia, Mr. Kenner, fore:umplc, adhcresto th" by nOW almost tnditional view. - Among Ilter commentators, only ~I. . . . von Phul and t. ln. GI:uheen seem to have any ICTious doubu that in III. 1 we a~ nearcr the wallng consc;ou. .
n(:Oll.
' I believ", indt<:d, thai, far from rcpracntiog the waking l! :lte, this d13. ptcr takes place al the deepest level ofd~aming. J oyce p. . . . . bably w" rked out ICveral qu. w-geometrical sdtemes
ofdream<oH~sponden<:el in writingFUwl4JOf Wdt, although no . . :hematie di~m has lurvived among the iucomplete manuscripts at the British Museum or Yale. It is well known that Joy. :. : used ,uch schema! :l in developing the itruetur" of hi. boob. An int. ,. atillg di. gram fur the 'lliro of the Sun' episode of Ulyms i. extant and h~ been . . . ,produced photo- graphica. l. ly in ? disserutiOIl by A. W. UIZ' and of nou. . . : the . 1u:lcton pl. n ror Ihe O/lllnisation of all cigh""''' cbapten is commouly printed iII exege5ts of Ulyms. ' The following analyses of the dream-structure of PU. flillUU W. . u, together with my
conjectural ICCOIIStrucUon ofa d~am-diagnom (ICC below), a~ offered not. . . , a final ""lution to the problem, but me~ly"" One
interpretation which seems to accord with mo. . . , of the facts than any other thaI h. . . , been suggested to date. It is moTe t. b. aa likely that Ihe~ ar<: sevef&l other dream-llructuces, both hori- zontal and vertkal, counterpointed against the simple outline below, rOT, . . . , I I\av" &aid, no ODC way oflooking at anything in P;""'lIIM Waf, can evcr be a mmpletc explanation.
The~ se<:m, in fact, to be three princip:u drum [ayc,. . . in the book. We drop from ooe 10 another, penetnoting ~r <keptr
? ? y",~_ w. . . . . . . ? , n , c-. I",,,l! n',
? The Drtam-S/ruclure
into lhe uncomcio;>lIS in a progr= =a1ling the des<<:nl through the levels of the InftrnO; ~rhe", . . '" sordidly taks within tales, you dearly understand thaI', Joy"" warrul lIS at 5~~. 05. 'lbe first of Ihese dru. m-te~els U $imply the D",amCl"'s dream about everything that occurs in the book from 'riven:un' to 'Ihe'. He ne~er wakes and we arc never o utJide his dreaming mind. Apart from the inevitable epicycles (0<< bdow) the narrative remaim On this simple levd throughout the fint twO Books, which a",
written from an objoxtive view_point and treal the Earwic. ker family =ntiaUy fr(lm without. During these Boob a consecu-
tive tale of a day'. activities fro m l"u: morning to;> midnight iI counterpointed against huge mythic palterns. Earwicker goes about his customary rounds as ho;>U:l_kecper ; the drinkers at the Wake, having like good Dubliners begun their carou. ing before noon on the day of mourning, tdl stories first of malter1 do. e1y connoxu:d with the Jate Tim and then, as the round. of drink . piral on, they givc frett ",in to their imagination. , a\towing lIS 10;> o;>verhear the stone. and legends which fill in the vast U:m_ poral and . patial bru:kgrounw of Fimugl/lU Walt. T he d",am drifta on the tide of stories further and further froIo the titernl
Wake situalion to lake in all the o;>ther members of the family and the . urrounding countryside as well, and condudes with a gradual ",turn to the reality of the pub on the evening of Ihe First Day. We have participated fuUy and at elM( quarters in the libation. of the fir":! ! hour (1. 1) bUI it is not until the last
licensed hour of the day (lI. S) that we arc permitted ano;>ther visit ofany kngth 10 the bar_room, which this time we approacb ,,;,. the child",n's playground jlISt oul3ide (11. 1) and Ihe nu,"",ry immediately abovc (H. o). Having . tarted from lhe public- home in 1. 1 we have now returned to ;t at the end of a lingle alcoholic dream-cycle which includes the fint two Boob of Fimugam Wa. . . . and is rounterpoinU:d against the ""vcral oth. . major cycles contained within them. Yet howe~er rar we are
allowed 10 roam in imagination, we a", quietly reminded by ocCll. 1ional phrases, d ropped here and there in the text, that the tippling never "". . . . "': 'Everything'. going on the same or "" it app. . ah to all o;>f UI, in the old holrosU:d here' (06. 0$1; 'Bul tilt
85
? 'flu Drtam-Structure
M",,~Is'illftoWItt 011 tkt Millst,,,,m whil. rMr MadslJllS luJp ! Us Bid (I75. ~,); 'At Tam Fanagall'. weal< yat his ,lill'. going . Irang' (27fi. ~1 ).
By Ih~ elld of the 'St:cne in the Local' (Il. 3), Earwich:r, auing oul the prelude 10 Vico'. Age ofO<:ath, Cau. . intoxicated
011 the floor and, in an a\cQholic delirium, """" his tap-room:u the . hip <>f Trulan and Isolde (H. 4). <Ibe ship ! . aia 'From Lifhway. For Namnland~r'. This hallucination bring. Book Il to an end and ""rv"", as a lransition 10 Ihe next Book, where for a momenl (I"" scene having shiftw. ) ~ ' << Earwlcker lying in bed (403 ) ; he lis",,,,, to t"" chimes of midnight rung out by the belb of Ihe nearby church_tow~r which ""und to him like a divided chorus of twelve? voices and give him a laAt unpieaJant rtminder of the tweI"" custome. . . who caused so much trouble WOrt dosing_time. Soon he falls . . . . l<<'p ('Switch out! ', 403. I 7), after the light of ronsciouma . hall faded from while to black through a . . ries ofsptttral oolou. . . . He at oncc begins to dream about the tal~ told ofShaun by the Donkey. That the Shaun of Book III is Earwicker'. drtam. . :reat;on is eSlablished by the concluding words of Book II: 'to john for a john, j<lhnajeanu, led it be'. We hav~ dropped to the second dream_level and begun the ""cond drtam. cyde: the Dream~r'. drtam about Earwicker'. dream. J oyce h. . . . projected '" into the old man', mind, causing w to lea"" a comparatively objecti"" world for a wholly . ubject;"" one. The docent to this drtam_Ievei is reflected physically in Earwick~r', ascent of {h~ stairs to the mort rarified atmosphert of the bedroom- a typically joy. :ean mirror? irna! " corrt,pondencc. (I shall have mort to say about the mirror-image ide. . in this counexWn. ) Following his bent for complexities of supentructurt, Joyce oboeures the issue a little by allowing the Donkey'. narrative to be the rtport of a dream he ha. d Once had, but although this may imply, on the widest stJ"Uctur~1 plane, an interlocking 'yskm of yet more dr(am-"Ycle$, it d"", not rcp. . . . ent, for the purpo,e of this anal)"is. , a descen t to a Jtilllowcr Ie",,] uf drcaming, ,incc the Donkey;' consciously rtporting his experience.
Barwicker'1 dream of Shaun proceed. uninteITupted at the 86
? Th Dr~am. slructure
seoond level until tru, ~nd of III. 3, when Shaun himsdf appar. endy falh 3. ! le<:p. Earwicl<er'. u-wtry nn the sune in II. 3 for the lint time since his appearance in the early chapt~rs of Book 1 indicated that a cycle wa. drawing It"> a dCd<'.