English 334: Crib Sheet

Spring 2003

CRIB SHEET for (two days' worth of) Finnegans Wake
  by Kathryn Conrad
  assisted by Roland McHughs Annotations and William York Tindalls 

A Readers Guide to Finnegan's Wake

FINNEGANS WAKE was in part inspired by the raucous song Finnegans Wake, about Tim Finnegan, a heavy drinker who falls off a ladder and is presumed dead; he is waked by his relatives and friends who think him dead, but then he arises.

A major shaper of the book

Giambattista Vico, author of The New Science. (paraphrased from Tindall and McHugh)
He believed that nations all go through the following cyclical pattern:

  1. The age of gods: God's thunder drives people to the cave.  Religion, the family. Gestures, pictures, fables.  Birth. (There are ten "thunders" in the Wake)
  2. The age of heroes: Revolution of the lower classes against the aristocracy. Alphabets, metaphors, proverbs; vulgar and abstract speech.  Marriage.
  3. The age of people: The levelling off after revolution.  Cities and laws, popular government.  It destroys itself.  Burial.
  4. Ricorso (resurrection): Which starts the cycle again.

The book goes through this cycle repeatedly.

A ridiculously incomplete cast of characters

  • HCE:  the main male character; the father; H.C. Earwicker.  His head is at Howth (HCE=Howth Castle and Environs), his feet in Phoenix Park.  He has "fallen," been brought down or committed some sin.
  • ALP:  the female character; the mother; Anna Livia Plurabelle.  She is the River Liffey that flows through Dublin.

Their children

  • Shem (the Penman)
  • Shaun (the Postman)

--the brothers.  Rivals, often indicated by other pairings:  Nick/Mick, Jerry/Kevin, Nolan/Browne, Mutt/Jeff.  They sometimes come together in opposition to HCE.  They sometimes appear as washerwomen, airing HCE's "dirty linen."

  • Issy: the daughter.  Often accompanied by 28 girls, known sometimes as the floras or rainbow girls.  Also can be seen as a version of ALP.

Other characters

  • Twelve men:  disciples, mourners, customers at HCE's pub, jurors, etc.
  • Four men:  Matthew, Mark, Luke John (mamalujo) judges of HCE
  • The Four Masters (authors of the history "Annals of the Four Masters")