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Taken
from Wikipedia’s entry on Finnegans Wake: Because Joyce's
sentences are packed with obscure allusions and puns in dozens of different
languages, it remains impossible to offer an undisputed and definitive
synopsis. The book
begins with one such allusion: "riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore
to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth
Castle and Environs." "Commodious
vicus" refers to Giambattista Vico
(1668-1744). Vico believed in a theory of cyclical history. He believed that
the world was coming to the end of the last of three ages, these being the
age of gods, age of heroes, and age of humans. This opening also contributes
to the effect of Joyce's novel as a whole, since it begins and ends with
"riverrun" on the lips. More
generally, the introductory chapter gives an overview of the novel's themes.
First, we hear of a central character, here called Finnegan and identified as
a hod carrier in Dublin (or more generally, all
builders of all kinds throughout world history), falling to his death from a scaffold or tower or wall. At his wake, in keeping
with the comic song "Finnegans Wake" that provided Joyce's
title, a fight breaks out, whiskey splashes on Finnegan's corpse, and he
rises up again alive (Finnegan awakes). This Finnegan is all men, and his fall is all men's fall.
Subsequent vignettes in the first chapter show him as a
warrior (in particular, as Wellington
at Waterloo), as
an explorer invading a land occupied by his aboriginal
ancestors, and as the victim of a vengeful pirate queen (Grace O'Malley). |
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