Towards thu point of
eternity
the res t of the book', e<>ntent ;.
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
,!
'.
Th.
dawn, a fearful hour for the.
piritsofBook III, i.
br.
aking through th.
m;"ts of 'leep.
We arc ,till fou," page, from the end of.
he chapter and hence we may ,.
.
.
ume that the cyd.
of Book I II lim.
hes at the crucial houT of 4.
3~ a.
m.
(The chimes h.
ard at 590.
' I are very likely those of 4.
30 a.
m.
)
Once again th? . . . , is a pause between Books. Book IV begillll and end. at 6 a. m. It ;, a timeless moment which yet contain, aU Ihe seem of the book. In the yearly f,. ,. me of reference
FiIm'ga1l. l W,,*, begim and end. at the vernal equinox, SO that in Book IV the ,un n. c, at 6 a. m. uactly. The ~un ;, in fru:t ri,ing I. l5 Book IV open. < (593-4) and i,! till riling a, it cnth. All the . umtan. e of the chaptn is in a stat<: or momentary change. oVer from One cycle to the next and i, here 'frozen' in the act. Book IV ;" indeed the mOSt imiX'rtant of a number of '51il1&' in 'thi, "Ilnighto ncW);cryrecl' (189. 35). The ~'m? god, Eunvicker, il dmw ly ! tepping Out of bed On the fi. -st page, hut hi, wife h:t$ not yet coaxed him awakt: by 619. ~5; he ;" jillt peeping o,",r Ihe horizon at 594. ~1 fr. , sending a b<:am of light thmugh the druith' circle and on 10 the altar; al S97. ~S if. he is . till in the ! arne position, while Ihe dawn angelus (6 a. m. ) i, upected
at any moment at 604. 10. There is an amming forewarning some fifty pages earlier, in 1l1. 4, Ihal Boo! : IV will end at uacdy';" o'dock. The court of twelve corrupt jnrymen con? demn Earwicker to 'three months' (S. 'i8)-that ;", to the th= month, of life which arc ""p,. . ,. . nted by 'his' cycle (1. 1-4; . . e below). This sentence, they say, is to be carried Out 'at six
, l brot? l"'t FiMt, = WOW the ,pond. ,. is =<>eiated ",? hl>. Sh. aun, the lrOCh<< with An". . "" bry, . "d. "gnili. ;. ntly, the py,,-hi. ; wi,hdf= ~m;
'" 001< in Brit"" M = Add. MS +14n,f. 13). 73
? C)dic F(lrm
o'clock ,hark'. A vuy literal_minded pon i> intended here, for the particular 'sentence' that ;. '~-1lrricd (lut' i. in fact the last senten~. e ofFi/Ui. gm. , Wok, borne out to I(a with Anna Livia and leading hack into Book I to begin Earwicket', cyde. The better to establi>h the link bern'een thi. judgment passage and the description of Anna's flowing out into the bay, Joyce
includes a Httle marine imagery: 'shark', 'yeastwind'.
The 'week of t}l~ wakes' (608. 30) i> worked oul iu le$s detail, but a skeleton framework ill laid down. The Temptation (the lnetting with the 'Cad' or 'A,sailan") takes place on a Wednes_ day (s8. ~9, 6~. ~8, 376. ! J, 565. 05); thi. leaW to the}"all on Thur,day (5. '3, 6. '4" 491 . 07, 5'4. 22) and to the Friday Wake for the dead (the twenty_four hour cyde thot I have outlined at",,"e, where the whole of thi, weekly cycle i, repeated in miniature); the spiritual R<:$llrrection take. place on Sunday (593. 01 if. ) and the body i, bUTied, a litde late, on the following Tlle. . Jay (6". 20). After tll;" everything i, cleared away, by
eight o'clock (6",'7), ready fot the cycle to begin over again on Wednesday morning.
The important yearly cycle ill the . implest of an. Finntg41tS WIl"", begin. at Eaner, at 'about the fi~t <:quinarx in the dmlnnder' (347. 00); it ends at dawn on the fullowing Luter Day, jUlt before the Re. urrection. F. a. ch of the four cycles in Boob I- III apparently IaIU fur three month" '-'"-4 represenl5 Spring; the fertile I. S--<l in which Anna Ti,~ 'hire in heT aime
aestumatinn' (~04. 0~) ill Summer, ending at 'milkidmaM' (2'5. 21), the autumnal equinox; II is Autumn, ending at Chri>tm. . . . (at 380. ~9 it i> Thanksgiving Day); III i, Winter ('white fogbow', 403. 06), beginning with the entry orthe Son
and ending with the Good Friday death (590). Ilnok IV i. the moment of tran,ition from Holy Salurday to Euter Morning.
The fuur pol~ ofJoyce'. liturgical year are thu, the equinoxes and the soiltkes, a. they were in ancient tim",. ' TIle c""otant alhworu 10 the twenty. nine february_girl, ougge<t that the. particular year in questIon i. " leap-year , but I have nQt been
able to determine which date Joy"" had in mind if, "" we may
, 0 " . t h e f o u r c y c t . . ( H l p p . '3-'~' ,.
? Cyclic Form
. uppose, he gave Fu",~garu w. . t, a year \0 e<>rrespond with the I~ of libss. ,-,
All the e<>mplex tim(-! Chemes of L'i""'I<lIU W,,*, are ulti. mately r"",lved in a mJl! tical 'Et. . nal Kow'. The Eternal Now, lite""", . 14m, i. a very old idea involving the mJl! ~riom simul- taneity, in the eyes of the Absolute, of all that in ordinary
ex! ",riencc is called past, present and furore. The idea in one form or anolher was very much in the air in Joyce'. lifetime, after the rediocovery al aboul the lurn of the century of the importance of time and it. PToblem" Suc. h passages a. the fnllowing were nOt unCOmmon in the litnature':
'AU part. oftirne are partsofan eternal "now", and. ? . we cannot fix any limit. to tl," prosent or exdude from it any part
of what we wrongly call "the past" and "the futore" '.
Thcre have been many varian,," of lItu basic concept, but all involve the proposition that event. whicb ""em to be 'spaced' in a tcmporal. occe"ion are prosenllimultanCOWlly- or, ratber, nut of time altogetber- in tbe Eternal Now. T bat the hi,torical cyda ofFinn,gaM Wah arc to be coTUidered as evolved from
the unbiotnrical Timeless i. ! uggested many tim~: 'nne oon- tinnoos present . , . hiotory' (IB5. 36); 'If there i, a future in every pall that is prosent . . " (49l>. 3S)
Of the ""veral lymbol$ which have been used in attempt> to render the concept intelligihk, the moet familiar must be that develop<<l by T. S. Eliot in 'Buml Norton' and the other Quane", : Ihe revolving whttl or ' phere ",illt ito central 'danc_ ing' point, a point whicb, Mnce it i~ a point, <<nnot be said 10 'pin, and yet fromwhich the wbole circular movement (manal". The movement of the wheel represenu, of conroe, common Time, while tbe Ian! almng mid. point ""l"VC3 as symbol for the T imeleos. Joyce IlOCS the same symbol bUl, alwa)'1 more given
to literal interpretation, he provides within Finntgans Wok, itself- tbat 'gigantic wheeling rebus', aI lite SUIt/on K. . , calls it-a pil. I$age co=sponding witb tho eent",l point.
Towards thu point of eternity the res t of the book', e<>ntent ;. corutantly
' J. c. Woro. . W<>t(h, -run< . . s~",,', MioJ, ,01. XXVI, '9'7, p. 3'3.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Cyclic riJrm
impellt<! by rhe ",ntripetal fO<'CU of dearh, diaolution and alOnc~t. The ctnll'lll PQUgc it, ofcoune, Book IV, 'Therc'. now with noW. rhtn in ICnse contin. . . . . . I' (5g8. 23); 'in . more or leu ",ult<! nale of equonomic coolllbc equalobc equilab
cqllilibbrium'. (599. 17)
f ,. . . . . . . . I
aDd vain. al\u . . . . '" "",ndda,,' ~n. 'S>
The timcIcP natu", of Book IV it perhaps moot dc. riy cxprracd in the SI. Kevin episode. At GkndaJough Kevin ",Iir. . ,
'centripetally ? . . midway acTOoS the IlIbject lake . url"ace to itt IUpreem cpi(entric lake y. te, whereof itt lake i. the vemrifllgal principali ty: (605. 15)
"h""'lh ~
"
aooot. ,. . . .
? Cyclic Form
St. KC\'in's hermitag<', '" described by Joyce in th= p. o. ga. , iJS
a very effective symbol of ,. . ,nunciation and . piritual ,tiUn. . . . . At the mid-point of tm universe- the 'no placelike IlQ timelike
aboolent' (609. o2)- Kevin, at one with Brahman, giv"," himself OVer to memoryl= meditation: 'memory <xumj"",' (606. 08)- <X t,mpo" since IlQ memory of the past can exi,t in an Eternal Now.
The symbol of the cin::ular uni. . . ,. . . . , with its timd"" ccnln:: is al. . , f()und in the figure of Ih~ Buddh4t manMld which iI of . nch importance 1<> Jung. ' T his it the symbol e which, in the :\iSS, J oyce gave the highly imp<>rlan( ninth questi<>n in 1. 6.
His me ofil 10 dengnate a passage dealing with the ' ! ructn,. . , of FinntgmlJ W. . kt suggests that in one . truetural . JeW<: the whole of the book forms a lIILJIUlB/iJ, ""' in Figure I, oppoo;tc, in which the four fonr_patL cycl"" make the Wheel (If FMtunt:, while
Book IV lies at the 'hub'.
A consequence of (CIOm;e $imu! taneity U the potential im_
manena of eternity in anyone point of time, and hence the ,eeds ofany pall ofhi. {Ory may k ~ent in any 'event'. Call'" and effect mwt also vanish with the ditapp"arance ofternporal sc<Juence, and so here we find further rationalisation for the monadal principle underlying J oyce'. World Ag<:s and for Ihe frequent scattering of the h<;. Qk', impnlsive forces in an appar. ently arbitrary dilarray. 1h= . tructural principleo are dio- c1. WCd at greater length in Chapters Si~ and SC\'en.
17
? CHAPTER THREE
THE DREAM-STRUCTURE
i: ORAUMCONDRA'S DREAM- COUNTRY (293. Ft)
templ3 to identify the Dr~a. m"," of Fimug= Wah have Imt ,,~th little . ucc=. In his . plendidly oouragwu.
early analym, 'Th~ Dream of H. C. Earwickcr',' Mr. Edmund Wi""n made the unwarranted . . . . umption thaI Earwicker hirrudfiJ the Dreamer and as a comequence of the wid""pread inHumee of this <>therwiJc perceptive "",ay, OCrue-
lura! crilici. m ofFiMtgam Wah has been befogged for over twmty yea. . . . Wilson'. untenabl~ pooition has been explicitly or tacitly accepted by the majority of othe, critic. '! who have considered the matter, induding luch eminent joyuans as M=rs. Harry l. evin, Hugh Kenner, and William Troy. >Their interpretation may be fairly lummariw:\ by the following extract. from Wilson"
'It i. a Saturday night in . ummer, afu:r" disorderly evening in the pub. Somebody-probably Earwi~ker himself- has been p. . . ,. ,. ailed upon to 5ing a lOng; laLer, when it;' dooing time, he had to put a man ou(! ide, who abused him and thnw OCone< at the window. Ther~ "'" also bttn a thunde"torm. Earwicker has been drinllng off and On aU day and has perhapo gone to bed a little drunk. At any rate hU night is troubled. At first he
1 l'in, p~bli. hed j" J""" ond July, I! )3. Q, >J>d rq:otinled ";,~,,,,,,,, reo ";';. ,. . . ondo. ,. ,. =;""';n n. . W. . . . . t . . . . . . . . ? Bow. '-<>ndon, '9~,PP. O[~3.
/{
'J-:hP,N"""",,Conn. , '94',pp. Ii<'If;DuM;"',J'J<',London,
'95. \. pp. ollt""5; 'N"'", ()Q
? The Dream <JfH. C. f. &rwkk<<', pp. "9""0<>.
F~W.
Once again th? . . . , is a pause between Books. Book IV begillll and end. at 6 a. m. It ;, a timeless moment which yet contain, aU Ihe seem of the book. In the yearly f,. ,. me of reference
FiIm'ga1l. l W,,*, begim and end. at the vernal equinox, SO that in Book IV the ,un n. c, at 6 a. m. uactly. The ~un ;, in fru:t ri,ing I. l5 Book IV open. < (593-4) and i,! till riling a, it cnth. All the . umtan. e of the chaptn is in a stat<: or momentary change. oVer from One cycle to the next and i, here 'frozen' in the act. Book IV ;" indeed the mOSt imiX'rtant of a number of '51il1&' in 'thi, "Ilnighto ncW);cryrecl' (189. 35). The ~'m? god, Eunvicker, il dmw ly ! tepping Out of bed On the fi. -st page, hut hi, wife h:t$ not yet coaxed him awakt: by 619. ~5; he ;" jillt peeping o,",r Ihe horizon at 594. ~1 fr. , sending a b<:am of light thmugh the druith' circle and on 10 the altar; al S97. ~S if. he is . till in the ! arne position, while Ihe dawn angelus (6 a. m. ) i, upected
at any moment at 604. 10. There is an amming forewarning some fifty pages earlier, in 1l1. 4, Ihal Boo! : IV will end at uacdy';" o'dock. The court of twelve corrupt jnrymen con? demn Earwicker to 'three months' (S. 'i8)-that ;", to the th= month, of life which arc ""p,. . ,. . nted by 'his' cycle (1. 1-4; . . e below). This sentence, they say, is to be carried Out 'at six
, l brot? l"'t FiMt, = WOW the ,pond. ,. is =<>eiated ",? hl>. Sh. aun, the lrOCh<< with An". . "" bry, . "d. "gnili. ;. ntly, the py,,-hi. ; wi,hdf= ~m;
'" 001< in Brit"" M = Add. MS +14n,f. 13). 73
? C)dic F(lrm
o'clock ,hark'. A vuy literal_minded pon i> intended here, for the particular 'sentence' that ;. '~-1lrricd (lut' i. in fact the last senten~. e ofFi/Ui. gm. , Wok, borne out to I(a with Anna Livia and leading hack into Book I to begin Earwicket', cyde. The better to establi>h the link bern'een thi. judgment passage and the description of Anna's flowing out into the bay, Joyce
includes a Httle marine imagery: 'shark', 'yeastwind'.
The 'week of t}l~ wakes' (608. 30) i> worked oul iu le$s detail, but a skeleton framework ill laid down. The Temptation (the lnetting with the 'Cad' or 'A,sailan") takes place on a Wednes_ day (s8. ~9, 6~. ~8, 376. ! J, 565. 05); thi. leaW to the}"all on Thur,day (5. '3, 6. '4" 491 . 07, 5'4. 22) and to the Friday Wake for the dead (the twenty_four hour cyde thot I have outlined at",,"e, where the whole of thi, weekly cycle i, repeated in miniature); the spiritual R<:$llrrection take. place on Sunday (593. 01 if. ) and the body i, bUTied, a litde late, on the following Tlle. . Jay (6". 20). After tll;" everything i, cleared away, by
eight o'clock (6",'7), ready fot the cycle to begin over again on Wednesday morning.
The important yearly cycle ill the . implest of an. Finntg41tS WIl"", begin. at Eaner, at 'about the fi~t <:quinarx in the dmlnnder' (347. 00); it ends at dawn on the fullowing Luter Day, jUlt before the Re. urrection. F. a. ch of the four cycles in Boob I- III apparently IaIU fur three month" '-'"-4 represenl5 Spring; the fertile I. S--<l in which Anna Ti,~ 'hire in heT aime
aestumatinn' (~04. 0~) ill Summer, ending at 'milkidmaM' (2'5. 21), the autumnal equinox; II is Autumn, ending at Chri>tm. . . . (at 380. ~9 it i> Thanksgiving Day); III i, Winter ('white fogbow', 403. 06), beginning with the entry orthe Son
and ending with the Good Friday death (590). Ilnok IV i. the moment of tran,ition from Holy Salurday to Euter Morning.
The fuur pol~ ofJoyce'. liturgical year are thu, the equinoxes and the soiltkes, a. they were in ancient tim",. ' TIle c""otant alhworu 10 the twenty. nine february_girl, ougge<t that the. particular year in questIon i. " leap-year , but I have nQt been
able to determine which date Joy"" had in mind if, "" we may
, 0 " . t h e f o u r c y c t . . ( H l p p . '3-'~' ,.
? Cyclic Form
. uppose, he gave Fu",~garu w. . t, a year \0 e<>rrespond with the I~ of libss. ,-,
All the e<>mplex tim(-! Chemes of L'i""'I<lIU W,,*, are ulti. mately r"",lved in a mJl! tical 'Et. . nal Kow'. The Eternal Now, lite""", . 14m, i. a very old idea involving the mJl! ~riom simul- taneity, in the eyes of the Absolute, of all that in ordinary
ex! ",riencc is called past, present and furore. The idea in one form or anolher was very much in the air in Joyce'. lifetime, after the rediocovery al aboul the lurn of the century of the importance of time and it. PToblem" Suc. h passages a. the fnllowing were nOt unCOmmon in the litnature':
'AU part. oftirne are partsofan eternal "now", and. ? . we cannot fix any limit. to tl," prosent or exdude from it any part
of what we wrongly call "the past" and "the futore" '.
Thcre have been many varian,," of lItu basic concept, but all involve the proposition that event. whicb ""em to be 'spaced' in a tcmporal. occe"ion are prosenllimultanCOWlly- or, ratber, nut of time altogetber- in tbe Eternal Now. T bat the hi,torical cyda ofFinn,gaM Wah arc to be coTUidered as evolved from
the unbiotnrical Timeless i. ! uggested many tim~: 'nne oon- tinnoos present . , . hiotory' (IB5. 36); 'If there i, a future in every pall that is prosent . . " (49l>. 3S)
Of the ""veral lymbol$ which have been used in attempt> to render the concept intelligihk, the moet familiar must be that develop<<l by T. S. Eliot in 'Buml Norton' and the other Quane", : Ihe revolving whttl or ' phere ",illt ito central 'danc_ ing' point, a point whicb, Mnce it i~ a point, <<nnot be said 10 'pin, and yet fromwhich the wbole circular movement (manal". The movement of the wheel represenu, of conroe, common Time, while tbe Ian! almng mid. point ""l"VC3 as symbol for the T imeleos. Joyce IlOCS the same symbol bUl, alwa)'1 more given
to literal interpretation, he provides within Finntgans Wok, itself- tbat 'gigantic wheeling rebus', aI lite SUIt/on K. . , calls it-a pil. I$age co=sponding witb tho eent",l point.
Towards thu point of eternity the res t of the book', e<>ntent ;. corutantly
' J. c. Woro. . W<>t(h, -run< . . s~",,', MioJ, ,01. XXVI, '9'7, p. 3'3.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Cyclic riJrm
impellt<! by rhe ",ntripetal fO<'CU of dearh, diaolution and alOnc~t. The ctnll'lll PQUgc it, ofcoune, Book IV, 'Therc'. now with noW. rhtn in ICnse contin. . . . . . I' (5g8. 23); 'in . more or leu ",ult<! nale of equonomic coolllbc equalobc equilab
cqllilibbrium'. (599. 17)
f ,. . . . . . . . I
aDd vain. al\u . . . . '" "",ndda,,' ~n. 'S>
The timcIcP natu", of Book IV it perhaps moot dc. riy cxprracd in the SI. Kevin episode. At GkndaJough Kevin ",Iir. . ,
'centripetally ? . . midway acTOoS the IlIbject lake . url"ace to itt IUpreem cpi(entric lake y. te, whereof itt lake i. the vemrifllgal principali ty: (605. 15)
"h""'lh ~
"
aooot. ,. . . .
? Cyclic Form
St. KC\'in's hermitag<', '" described by Joyce in th= p. o. ga. , iJS
a very effective symbol of ,. . ,nunciation and . piritual ,tiUn. . . . . At the mid-point of tm universe- the 'no placelike IlQ timelike
aboolent' (609. o2)- Kevin, at one with Brahman, giv"," himself OVer to memoryl= meditation: 'memory <xumj"",' (606. 08)- <X t,mpo" since IlQ memory of the past can exi,t in an Eternal Now.
The symbol of the cin::ular uni. . . ,. . . . , with its timd"" ccnln:: is al. . , f()und in the figure of Ih~ Buddh4t manMld which iI of . nch importance 1<> Jung. ' T his it the symbol e which, in the :\iSS, J oyce gave the highly imp<>rlan( ninth questi<>n in 1. 6.
His me ofil 10 dengnate a passage dealing with the ' ! ructn,. . , of FinntgmlJ W. . kt suggests that in one . truetural . JeW<: the whole of the book forms a lIILJIUlB/iJ, ""' in Figure I, oppoo;tc, in which the four fonr_patL cycl"" make the Wheel (If FMtunt:, while
Book IV lies at the 'hub'.
A consequence of (CIOm;e $imu! taneity U the potential im_
manena of eternity in anyone point of time, and hence the ,eeds ofany pall ofhi. {Ory may k ~ent in any 'event'. Call'" and effect mwt also vanish with the ditapp"arance ofternporal sc<Juence, and so here we find further rationalisation for the monadal principle underlying J oyce'. World Ag<:s and for Ihe frequent scattering of the h<;. Qk', impnlsive forces in an appar. ently arbitrary dilarray. 1h= . tructural principleo are dio- c1. WCd at greater length in Chapters Si~ and SC\'en.
17
? CHAPTER THREE
THE DREAM-STRUCTURE
i: ORAUMCONDRA'S DREAM- COUNTRY (293. Ft)
templ3 to identify the Dr~a. m"," of Fimug= Wah have Imt ,,~th little . ucc=. In his . plendidly oouragwu.
early analym, 'Th~ Dream of H. C. Earwickcr',' Mr. Edmund Wi""n made the unwarranted . . . . umption thaI Earwicker hirrudfiJ the Dreamer and as a comequence of the wid""pread inHumee of this <>therwiJc perceptive "",ay, OCrue-
lura! crilici. m ofFiMtgam Wah has been befogged for over twmty yea. . . . Wilson'. untenabl~ pooition has been explicitly or tacitly accepted by the majority of othe, critic. '! who have considered the matter, induding luch eminent joyuans as M=rs. Harry l. evin, Hugh Kenner, and William Troy. >Their interpretation may be fairly lummariw:\ by the following extract. from Wilson"
'It i. a Saturday night in . ummer, afu:r" disorderly evening in the pub. Somebody-probably Earwi~ker himself- has been p. . . ,. ,. ailed upon to 5ing a lOng; laLer, when it;' dooing time, he had to put a man ou(! ide, who abused him and thnw OCone< at the window. Ther~ "'" also bttn a thunde"torm. Earwicker has been drinllng off and On aU day and has perhapo gone to bed a little drunk. At any rate hU night is troubled. At first he
1 l'in, p~bli. hed j" J""" ond July, I! )3. Q, >J>d rq:otinled ";,~,,,,,,,, reo ";';. ,. . . ondo. ,. ,. =;""';n n. . W. . . . . t . . . . . . . . ? Bow. '-<>ndon, '9~,PP. O[~3.
/{
'J-:hP,N"""",,Conn. , '94',pp. Ii<'If;DuM;"',J'J<',London,
'95. \. pp. ollt""5; 'N"'", ()Q
? The Dream <JfH. C. f. &rwkk<<', pp. "9""0<>.
F~W.
