Finnegans Wake

Part 2 of Finnegans Wake opens with a format switch. A theater program lists the characters and their alternative identities as though they were the cast in a pantomime performance of The Mime of Mick, Nick and the Maggies, “adopted from the Ballymooney Bloodriddon Murther by Bluechin Blackdillain” (219). As Shem, Shaun, and Issy play outside the pub, other children join them. Shem and Shaun, in this chapter, are also Glugg and Chuff, respectively, and Issy is joined by the 28 girls who cheered for Shaun outside the court. Shem and Shaun continue their tense rivalry, battling one another for the approval and love of Issy and her friends. In this moment, Shem takes on the role of the devil, and Shaun plays the role of an angel. Shem must guess the “selfcolours” (237) of the girls. However, he struggles due to his poor eyesight. Shaun emerges triumphant from a fight against his brother. Shem struggles to answer the questions thrown at him by Issy, so the other girls make fun of him. Just as Shem threatens Shaun with violence, the children are called to come inside for their dinner as “the curtain drops by deep request” (257).

Shem and Shaun, now assuming the identities of Dolph and Kev, respectively, study in the rooms above their father’s pub. As they examine the academic problems posed to them by the teacher, they think about mathematics, philosophy, and rhetoric. The lesson suggests that the violent history of war, sex, and humanity can be traced back to Adam and Eve. The lessons provide them with an academic understanding of these skills, but they are not enough if the boys are ever to replace their father, HCE. Their education is designed to prepare them to take over their father’s role as the embodiment of civilization, but neither brother is yet ready to follow in the footsteps of their fallen, absent father.

Shem annotates his textbooks in one margin, and Shaun annotates the books on the other side of the page. Shaun asks questions like, “Will you carry my can and fight the fairies?” (268) while Shem makes academic observations such as “PANOPTICAL PURVIEW OF POLITICAL PROGRESS AND THE FUTURE PRESENTATION OF THE PAST” (272). ALP and Issy provide their thoughts and insights into these annotations. The two brothers continue studying, and Shem teaches Shaun how to draw a Euclid diagram. Shaun is horrified by the diagram, as he believes it resembles his mother’s genitalia, in which ALP is also Mother Ireland, “modder ilond” (294). Shem reveals to Shaun how these lessons unravel the mystic reverence with which Shaun views ALP. Shaun resents his brother for undoing the magical credentials of their mother, so he hits Shem. Despite Shaun’s use of violence and the blackened eye, Shem does not fight back. The children are told to study famous men and, together, they compose a “NIGHTLETTER” (308) to their parents, describing the children’s plans to take on their parents and win.

In the Dublin pub owned and operated by HCE, 12 men gather together to share stories and drink alcohol. Among them are HCE and the four elderly judges from his trial. While the men swap stories in the pub, the television and radio can be heard in the background. The shows on the television and radio are hosted by HCE’s sons, Shaun and Shem, who resume their roles as Jute and Mutt and then as Taff and Butt, respectively. The brothers perform plays over the airwaves. One of the plays is a story about a Norwegian man who was the captain of a ship. In this story, the captain is one of the various incarnations of HCE. The captain is notoriously cheap, never paying his fair share in restaurants or bars. He even avoids paying a tailor after being fitted for a suit. He eventually becomes domesticated by marrying the Tailor’s Daughter. Kate appears in the bar and brings a message to HCE from ALP, telling HCE to come to bed. HCE ignores the message “from the missus” (333) and calls for more drinks and more stories.

One of the plays is heard from the perspective of James Joyce listening to his father’s war stories. Joyce’s father explains how he had the opportunity to shoot a Russian general during the Crimean War. Though he aimed his gun directly at the general, he refused to take the shot because the general was using the toilet at the time. In retelling the story of how Buckley shot the Russian General, the soldier shoots the enemy. In the story, the Russian general is another identity of HCE.

The sons’ stories end. After HCE returns from a trip upstairs to his living quarters, the men in the pub turn on HCE due to his questionable character. He sees the four judges before him again and tries to explain the incident in the park again, confessing that he is sexually attracted to young women (possibly to an incestuous degree). As the patrons leave the pub due to the arrival of the police, HCE is left alone. He begins to drink, and, quickly enough, he is drunk. He falls asleep and hopes that the sounds of the people in the street will not keep his family awake. In his dreams, he takes on the role of the Irish folk hero Rory O’Connor, the last native King of Ireland who fought against the English King Henry II. When Kate enters the pub, she finds her employer stripped naked and lying on the floor, surrounded by a puddle of the dregs of the departed patrons’ unfinished drinks.

The “big four” (384) elderly judges in HCE’s pub in the previous chapter become four historians. Together, they recall the story of King Mark, who ruled the southerly British region of Cornwall in the 6th century. In the story, King Mark is another incarnation of HCE. As King Mark, HCE has a son. In the story, his son Shaun plays the role of Tristram, who HCE sends to fetch the women to whom HCE is betrothed. The woman is Iseult, a role played by HCE’s daughter, Issy. However, Tristram and Iseult fall in love and run away together. Their story is retold in “plainly foretolk by their old pilgrim cocklesong” (390), now known in the modern day as the story of Tristan and Isolde as stories are “all repeating” (398).