A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(James Joyce)

“Finnegans Wake” is a winding compilation of various vignettes, characters that morph into other characters, and changing languages. The novel is thought to be written in a dream state where the settings and characters change on a dime, and there is no real plot to be deciphered.

The novel is often seen as a comedic piece, written more for entertainment value and appreciation of styling than for actual plot. The novel consists of a constantly moving plot and changing languages which, according to many critics, center around the same five characters though with changing names and personas.

Book One begins with a sentence that makes little sense, until it is paired with the final sentence in Book Four, making a complete thought. The first chapter of the first book consists of a series of vignettes that seem to have little to do with one another, aside from the fact that they all, at least somewhat, revolve around a man named Finnegan. Finnegan works as a hod carrier, and falls to his death from a ladder while building a wall.

Finnegan is laid out, as food, at his own funeral by his wife Anne though he disappears before anyone gets a chance to dig in. At the end of the chapter, there is a fight at the funeral which causes some whiskey to spill on Finnegans body. The whiskey seems to rejuvenate Finnegan and causes his dead body to rise from the coffin demanding to be given more whiskey, though the mourners lay his body back down and tell him that he must rest because he is in a better place.

In chapter two Harold, hereby known as HCE, is introduced and becomes the protagonist. HCE is an anagram for “Here Comes Everybody” amongst the Dubliners. HCE appears to be involved in a sexual scandal involving two young girls. The town people create a song about HCE called “The Ballad of Perse O’Reilly” and HCE begins imagining himself as someone else, going on trial for this crime.

There is some talk of a letter his wife ALP wishes to present during the trial, but it never gets there. Discussion of the letter serves as a means to introduce the reader to Shem and Shaun, HCE and ALP’s children. The story shifts to two washerwomen gossiping about the accusations against HCE and his wife’s feelings about the situation.

Book Two centers mainly around Shem, Shaun, and Issy, the three children of HCE and ALP. There are scenes of children playing together interwoven with scenes of HCE working at the pub he owns, which his family clearly lives upstairs from. The boys are referred to as “Dolph” and “Kev” in this section of the novel and present their parents with a letter describing their wish to overcome parental control.

While HCE works in the pub, he hears some broadcasts on the radio, narrated in the voices of his children. In the stories, HCE becomes a Norwegian captain and also a Russian general. He disappears upstairs, and, when he returns to the pub, his customers verbally abuse him, believing he is of questionable character after hearing the last story. HCE feels the need to confess his sins, including his lust for young girls.

The police kick out the drunks and the pub closes for the night as HCE drinks what is left of his patrons’ drinks and he becomes ancient Irishman Rory O’Connor, then falls into a passed out drunken stupor. His drunken dream seems to follow the journey of Tristan and Iseult and the four men who follow them.

In Book Three Shaun, the postman and the son, delivers the letter that ALP was holding in the first book that never made it to the court. Shaun is passed out, and, when he wakes up, he is floating in a barrel down the Liffey River. The narrators who do not seem to be named are asking Shaun various questions about the letter he is delivering and the importance of it.

Shaun manages to say nothing of use about the letter but instead talks about himself and his brother Shem in the highest of regard. Shaun tips over in his barrel and rolls away where the narrators can no longer see him. Shaun turns into a character called Jaunty Juan who gives a speech to Issy’s classmates at school. Shaun constantly changes character and age throughout this book, even acting as the means for HCE’s voice to be heard via a spiritual medium.

The novel jumps to Mr. and Mrs. Porter, presumably HCE and ALP, trying to have sex quietly while their children, Jerry, Kevin, and Isobel, are down the hall. The children, presumably, are Shaun, Shem, and Issy. Jerry wakes from a nightmare with a start and Mrs. Porter leaves her intimate moment with her husband to attempt to calm him her son. When the sun comes up, and Jerry is calm, she returns to her husband and they continue having sex.

Book Four is the shortest of the novel, as it consists of only one chapter. Similar to the first chapter of Book One, Book Four is comprised of a series of vignettes that seemingly have nothing to do with the rest of the story. When dawn breaks, the dream seems to be coming to an end, and the letter is revealed in several different forms through vignettes, though the final word on the letter is given by ALP. She attempts to waken her husband, feeling that he has slept for an awful long time. She delivers a lengthy monologue, recalling a walk that she and HCE took together at one time. She then changes character, turning in the Liffey River and floating away into the distance as soon as dawn officially breaks.

The last sentence of the novel combines with the first sentence to make the complete statement, “A way a lone a last a loved a long the 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.”

Though many people have guessed at the exact plot line of the novel, convinced that there must be one hidden beneath the surface somewhere, most people believe that the novel was not meant to follow a plot.

Joyce seems to have written the novel to represent a dream-state. When the brain is in a dreamlike state it switches ideas, personas, and venues quickly, as if a movie with no script, as seems to be the case for “Finnegans Wake”. Many critics have attempted to decipher the novel, but there is no solid breakdown, only inference from an educated mind.

Many people believe that Joyce himself has no idea what the purpose of “Finnegans Wake” was, other than a work of comedic masterpiece, as he wrote it over such a lengthy amount of time and pieced it together from random notes he wrote whenever he felt the tinge of a creative spark. The novel is seemingly the idea for many different novels all put together into one fantastical and mind-boggling dream.