Meet HCE

 

Allow me to introduce you to the male hero of Finnegans Wake. His name is HCE, but he goes by many names because he is everyman. One of his identities is Finnegan, the fellow that we know from the song Finnegan's Wake. And like the builder from the song, our hero is also a builder who is fond of the drink. He was known to build "a waalworth of a skyerscape of most eyeful hoyth entowerly,". See what he did there. Joyce plays with the image of the Eifel tower and the lighthouse in Howth, in that sentence. You see, Finnegan is also Finn MacCool the giant who is said to be buried under Dublin, with his head under the Howth peninsula and his feet under the Phoenix Park. Anyway, there he is climbing the ladder while still tipsy and he falls to his death. The following sentences describe his fall and yes, they ARE full of inuendo. “Phill filt tippling full. His howd feeled heavy, his hoddit did shake. (There was a wall of course in erection) Dimb! He stottered from the latter. Damb! he was dud. Dumb! Mastabatoom, mastabadtomm, when a mon merries his lute is all long. For whole the world to see.” So, they have a wake for him and the dancing and singing begin. Someone spills whisky on the corpse, and he comes back to life. As we make our way through the book, we will be introduced to his other identities, some we will like and others not so much.