I must admit first of all that there are probably very few of you who will be interested in what I have to say here unless you happen to be both a Christian and an English major. But since I spent a good portion of my spare time while in college studying Joyce's failed masterpiece, I wanted to share at least a little of my findings. And it may be helpful in demonstrating how even some people who do not consider themselves believers still thoroughly acquaint themselves with the contents of the Bible and appreciate it for its outstanding literary qualities. In fact, one could say that many unbelievers appreciate it in ways that most Christians don't.
The book starts out: “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 Evirons.” Why isn't the first word capitalized, why does it say “brings us back,” and what in the world do the other words mean? The river is the Liffey River in Ireland; and it runs by Adam and Eve's Church; commodius is a combination of at least three different words, including commode (with its circular flow of water); and vicus is an allusion to Vico (explained in the paragraph below). By the way, I forgot to tell you, although you may have guessed it by now, that Finnegans Wake is not really written in standard English at all.
After over 500 pages of this sort of writing, at last we come to the end of the book, or do we? “The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the” The first words are an allusion to an Irish song: “I will give you the keys to heaven.” So it starts and ends just like the Bible, beginning with Adam and Eve and concluding with the keys to heaven being given, but with a huge difference. The partial sentence at the end is completed by the partial sentence that starts the book. No end to the book and no progress, unlike the Bible. This is because Joyce was influenced by Italian philosopher Vico's cyclic view of history-- Theocratic (Age of God), Aristocratic (Age of Heroes), Democratic (Age of Humans), Chaotic, and back to Theocratic, etc. This demonstrates that even if writers happen to utilize the trappings and details in the Bible, often they pervert the overall meaning to fit their own purposes.
In between those opening and closing lines of the book I have detected approximately 1,600 references to the Bible in the novel, and the most repeated image is that of death and resurrection. This is not surprising considering the Roman Catholic background of the author and the title of the book, taken from an Irish drinking song in which a drunken Irishman becomes a dead Irishman, but then revives to become a drunken Irishman again. Again, this is a sort of parody on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You will be pleased to know that I will not subject you to all 1,600 references. But just to give you a flavor of the types of biblical allusions that are in this massive and confusing book, here are some examples taken from the first three pages:
“nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick”
In this phrase alone we have references to God speaking to Moses from the burning bush combined with His revealing his name as I AM who I AM (mise mise in Gaelic). Then it morphs into an allusion to another theophany at the baptism of Jesus (taufen is “baptize” in German). And finally, there is Jesus' proclamation in Matthew 16:18: “Thou art Peter,” which now is applied to St. Patrick instead.
“not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac, not yet, though all's fair in vanessy”
Note how Joyce combines the word “venison” with “very soon” in order to get “venissoon.” As to why “venison” appears here, it is explained by references to “kid” and “old isaac.” Anyone familiar with the Bible will immediately recognize these three words belong together as a citation of the story of Jacob fooling his elderly father Isaac into giving him the blessing instead of to Esau.
“were soiesesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe.”
Here we have references to women who were all in love with older men or were loved by older men: Susannah (in the Apocrypha), Esther, and Ruth. The last compound word in this phrase may refer to Nathan (with his denunciation of David taking Bathsheba) and Joseph, husband of Mary. In both these cases, there has been the assumption, unproven, that the wives were much younger than their husbands.
“Rot a peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.”
Once one realizes that rory=rosy in German, regenbogen=rainbow in German, and ringsum=around in German, then this becomes a reference to both the Spirit moving on the face of the water (aquaface) in Genesis 1 and to the rainbow God provided at the end of the Flood. In both events, the surface of the earth was covered with water. However, at the start of the sentence above we have an allusion to the sad event after the Flood involving Noah getting drunk (Pa's malt) and being exposed to his son Ham (Jhem or Shen is a combination of Ham, Shem, and Japhet).
“The fall [at this point follows a 100-letter word signaling the end of another cycle of rise and fall. Other such words appear throughout the book] of a one wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy.”
Without going into excruciating detail to explain each phrase in the above passage (including the fall of Wall Street), I will just point out that the references refer to the Fall in the Garden of Eden which has been told over and over again by Christians.
“What true feeling for their's hayair with what strawng voice of false jiccop!”
This is another allusion to Jacob deceiving Isaac by putting goat's hair on his arms.
“how hath fanespanned most high heaven the skysign of soft advertisement?”
The rainbow sign given to Noah of sweet promise.
“in his rushlit toofarback for messuages before joshuan judges had given us numbers or Helviticus committed deuteronomy”
Here are highlighted the first six books of the Old Testament, which happen to be the biblical books most cited in the first few pages of Finnegans Wake.
“by the might of moses, the very water was eviparated and all the gueneses had met their exodus so that ought to show you what a pentschanjeuchy chap he was!”
We have in this phrase not only Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, but also “Genesis,” “Exodus,” and the “Pentateuch” (cleverly mixed in with Punch and Judy).
“a waalworth of a skyerscape of most eyeful hoyth entowerly, erigenating from next to nothing and celescalating the himals and all hierachitectitiptitoploftical, with a burning bush off its baubletop and with larrons o'toolers clittering up and tombles a'buckets clottering down.”
This wonderful conglomeration of words combines a description of the Tower of Babel (baubletop) reaching to the heavens (himals in German) with Jacob's ladder on which angels were ascending and descending. Sandwiched in between are references to the Woolworth skyscraper, the Christian heretic Erigena, the saints Lawrence O'Toole and Thomas Becket, and the common practice of placing a tree on top of a high building when construction is complete. Soon after the above passage are references to other religions such as Hinduism and Islam, in case you think that Joyce is only perverting Judaism and Christianity.
By this point, I think that you all get the definite idea that this is not a book of light reading. In fact, it is more like trying to do a crossword puzzle without knowing exactly what language it is written in. Joyce has tried to pack in all the history, religion, culture and language of every nation into one book. It is a noble attempt but generally only accomplishes leaving the reader confused. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit has given us a much more straightforward revelation to follow, even if there are still enough veiled material to keep an avid Bible scholar busy for a lifetime trying to fully comprehend it in all its aspects.
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