Editing Finnegans Wake (section)

== Characters ==
Critics disagree on whether discernible characters exist in ''Finnegans Wake''. For example, Grace Eckley argues that Wakean characters are distinct from one another,<ref>Herring, ''Joyce's Uncertainty Principle'', p.186</ref> and defends this with explaining the dual narrators, the "us" of the first paragraph, as well as Shem-Shaun distinctions<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newsstead.itgo.com/mythictime.htm |title=Mythic Time by Grace Eckley |publisher=Newsstead.itgo.com |access-date=10 June 2011}}</ref> while Margot Norris argues that the "[c]haracters are fluid and interchangeable".<ref>Norris, Margot, ''The decentered universe of Finnegans wake'', p.4</ref> Supporting the latter stance, Van Hulle finds that the "characters" in ''Finnegans Wake'' are rather "archetypes or character amalgams, taking different shapes",<ref name= literaryencyclopedia>{{cite web | url= https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5163 | last= van Hulle | first= Dirk | title= ''Finnegans Wake'' | publisher= The Literary Encyclopedia}}</ref> and Riquelme similarly refers to the book's cast of mutable characters as "[[protean]]".<ref>Riquelme 1983, p. 8</ref> As early as in 1934, in response to the recently published excerpt "The Mookse and the Gripes", [[Ronald Symond]] argued that "the characters in ''Work in Progress'', in keeping with the space-time chaos in which they live, change identity at will. At one time they are persons, at another rivers or stones or trees, at another personifications of an idea, at another they are lost and hidden in the actual texture of the prose, with an ingenuity far surpassing that of [[crossword puzzles]]."<ref>[[Ronald Symond|Symond, Ronald]], quoted in ''James Joyce: The Critical Heritage'', p.606</ref> Such concealment of character identity has resulted in some disparity as to how critics identify the book's main protagonists; for example, while most find consensus that Festy King, who appears on trial in I.4, is a HCE type, not all analysts agree on this – for example Anthony Burgess believes him to be Shaun.<ref>Burgess, ''A Shorter Finnegans Wake'', p.17</ref>

While characters are in a constant state of flux—constantly changing names, occupations, and physical attributes—a recurring set of core characters, or character types (what Norris dubs "[[cipher]]s"), are discernible. During the composition of ''Finnegans Wake'', Joyce used signs, or so-called "sigla", rather than names to designate these character amalgams or types. In a letter to his Maecenas, Harriet Shaw Weaver (March 1924), Joyce made a list of these sigla.<ref name= literaryencyclopedia/> For those who argue for the existence of distinguishable characters, the book focuses on the Earwicker family, which consists of father, mother, twin sons and a daughter.

===Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (HCE)===
[[Philip Kitcher]] argues for the father HCE as the book's protagonist, stating that he is "the dominant figure throughout{{nbsp}}... His guilt, his shortcomings, his failures pervade the entire book".<ref name="Kitcher 2007">Kitcher 2007, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gUdP2YrzUPIC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA13&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 13].</ref> Bishop states that while the constant flux of HCE's character and attributes may lead us to consider him as an "anyman," he argues that "the sheer density of certain repeated details and concerns allows us to know that he is a particular, real Dubliner." The common critical consensus of HCE's fixed character is summarised by Bishop as being "an older [[Protestantism|Protestant]] male, of [[Scandinavia]]n lineage, connected with the pubkeeping business somewhere in the neighbourhood of [[Chapelizod]], who has a wife, a daughter, and two sons."<ref>Bishop 1986, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QwTenyFeSeEC&pg=PT135&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 135].</ref>{{rp|135}}

HCE is referred to by literally thousands of names throughout the book; leading Terence Killeen to argue that in ''Finnegans Wake'' "naming is{{nbsp}}... a fluid and provisional process".<ref>{{cite web | url = http://hjs.ff.cuni.cz/archives/v9_1/main/essays.php?essay=killeen | title = Life, Death, and the Washerwomen | last = Killeen | first = terence | publisher = Hypermedia Joyce studies: VOLUME 9, NUMBER 1, 2008 ISSN 1801-1020 | access-date=4 January 2009}}</ref> HCE is at first referred to as "Harold or Humphrey Chimpden";<ref>Joyce 1939, [https://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-30.htm page 30, lines 2–3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090121183155/http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-30.htm |date=21 January 2009 }}</ref> a conflation of these names as "Haromphreyld",<ref>Joyce 1939, [https://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-31.htm page 31, lines 29–30] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209060340/http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-31.htm |date=9 December 2008 }}</ref> and as a consequence of his initials "Here Comes Everybody".<ref>Joyce 1939, [https://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-32.htm page 32, lines 18–19] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209073435/http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-32.htm |date=9 December 2008 }}</ref> These initials lend themselves to phrase after phrase throughout the book; for example, appearing in the book's opening sentence as "Howth Castle and Environs". As the work progresses the names by which he may be referred to become increasingly abstract (such as "[[Fionn mac Cumhaill|Finn MacCool]]",<ref>Joyce 1939, [https://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-139.htm page 139, line 14] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090909111157/http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-139.htm |date=9 September 2009 }}</ref> "Mr. Makeall Gone",<ref>Joyce 1939, [https://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-220.htm page 220, line 24] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214115700/http://trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-220.htm |date=14 February 2009 }}</ref> or "Mr. Porter"<ref>Joyce 1939, [https://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-560.htm page 560, line 24] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211042141/http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-560.htm |date=11 December 2008 }}</ref>).

Some ''Wake'' critics, such as Finn Fordham, argue that HCE's initials come from the initials of the portly politician [[Hugh Childers]] (1827–96), who had been nicknamed "Here Comes Everybody" for his size.<ref>See Fordham, Finn. "The Universalization of ''Finnegans Wake'' and the Real HCE." ''Joyce, Ireland, Britain''. Ed. [[Andrew William Gibson|Gibson, Andrew]]; Platt, Len. Florida James Joyce Series. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007. 198-211. {{ISBN|0-8130-3015-3}}</ref>

Many critics see Finnegan, whose death, wake and resurrection are the subject of the opening chapter, as either a prototype of HCE, or as another of his manifestations. One of the reasons for this close identification is that Finnegan is called a "man of '''h'''od, '''c'''ement and '''e'''difices" and "like '''H'''aroun '''C'''hilderic '''E'''ggeberth",<ref>Joyce 1939, [https://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-4.htm page 4, lines 26–27, 32] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302162049/http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-4.htm |date=2 March 2009 }}</ref> identifying him with the initials HCE. [[Patrick Parrinder]] for example states that "Bygmester Finnegan{{nbsp}}... is HCE", and finds that his fall and resurrection foreshadows "the fall of HCE early in Book I [which is] paralleled by his resurrection towards the end of III.3, in the section originally called "Haveth Childers Everywhere", when [HCE's] ghost speaks forth in the middle of a [[seance]]."<ref>Parrinder 1984, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WcCWdSwa7bsC&pg=PA222&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 222].</ref>{{rp|222}}

===Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP)===
Patrick McCarthy describes HCE's wife ALP as "the river-woman whose presence is implied in the 'riverrun' with which ''Finnegans Wake'' opens and whose monologue closes the book. For over six hundred pages, Joyce presents Anna Livia to us almost exclusively through other characters, much as in ''Ulysses'' we hear what Molly Bloom has to say about herself only in the last chapter."<ref>Patrick A. McCarthy, in Crispi, Slote 2007, p. 163</ref> The most extensive discussion of ALP comes in chapter I.8, in which hundreds of names of rivers are woven into the tale of ALP's life, as told by two gossiping washerwomen. Similarly hundreds of city names are woven into "Haveth Childers Everywhere", the corresponding passage at the end of III.3 which focuses on HCE. As a result, it is generally contended that HCE personifies the [[Viking]]-founded city of Dublin, and his wife ALP personifies the river Liffey, on whose banks the city was built.

===Shem, Shaun and Issy===
ALP and HCE have a daughter, Issy – whose personality is often split (represented by her mirror-twin). Parrinder argues that "as daughter and sister, she is an object of secret and repressed desire both to her father{{nbsp}}... and to her two brothers."<ref>Parrinder 1984, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WcCWdSwa7bsC&pg=PA210&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 210].</ref> These twin sons of HCE and ALP consist of a writer called [[James Townsend Saward|Shem the Penman]] and a postman by the name of Shaun the Post, who are rivals for replacing their father and for their sister Issy's affection. Shaun is portrayed as a dull [[Mail carrier|postman]], conforming to society's expectations, while Shem is a bright artist and sinister experimenter, often perceived as Joyce's alter-ego in the book.<ref>cf, for example, Parrinder 1984, p. 205.</ref> Hugh Staples finds that Shaun "wants to be thought of as a man-about-town, a snappy dresser, a glutton and a gourmet{{nbsp}}... He is possessed of a musical voice and is a braggart. He is not happy in his work, which is that of a messenger or a postman; he would rather be a priest."<ref>quoted in Norris, ''The De-Centred Universe of Finnegans Wake'', p. 16</ref> Shaun's sudden and somewhat unexpected promotion to the book's central character in Part III is explained by Tindall with the assertion that "having disposed of old HCE, Shaun is becoming the new HCE."<ref>Tindall 1969, p. 223</ref>

Like their father, Shem and Shaun are referred to by different names throughout the book, such as "Caddy and Primas";<ref>Joyce 1939, [https://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-14.htm page 14, line 12] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214114035/http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-14.htm |date=14 February 2009 }}</ref> "[[Mercy|Mercius]]" and "[[Justice|Justius]]";<ref>Joyce 1939, [https://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-193.htm page 193, line 31] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090518022935/http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-193.htm |date=18 May 2009 }}</ref><ref>Joyce 1939, [https://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-187.htm page 187, 24] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024023009/http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-187.htm |date=24 October 2007 }}</ref> "Dolph and Kevin";<ref>in Chapter II.2</ref> and "Jerry and Kevin".<ref>in Chapter III.4</ref> These twins are contrasted in the book by allusions to sets of opposing twins and enemies in literature, mythology and history; such as [[Set (mythology)|Set]] and [[Horus]] of the [[Osiris]] story; the biblical pairs [[Jacob]] and [[Esau]], [[Cain and Abel]], and [[Saint Michael]] and the [[Devil]] – equating Shaun with "Mick" and Shem with "Nick" – as well as [[Romulus and Remus]]. They also represent the oppositions of time and space,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The measureless time of Joyce, Deleuze and Derrida|last=Borg, Ruben.|date=2007|publisher=Continuum|isbn=9780826498373|location=London|oclc=153772582}}</ref> and tree and stone.<ref>Eckley, G., ''The Encryption of Finnegans Wake Resolved: W. T. Stead'' ([[Lanham, Maryland|Lanham, MD]]: [[Rowman & Littlefield|Hamilton Books]], 2018), [https://books.google.com/books?id=astADwAAQBAJ&pg=PA224&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 224].</ref>{{rp|224}}

===Minor characters===
The most commonly recurring characters outside of the Earwicker family are the four old men known collectively as "Mamalujo" (a conflation of their names: Matt Gregory, Marcus Lyons, Luke Tarpey and Johnny Mac Dougall). These four most commonly serve as narrators, but they also play a number of active roles in the text, such as when they serve as the judges in the court case of I.4, or as the inquisitors who question Yawn in III.4. Tindall summarises the roles that these old men play as those of [[Annals of the Four Masters|the Four Masters]], the [[Four Evangelists]], and the four [[Provinces of Ireland]] ( "[[Matthew the Evangelist|Matthew]], from the north, is [[Ulster]]; [[Mark the Evangelist|Mark]], from the south, is [[Munster]]; [[Luke the Evangelist|Luke]], from the east, is [[Leinster]]; and [[John the Evangelist|John]], from the west, is [[Connacht|Connaught]]").<ref>Tindall 1969, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dO2IrqURy8cC&pg=PT255&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 255].</ref>{{rp|255}} According to Finn Fordham, Joyce related to his daughter-in-law Helen Fleischmann that "Mamalujo" also represented Joyce's own family, namely his wife Nora (mama), daughter Lucia (lu), and son Giorgio (jo).<ref>Fordham, Finn. ''Lots of Fun at Finnegans Wake'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=xiV0Vw1GeKsC&pg=PA77&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 77].</ref>{{rp|77}}

In addition to the four old men, there are a group of twelve unnamed men who always appear together, and serve as the customers in Earwicker's pub, gossipers about his sins, jurors at his trial and mourners at his wake.<ref>Tindall 1969, p. 5.</ref>{{rp|5}} The Earwicker household also includes two cleaning staff: Kate, the maid, and Joe, who is by turns handyman and barman in Earwicker's pub. Tindall considers these characters to be older versions of ALP and HCE.<ref>Tindall 1969, pp. 4–5.</ref>{{rp|4–5}} Kate often plays the role of museum curator, as in the "Willingdone Museyroom" episode of 1.1, and is recognisable by her repeated motif "Tip! Tip!" Joe is often also referred to by the name "Sackerson", and Kitcher describes him as "a figure sometimes playing the role of policeman, sometimes{{nbsp}}... a squalid derelict, and most frequently the odd-job man of HCE's inn, Kate's male counterpart, who can ambiguously indicate an older version of HCE."<ref>Kitcher 2007, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gUdP2YrzUPIC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA39&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 39].</ref>{{rp|39}}