30 pages 1 hour read

James Joyce

Finnegans Wake

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1939

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Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4 Summary

After Mr. and Mrs. Porter return to sleep, the dream resumes, and the cycle of life and history begins again. The chapter becomes a series of vignettes. Shaun and Shem battle again. Shaun is St. Patrick this time, and Shem is the Archdruid Bilkily (also known as Balkily or Burkeley). Shaun represents Christianity, emerging victorious over Ireland’s pagan, mystical past. Using pidgin versions of Chinese and Japanese accents, they debate before High King Lughaire as a horse race is staged nearby. St. Patrick triumphs over the Archdruid. Then, the brothers become a slightly different version of Mutt and Jute, now known as Muta and Juva. Muta and Juva meet with HCE to discuss the previous day’s events. They revisit the stories that have been told and in which they have all played various roles.

HCE is asleep, but he is about to return to the world. His own dream uses the voice of ALP, who launches into a long speech. The speech is also the letter she dictated to Shem, in which she decries the gossip about her husband and looks ahead to his funeral and wake in the coming days.

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