Analysis of Finnegans Wake, Chapter 2 (Pages 30-33)

Executive Summary

This document provides a comprehensive synthesis of the narrative, themes, and scholarly interpretations concerning pages 30-33 of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. The core of this section is the origin story of the protagonist's name, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (H.C.E.), and his public nickname, Here Comes Everybody. The narrative details a pivotal, semi-mythic encounter between H.C.E., depicted as a "grand old gardener," and a visiting king. A misunderstanding arising from H.C.E.'s activity of trapping earwigs leads the king to humorously bestow upon him the moniker "earwigger," which solidifies into his surname.

Following this event, the initials H.C.E. are popularly reinterpreted as "Here Comes Everybody," reflecting his imposing, universal persona as a public figure. This is exemplified by his presence in the viceregal booth at the Gaiety Theatre, surveying the audience during a performance of the popular play A Royal Divorce.

Key themes explored include the constructed nature of identity, where names and reputations are derived from singular, often misunderstood, events ("nominigentilisation"). The text actively questions its own factuality, presenting competing narratives, dismissing fallacies, and highlighting the role of rumor and oral tradition in shaping history. This section masterfully blends the mythic with the mundane, portraying H.C.E. as a paradoxical archetype: a humble gardener, a publican, a patriarchal figure, and a universal symbol of humanity. The analysis also reveals the dense linguistic and stylistic techniques Joyce employs, including puns, neologisms, Hiberno-English dialect, and layered allusions to history, mythology, and local Dublin culture.

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I. The Genesis of the Agnomen: "Earwicker"

The central narrative of this section establishes the origin of the protagonist's "occupational agnomen," or nickname: Earwicker. The text explicitly discards several pseudo-historical theories before presenting what it terms the "best authenticated version."

A. Discarded Genealogies

The narrator dismisses theories linking the protagonist, initially named Harold or Humphrey Chimpden, to various origins, parodying genealogical and historical inquiries. These rejected ancestries include:

Discarded Origin : Description : Source Allusions

Sidlesham Families : Connection to pivotal ancestors with curious names like the Glues, Gravys, Northeasts, and Ankers from Sidlesham in the "Hundred of Manhood." : This is a direct reference from A Pictorial & Descriptive Guide to Bognor &c., which Joyce used. He visited the Sidlesham churchyard in summer 1923 and noted these names on tombstones. The "Hundred of Manhood" was an administrative division in Sussex, England.

Viking Progeny : Being an "offsprout of vikings" who founded a "wapentake" (a Danish county division, contrasting with the English "hundred") and settled in "Herrick or Eric.": Reflects the Norse influence on Irish history and connects to the alternative pronunciation of Earwicker as "Erricker."

Talmudic/Rabbinic Lore : The "best authenticated version" is presented as "the Dumlat, read the Reading of Hofed-ben-Edar." : "Dumlat" is Talmud spelled backward (referencing Hebrew being read right-to-left). "Hofed-ben-Edar" is a parody of a rabbi's name, combining the Dutch "hoofd" (head) with "Ben Edar," the ancient name for Howth Head, Dublin.

B. The Encounter with the King

The authorized narrative describes a fateful meeting between H.C.E. and a monarch, allegorically representing encounters between common man and authority, infant and father, or Adam and God.

The Setting and Characters:

• H.C.E. as the "Grand Old Gardener": Portrayed as a figure akin to the Roman statesman Cincinnatus, H.C.E. is found "following his plough for rootles" in the garden of his establishment, the "Royal Marine Hotel," on a "sultry sabbath afternoon" in "prefall paradise peace." This description links him to archetypes of civic duty, pastoral simplicity, and Adamic innocence.
• The King: Identified as "Our sailor king" (an epithet for William IV, Edward III, or George V) and "William the Conk" (a pun on William the Conqueror and "conk" for nose). He is described as "noticeably longsighted," possessing a "hereditary whitelock" and "some shortfingeredness."
• The Hunting Party: Royalty arrives with a hunting party, though it is a strange one, following a "leisureloving dogfox" at a walking pace with a "lady pack of cocker spaniels."

The Action:

1. Hasty Greeting: Upon the announcement of royalty, H.C.E. "stumbled out hotface" to greet the king. His attire is a comical assembly of mismatched items: "topee, surcingle, solascarf and plaid, plus fours, puttees and bulldog boots ruddled cinnabar with flagrant marl."
2. The Earwig Trap: He carries his turnpike keys and bears aloft "a high perch atop of which a flowerpot was fixed earthside hoist with care." This contraption is an earwig trap, made from an inverted flowerpot on a stick.
3. The Misunderstanding: The "longsighted" king, mistaking the earwig trap for a fishing rod and seeing the road "potholed" (perhaps from H.C.E. banging the pot to shake out earwigs), asks about fishing bait: "...whether paternoster and silver doctors were not now more fancied bait for lobstertrapping."
4. H.C.E.'s Reply: In a thick dialect, H.C.E. corrects the king's misapprehension: "Naw, yer maggers, aw war jist a cotchin on thon bluggy earwuggers." (Translation: "No, your Majesty, I was just catching those bloody earwigs.")
5. The Coining of the Name: Amused, the king turns to his retinue—"Michael, etheling lord of Leix and Offaly and the jubilee mayor of Drogheda, Elcock"—and remarks on having a "turnpiker who is by turns a pikebailer no seldomer than an earwigger!"

II. The Public Persona: "Here Comes Everybody"

The narrative establishes that this royal encounter is the pivotal moment after which the protagonist's identity coalesces around the initials H.C.E.

A. From Sigla to Nickname

The text states that "after that historic date all holographs so far exhumed initialled by Haromphrey bear the sigla H.C.E." While he was known familiarly as "good Dook Umphrey" to the poor of Lucalizod or "Chimbers" to his cronies, the populace gave the letters a broader meaning: Here Comes Everybody. This nickname was inspired by H.C.E. Childers, a 19th-century British politician known for his girth.

B. H.C.E. in the Theatre

The nickname is justified by his "imposing" and universal appearance as a public figure. The narrative provides a detailed tableau of H.C.E. in his element, embodying this public role.

• Venue: The viceregal booth of a theatre, identified as Dublin's Gaiety Theatre on King Street.
• Event: A command performance of the popular melodrama A Royal Divorce, described as a "problem passion play of the millentury, running strong since creation." The interval band plays selections from The Bohemian Girl and The Lily of Killarney.
• Appearance: He is a "veritable Napoleon the Nth" and "folksforefather," with a "broadstretched kerchief cooling his whole neck." His "wardrobe panelled tuxedo" is thrown back to reveal a shirt "well entitled a swallowall," which far outshines the formalwear of the patrons in the pit stalls.
• Audience: The "truly catholic assemblage" is gathered from "assbawlveldts and oxgangs" and vociferously interacts with the performance and H.C.E. himself, with cries of "Accept these few nutties!" and "Take off that white hat!"

III. Thematic and Scholarly Interpretations

The passage is dense with thematic layers that scholars have extensively analyzed. The provided sources highlight several key concepts.

A. Constructed Identity and "Nominigentilisation"

The origin of "Earwicker" is a primary example of "nominigentilisation" (a portmanteau of nomen gentile and "gentilisation"), where a name and, by extension, an identity is derived from a person's occupation or a singular exploit. The name is not inherited but bestowed based on a misunderstanding, highlighting the arbitrary and constructed nature of identity. Scholarly interpretation suggests that H.C.E. may have had a prior name, possibly "Porter," derived from his occupation as a "turnpiker" (a porter at a toll gate).

B. Unreliable Narration and Competing Histories

The narrative voice constantly questions its own authority and the veracity of the story it tells.

• Direct Questioning: The narrator asks, "Comes the question are these the facts... as recorded and accolated in both or either of the collateral andrewpaulmurphyc narratives. Are those their fata which we read in sibylline between the fas and its nefas?" This framing emphasizes that history is not a single truth but a collection of "collateral narratives."
• Dismissal of Fallacies: The text explicitly sets aside an alternative version of the story where the king's witty remark is attributed instead to "his inseparable sisters... Skertsiraizde with Donyahzade" (Scheherazade and Dunyazad from The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night). This reinforces the theme of storytelling itself as a subject of the book.

C. The Blending of Mythic and Mundane

H.C.E. is consistently portrayed as a figure who occupies both epic and ordinary realms.

• He is compared to the Roman hero Cincinnatus and the biblical first man, Adam ("the grand old gardener").
• His royal encounter is a grand, historical event, yet it hinges on the humble, even comical, act of catching insects in a garden.
• He is a "veritable Napoleon" and a "folksforefather" in the theatre, yet he is also a local publican whose authority is symbolized by "turnpike keys."

This synthesis of the grand and the trivial positions H.C.E. as an epic paradigm of Everyman, whose life contains the full spectrum of human experience.