James Joyce’s Dreams
Finnegans Wake is a complex novel that blends reality of life with a dream world. The idea that life is cyclical; birth, death and rebirth, and the repetitive nature of reincarnation illuminates the illusory nature of reality we live in. The beginning and ending of book seem to illustrate this meaning. The novel is a stream illusions and dreams. The plot is difficult to follow as the story explores several fragmented and disconnected episodes. The main tension is the cause and effect, dream, and illusions which are illustrated through changing characters, settings, odd grammar and strange sentences.
This story is about the Porters and their three children. When they go to sleep, their world changes. You enter a dream world where their names and their children’s name are different! It is during the wake of a man named Finnegan; Mrs. Porter makes the spirit come alive at the visitation for the wake where she offers a one-woman monologue and energize her husband from his dreams.
The linguistic tactics employed by author is complex that includes wordplay with hidden meaning throughout the book. Examples include words with one hundred letters that combine numerous languages. His polyglot idiom of puns is to convey the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious side of reality. Finnegan’s Wake is puzzling and confusing! But numerous corrections made by author James Joyce in notes and drafts in the later editions creates doubts that he is really a genius as categorized by many literary critics. We may question the merit of his work. However, this book is not for timid or readers interested in page-turners.
No comments:
Post a Comment