Non-Euclidean Eye Problems in the Geometry Lesson of Finnegans Wake

Abstract

I demonstrate the existence of a correlation between references to physicists and references to eye problems in the geometry lesson in Book II, Chapter 2 of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Specifically, the sequence of physicists proceeds from Newton to Einstein following a diagram of Euclid’s first proposition, and parallels the conflict of the brothers Dolph and Kev as they struggle to understand the diagram and reconcile their duality. In light of the importance of Euclid and Einstein elsewhere in Joyce’s work, and the significance of eye problems in Joyce’s own life, I argue for a metatextual reading of the geometry lesson, in which Joyce uses eye problems as a metaphor for the difficulty of apprehending both non-Euclidean geometry and the linguistic texture of Finnegans Wake itself.