HCE
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Jump to navigationJump to search- HCE: a trigram that appears in countless phrases throughout FW (Howth Castle and Environs, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, etc.), always embodying the book's male protagonist, if such he can be called. He is often affectionately referred to by readers as "Here Comes Everybody" (and Joyce himself makes several plays on this term at several points in the book) as this also creates the same inclusion as the removal of the apostrophe from "Finnegan's Wake", that we are all involved in the cycles implied in the book, just as we are all drawn into imbuing the book with meaning. HCE, as he takes many forms, is often overlooked on initial readings, but it is also noticeable that as the book proceeds and HCE's mind becomes more scrambled,his name also become scrambled, as acrostics such as "hec" or "ceh" pop up more as the book progresses, but fade closer to the end.
- Huyus Ecclesiae Cathedralis: "Of This Cathedral Church " from the autoepitaph of Johnathan Swift