JOYCE AND THE RUSSIAN GENERAL
425
typical Man, it should follow that Vasily is the Archetypical Father.
Buckley, the Archetypical Son.
I suggest that Vasily is the Russian general. When Buckley shoots
the latter, that is the archetypical tale of the Son who kills the
Father.
Is there any corroboration? Well, let us turn to the section I
have mentioned. There, in the eleventh chapter, our pub-owner
dreams of a noisy night in his pub.
On p. 338, Joyce prophetically puts a television set in the bar.
Two brothers, Butt and Taff, appear on the television screen. For
almost twenty pages (338-355), they talk about the shooting.
Their dialogue gets interrupted: for instance, on p. 349, we are
taken to the scene. Weare shown the General as he receives the
Last Rites. At this point, he has the name of Popey O'Donoshough.
Pop
is Russian for a priest. The earliest Russian priests were
Byzantine Greeks. Let us think of O'Donoshough as being a Greek.
Under the dream-distortion, he is Athanasius. Pappa Athanasius–
The Everlasting Father.
On p. 342, there is a horse race on the screen. Emancipator is
in the lead. Immense Pater, in the rear. The Immense Father. On p.
353, there is another interruption. The destruction of the atom. The
Adam. Father Adam.
We're told that this is a "dawnybreak." That is: this is a Donny–
brook. Also-a
dawny-break.
A rising of the sun. A rising of the
Son. On p. 349, we get a similar pun. The time is
heliotropical.
This means turning toward the sun. A turning-toward the Son.
Perhaps the most amusing bit happens on p. 344. One of the
brothers, Butt, breaks into cadenced speech. The rhythms are those
of Synge. At first, we may wonder about the point of this parody.
Then, we remember.
The Playboy of the Western World
is
a story
about a son who kills his father. Young Mahon (pronounced Man)
kills old Mahon.
It's a dream. And, as befits a dream, the latent meaning is
concealed. -Let us look at the concealments. Why is the Son an
Irishman? Why
is
his name Buckley? Why is the Father's name
Vasily? Why is he a gener.al? Why is he Russian?
Vasily comes from the Greek. Basil, Basileus. King-Vico tells
