Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker—also referred to by his initials, HCE—is the protagonist of Finnegans Wake. HCE is a complex character, particularly as he takes on so many alternate roles and identities during the narrative. At various times, he is Finn MacCool, Tim Finnegan, St. Patrick, Mr. Porter, Humpty Dumpty, and many more. In this sense, HCE is not necessarily an individual but a living embodiment of Irish cultural heritage, a repository for a millennia’s worth of ideas, stories, traumas, experiences, and hopes that must be lived and repeated throughout history. One of the explanations for the initials of his name is that they stand for Here Comes Everybody, and, in a literal sense, HCE embodies everybody in the history of Ireland, the great collective unconscious that defines what it means to be Irish. HCE can be thought of as an abstraction or an idea, a cycle repeated throughout history without ever growing or changing.

However, the complexity of Finnegans Wake means that HCE is more than just an abstract expression of cultural history. There is an individual who appears in the novel and drives the plot forward. HCE’s fall from grace, for example, is told in Part 1 of the novel, and the question of whether or not he exposed himself to two young women is the inciting incident of the plot.