A Case of Conscience

What allusions are made to the story, Finnegan's Wake, in the novel, A Case of Conscience?

A Case of Conscience

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Father Ruiz-Sanchez reads from and meditates upon an extremely convoluted and difficult novel which readers are told has been put on the Index because of the moral ambiguity which is at its heart. The book, which readers only later learn is James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, involves a series of incredibly confusing moral issues, or cases of conscience. An enormous number of characters are implicated in a series of crimes and errors (all of which interrelate with each other) and Ruiz-Sanchez's purpose in reading the book seems to be to analyze the situation and demonstrate logically the exact state of each character's moral involvement. The complexities of Finnegans Wake (1939), of course, mirror the complexities of the Lithian situation as Ruiz-Sanchez must weigh his own motives, those of his diverse fellow Commissioners, the Lithians, and, perhaps, even Satan, and come to terms with his own case of conscience, his own moral involvement with Lithia, his own responsibility and culpability for the events of the novel.

Source(s)

A Case of Conscience, BookRags