In addition to “The Dead,” I highly recommend checking out a few other stories from James Joyce’s Dubliners, especially “The Sisters,” “Araby,” and “Eveline.”
Pay attention to moments that might qualify as what Joyce calls “epiphanies.” For a rather scattershot description of what constitutes an epiphany, follow this link: http://theliterarylink.com/joyce.html. We’ll go over this some more during class on Tuesday 11/28.
One of my favorite parts in The Dead is Gabriel and Gretta attending a dinner party given by Aunt Kate and Julia Morkan. After the party, Gabriel sees his wife stranding on the stairs and mesmerized by the song that Mr. Bartell is singing. When they return to their hotel in Dublin, he sees Gretta upset and emotional; Gabriel tries to figure out what is going on with her and after a while Gretta tells him that the song was the same song sung by her first love, Michael Furey. Michael died at age of seventeen. As she was listening to the song ,she was remembering when he was waiting for her outside her window in the cold. Gretta was crying and then she falls asleep. While looking out the window, Gabriel sees falling snow, and he imagines it covering the grave of Michael Furey as well as all the people of Dublin. The story ends with Gabriel saying “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” (207). This final quote is the overarching message of the story. Gabriel realizes that happy marriage he thought he was in did not exist. His wife has never told him she had a lover .“His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself which these dead had one time reared and lived in was dissolving and dwindling.” (207). He feels very hurts that Gretta never confided in him and its making him think a lot more about his life.
I have questions for you guys, was Gabriel jealous when his wife tells the story about her first lover? And what’s the meaning of “the dead” in the story?
Hi, I felt that Gabriel was more upset than jealous when he heard about Gretta’s first lover. He is upset due to the fact that she kept this a secret from him all these years, especially since she (clearly) still has feelings for this dead boy. In fact, I think Gabriel might even feel a bit betrayed by this sudden confession, considering the ambiance and his sudden lust for his wife. Just as he was about to make a move, BAM, she starts weeping over her past lover. This is literally one of the worst things that can happen to Gabriel at the moment. In regards to the title of the piece, “The Dead,” I felt there are several interpretations for this. We know that Gretta and Gabriel might’ve had a great relationship once, since they had children, but throughout the novel I can help but notice they don’t seem that intimate as a couple. “The Dead” might be used to symbolize their relationship at this point of their lives: dead. It seems as though Gretta no longer feels for Gabriel anymore. Another interpretation of the title could be more literal, meaning its directly talking about Gretta’s dead lover. The whole story with the feast and their friends/relatives don’t seem as important because I felt that it was all leading to the moment of Gretta’s confession. The fact that the boy died so long ago, yet is still loved by Gretta, shows that those who are dead are not truly dead; their memories still dwell within the living, which makes them alive.
“The Dead” is the final story in the 1914 collection Dubliners by James Joyce.
After reading “The Dead,” I specifically noticed the interactions that Gabriel Conroy had with women at the party. First, Kate and Julia Morkin anxiously/worriedly wait for Gabriel and his wife, Gretta’s arrival. Second, Gabriel asks Lily about how she’s been along with her love life, and in response to his question, she snaps back and states how bitter men are, making Gabriel taken aback by her reply. Third, as Gabriel is dancing with Miss Ivors, she accuses him of denying/having a lack of interest in his Irish culture, which causes him to snap at her and flee the dance floor. Through these interactions, I noticed how Gabriel seeks to maintain distance from these women, along with caring about how he is perceived. Although Lily snaps at him, and he snaps at Miss Ivors, he does not explain himself to them, but rather finds a way to avoid the entire situation. I realized that after those encounters, he kept thinking about it throughout the night, and it definitely effected his confidence.
Another part I realized that effected his confidence was when his wife, Gretta revealed to him that listening to the song at the dance made her think of her past lover, Michael Furey, who died waiting outside of her window in the cold. While Gabriel was reminiscing about a past memory with his wife, he thought she was too, but he was mistaken after hearing her explain her sadness. This situation made him contemplate his own marriage because he never knew that his wife has such a memory inside of her. I found this situation to be thought provoking as I tried to place myself in both Gabriel and Gretta’s shoes.
The question I have in my mind is, after seeing Gabriel’s encounter with various women, how would you describe the kind of person he is? Also, how does his mindset change after learning more about his wife Gretta?
-Michelle Chou
I noticed Gabriel’s interactions with women also! I found it interesting. The way that Lily’s mood changed when Gabriel asked her about education to her love life interested me the most. It makes me wonder what is the role of education for women around this time. I am actually writing my final paper on this and I found out that Lily resembles James Joyce’s wife. To answer your question about how would someone describe Gabriel; I think Gabriel is someone who causes trouble for others. He does it intentionally too.
The dead written by James Joyce has a great impression on me. Unlike its subject “dead”, the story began with the celebration such as annual dance party. The story goes on with so many conversation of many characters similar to Pride and Prejudice. I like his way of explanation of background such as “there is snowing outside”. The writer’s expression is so delicate that I can imagine the story vividly in my mind. I feel like I am in the story and watching over from the air. While I read this, I was thinking about subject, why it is dead? This novel was too warm to call dead. They sing together, have a great dinner. In the story, the outside weather of house which is very cold and snowy even makes the house look warmer. There is not distinctive confliction or problem within characters. But in the ends of story, it goes peculiar strange with Gabriel’s and his wife Gretta. When they came to Hotel, Gabriel thought about proud of himself after speech, than this sense of confidence moved into Gretta. Grabreil suddenly wanted to hug and sleep with Gretta and Gabriel tried to make a mood for love. But his wife Gretta seemed tired and kept with some thought of her memory. The song “the lass of aughrim” evoked her past love when she was young. Then, Gretta started to pulling memory of her young love Michael Furey who was dead and used to sing “the lass of aughrim”. Gretta thought that Furey died because of her. Then Gretta cried and cried over again. Gabriel started think about his sexual desire once and many things just pass in his mind. The story ends with this.
In my opinion, the dead connected with memory. Gretta did not remember until she listened the song. Even though Furey was dead, he was alive in Gretta’s memory. The meaning of dead is profound and hard to understand. People obviously die physically, even though there is no body after death, the memory still alive within people who met and share thought and experience each other. Some great people even will remember forever such as Greek Philosopher. Trough people to people and family to family, we share about memory of dead and some are forgetting, and some are keep remaining. The snow, when we begin to what cold like, the winter is coming again and it reminds people cold winds and snow. The dead is like this, when we almost forget about it, sometimes it cross our mind, and make us to think about many things. People will die but people could left their name, experience, or achievement in earth and in people’s memory.
I completely agree with your last paragraph about the dead being alive in memory. When important people in our lives leave, there will always be traces of them in the world. It could be something you and that person experience together or just the very presence of them in our lives. Our mind can never forget the feelings we had when we were with them. This impacts our daily life and always remind us their importance in our lives. The memory of a loved one can cause a sudden emotional break like it did with Gretta. She has not thought about her first love, Michael Furey, for a long time and she became distraught by the memory of him singing to her. The same song that was playing at the feast was what Michael Fuery sang to her and remind her that he had died for her.
I also agree with the famous Greek philosophers example. Although they have left the world for hundreds of years, their philosophy and thoughts is forever engrained in books. So if you want to learn something, you can just pick up their writings from a book store and learn what they thought of. And maybe we will forget but somewhere in the world, someone else has picked up the same book and live their life accordingly to that great philosophers’ thinking.
The first thing I noticed when I read the The Dead was how fragile Gabriel Conroy’s pride/ ego was. I noticed that if someone is less than 100% nice to him, then he has to find a way to prove his dominance. This is likely a result of being spoiled by his aunts because he was “their favourite nephew” and has probably never experienced women disliking him before. The biggest evidence of his fragile ego is when Lily gave him some attitude, so to retaliate, he hands her money as if to say “I still have more money than you”. The worst thing (in my opinion) is when Lily tries to return the money as he walks away and waves “his hand to her in depreciation” (3) which I imagine to be like swatting a waiter/waitress away in a VERY disrespectful manner. Another instance where he had to re-assert dominance, was after Miss Ivors insulted him about his work and called him a “West Briton”. I don’t think she had cruel intentions and was just making fun, so I personally feel like Gabriel overreacted. This leads me to believe that he does not get critiqued often and takes everything personally which is exhibited when he spends a majority of the night plotting his revenge on her. Gabriel then sits there and plans how he can insult Miss Ivors during his speech until landing on the conclusion to say her generation lacks hospitality, humor and humanity. I think Gabriel is very childish and cannot handle anyone insulting his precious little ego which is why I don’t really like his character. This is just my opinion though, so please let me know if anyone thinks Gabriel is justified in any of his actions. Other than Gabriel, I enjoyed the novella!!!
I agree Gabriel comes off as a character that many people in the world would not like. He is an anti-hero in a story revolving him. Gabriel does not seem to know how to be a nice and is full of himself. He seems to think that he always has to be better then someone else and is always trying to find ways to beat someone. One can say that he was spoiled as a child and got everything he wanted, so because of this he feels privileged and has a right to be better. Growing up in a society where everything he desired was his helps create a character that believes he is the greatest and the best at just about everything he does. Unlike other kids who do not get what they want and learn that the world is not kind, Gabriel gets everything he wants and does not know how to act when he doesn’t get what he wants or when someone is nice to him.