Joyce depicted Gabriel as an inexpressive character/protagonist. Gabriel tends to not follow the norm of social life because he was afraid of hurting others’ feelings if he say something out of the ordinary. Other characters in Joyce’s story tend to be blunt and expressive about themselves and to others around them. In a way, all the characters in Joyce’s story have something that they believe in or grasp upon, which keeps them lingering in the past. For instance, Lily might have had disturbing/toxic past relationships, which cause her to feel indifferent about men, Gretta couldn’t forget Michael, who was her first love, and Gabriel thinks politic issues shouldn’t be mixed with literature. Thus, he was taught and raise that way. I believe Gabriel tends to be more of a considerate character compared to others because he thinks before he acts and he would say things accordingly based on the situation/event.
~ Neo
In my opinion, he is not enough courageous to say the truth or confront it. The way he talks to one of the guest in the party does not quit describe his considering behavior. However, he tries to speak in favor of his audience, I believe that is one of the reason for his failure of speech. His precautionary behavior and thoughts makes things worse. Appearance of his words is more important to him than the deepest meaning of them. He thinks a lot to have a good speech, and all he says are lies not his words from his heart, because of that his speech does not go well.
I agree with your point that all the characters in the story keep lingering in the past as Gabriel wants to forget it. Gabriel does think before he speaks to an extent but still isn’t afraid to admit the truth. Regarding Miss Ivors, his encounter can be seen as what you are saying in your post. I agree that his precautionary behavior makes things worse and that cant is seen during all his encounters with his family members.
I agree with you Gabriel is always trying not to hurt people around him. There are few parts where he did. First is when he ask Lily about men’s and he try to cover that with money. Second when he was asked while dancing why he doesn’t want to go back to Ireland he tries to change the subject. Third when Gretta told him about Michael he didn’t say anything that will hurt her instead he tries to listen to her even though he was feeling sad. This made me think as reader that Gabriel is someone who will try as much as he can not to hurt anyone he knows. However you said that Gabriel say things depending on the event or situations thats an interesting point.
I think Gabriel constantly trying to “not hurt anyone” is an issue. He dwells too much on what others think of him and quite frankly, it’s a very weak characteristic. I feel that his inability to truly voice his opinions is the reason for many of his downfalls. A good example could be his conversation with Ms. Ivors, where he didn’t provide much context for his dislike towards Ireland or his intrigue for England. In turn, it made him look quite foolish. Another prime example is his inability to have deep and meaningful conversations with his wife. He never knew how to love her, and if there was a possibility of love, he failed at being able to express it. In my opinion, it is his own overly “considerate” attitude that makes him a dull character who is at the brink of having an identity crisis.
I apologize! I forgot to put the actual prompt at the top, I thought we were suppose to create our own title for our post. The question for my post is “How does Joyce depict the differences between Gabriel and the other characters in the story? How are they similar and different?”