How does Joyce change your expectations as a reader throughout the story? e.g. your idea of what the story is about and what kind of story you are reading might have changed at a few points throughout the story.
When I started reading the story “ The Dead” I thought that Gabrial and his wife were going to visit his aunts, and it sounds as if it was a family visit. it states that “On the sideboard were arrayed dishes and plates, and glasses and bundles of knives and forks and spoons. The top of the closed square piano served also as a sideboard for viands and sweets. At a smaller sideboard in one corner two young men were standing, drinking hop-bitters”. However, this changed the way I thought about the story it is not just a family visit but it is a party and there are more characters at the party. I also thought that Gretta loved her husband and the fact that she was with him at the party made me think that they are together and they love each other. By the end of the story, I changed the way I thought about their relationship. When Gretta starts telling Gabrial about Michael it makes me think as a reader that she is with Gabrial but she also thinks about Michael the whole time, because of one song she could not hold herself and she cried. That made me realized that she still wishes if Michael was still alive even though she’s with Gabrial. Throughout the story my expectations kept changing but also these changes explained more about these characters.
I agree with you because I also believe that author James like to describe each character in detail. I also first believe that Gretta likes Gabriel because the went to the party together and stuff. But at the end I realize that she was thinking about someone else who already died.
I agree with you on how Gretta wishes Michael Furey was still alive regardless if she is married to Gabriel or not. When she was talking to Gabriel about Michael, her emotions tells me that she misses Michael. However, I do not think that she was thinking about Michael Furey the whole time she was married to Gabriel; she remembered him through the The Lass of Aughrim performance.