In the story “The Dead” by James Joyce, the main character, Gabriel is obsessed with being in control or else he doesn’t know how to act. Even though Gabriel is highly educated, he can’t hold proper conversations with the people around him. An instance is when Gabriel dances with Miss Ivors who accuses him of not loving his own country enough. Gabriel gets riled up and exclaims, “I’m sick of my own country, sick of it” (13)! From this scene, readers can recognize that while Miss Ivors is calm, collected, and composed, Gabriel is uncomfortable and worried about what others may think of him. Another character in the story is Gabriel’s wife, Gretta who brings up her past lover, Michael. Although Gretta is physically with Gabriel, she is so fixated with the past that her spiritual soul is actually still attached to Michael. Through the contrast of the past and present, Joyce depicts the differences between Gabriel and the other characters in the story. While Gabriel wants to focus on the present, other characters are engrossed in past memories and people. However, these characters all share one thing in common- they can not run away from the snow that covers all of Ireland, the living and the dead.
2 thoughts on “How does Joyce depict the differences between Gabriel and the other characters in the story? How are they similar and different?”
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I agree with your point that Gabriel cannot make proper conversations with others. He believes that he has higher education and different from others. He cannot accept the numbing and unchanging Ireland society but is at a loss. He doesn’t like Ivors calling him “West Briton.” He often feels contradictory because he can’t accept the status quo in Ireland, but he loves the country. And the other characters in the story reflect a state of social stagnation. Their lives are rigid and routine, they even refused to accept new things, like Gabriel’s two aunts, not even knowing what the goloshes are. In addition, I think what Gabriel is similar to others is even if he is aware of the problems of society, he can’t escape, just like the whole of Ireland covered by snow.
I find your observation that Gabriel is unable to connect with people to be completely accurate. Earlier in the story, Gabriel is trying to connect with Lily, but instead of listening to her problems, he clumsily tries to make a joke, then tries to give her money to calm her down. He clearly does not know how to relate to her because he thinks money can solve all his problems. I think in this way, though, this might be a similarity to the other characters who attend the party with him. At one point, there is a discussion about what galoshes are, and it is quite snobby, signifying how the characters are out of touch with the common man. Gabriel might be unlike the other guests in that he says he wants to focus on the present (although he, too, focuses on the past a lot in his speech), but they are all at a pretentious gathering for a dead person and do not know how to truly connect with many in the living world. That is one of the ways that they are, in a sense, dead inside.