The Dead Analisys 

The Dead is a story belonged to Dubliners written by James Joyce.

Right from the title, the reader's  expectation is about a situation or a character who may be  symbol of paralysis and then can be considered "dead".

The setting is a house during the Christmas party given by the Morkan sisters, Gabriel Conroy's aunts. In this first part Irish culture and tradition are presented through the description of food, dances and songs and through the characters' voices and dialogues. Already in this first part there is the criticism  of two social problems: one about love's precariousness and male behaviour (Lily's character), one about alcoholism (Freddy Malins character). This part might be considered boring because it  is a long description of a static situation without changes.
At the party's end there is the event which alters the situation: Gretta's feeling of unhappiness  listening to an old song. Gretta is Gabriel's wife, she isn't a central

character in the story as is  her husband.

In the second part the setting is the hotel room where the  Conroy couple  are going to spend the night. After Gabriel's prayers to his wife made for him to understand her feeling, she reveals him her pain for the memory of a love of her youth that is now dead. The memory was  recalled by the old song she had listened at the party. While Gretta is telling her husband the story Gabriel understands how the dead  boy is alive in Gretta's consciousness and thoughts and how he (Gabriel) has never felt a love like that.

The narrator adopted is a 3° person omniscient narrator, the dialogue form is prevailing the stream of consciousness technique.

In this story the paralysis can be bring back to Gabriel's powerlessness to  love his wife as she had been loved by the love of her youth . Gabriel can be consider "dead" in relation to Michael who, despite being physically dead, lives in Gretta's memories.