Notes about The Dead by J. Joyce (19/3/12)

The short story The Dead is taken from the collection Dubliners, written by J. Joyce during the earliest years of the 20ieth century.
The whole short story founds on epiphany, a moment of illumination when the whole existance is revealed to the character. It happens when the main characters, Gabriel and his wife Gretta, are at the party and it is activated by the Irish song: it activates in Gretta's mind the memory of a past lover, Michael Fury. His name is very important because Fury recalls the fury of passion.
Gretta is totally absorbed in listening to the song and Gabriel, looking at his wife, understands she is deeply moved, as he has never seen. The epiphany activates a deeper level of awareness in Gabbiel: he realizes, when they are in the hotel and his wife tells him about Michael, that Gretta has never loved him as she had loved Michael Fury and that he is not passionate like him.
An important element in the novel is snow. It covers everything and it is pure (it is white) so it may represent a new begin in a paralyzed country.
The main male character is Gabriel Conroy. He is invited to hold a speech during the party because he is an intellectual and he is considered a point of reference by his aunts. In his speech he invites the guests to go on with their life and to overcome the memory of the dead. At the end of the novel he realizes that a dead has changed his life and that the dead will be always in living's mind.
Furthermore it is possible to understand something more about Gabriel throughout his actions: he is overprotective with his wife and he behaves with Gretta as a mother with her daughter. So, from the very beginning of the novel, the reader understands he is not sure of Gretta's love for him.
The reader discovers at the very beginning of the novel that Gabriel is not good in communication: he asks Lily, the caretaker's daughter, about her boyfriend but she feels uneasy and Gabriel realizes he has made a mistake.
The reader may found in the character of Gabriel a lot of James Joyce because the writer tried to search himself also using his work of art.
The main female character is Gabriel's wife, Gretta. She is presented throughout Gabriel's need to be reassured and from other characters' points of view.

The narrator J. Joyce uses in the novel is a third person omniscient narrator, who adopts the point of view of the protagonist. All the narration founds on an interior monologue.
The writer uses also symbolic realism: he wants the reader to understand there is something more beyond the appearances.