James Joyce, The Dead – Textual Analysis, Improved Version

The Dead is one of the fifteen short stories included in Dubliners, Joyce’s first book of fiction. The stories, which seem separate, are linked because they all represent the lives of different inhabitants of the same city, Dublin. The city and the portrayal of Irish culture are the main connections between the episodes. The dead is the last story of the collection and it’s also the longest.

Quite meaningful is the title: “the dead” is an adjective substantivized as it would be itself a character of the story. Indeed, in the episode, dead people are mentioned during the protagonist speech at the party and in the end, when the flashback about the young former lover of the protagonist’s wife is reported. The adjective reminds also to the main theme of most Joyce’s production, the paralysis of Irish people.

The story is arranged into three main parts: in the first the pretext to give sense to the tale is created, presenting the protagonists and the setting; in the second the reader attends to the party and knows secondary characters; in the last section there’s a change of environment (the room of the hotel) and the scene is animated only by the main characters.   

The whole story is related from the point of view of the main character, Gabriel Conroy, who appears only after the description of the setting: the annual dance and dinner party held by Kate and Julia Morkan and their young niece, Mary Jane Morkan.  

The first characterization of Gabriel is leaded by his name. Indeed Gabriel was the name of an archangel, who announced the birth of Jesus Christ. The reader knows mr. Conroy also from his way of dressing because he wears galoshes to protect the shoes from the snow, meaning he’s a trendy man. Other hints about the protagonist come gradually from his actions, words (for example through the dialogue with Lily) his thoughts (for instance his consideration about Lily’s reaction), by hints about his civil status (he’s married), about his cultural condition (he knows poetry), and also by his physical appearance (he embodies the Irish features).

Gabriel is a man of letters, for this reason can be considered a personal projection of Mr. Joyce. Since the first paragraphs the reader can feel Gabriel’s sense of inadequacy reading about his inability to relate to servants like Lily, and knowing his uncertain thoughts on the talk the character is giving at the party. Joyce shows the human beings like they really are, presenting the reader antiheroes rather than heroes.     

During his dance with Miss Ivors, he faces a number of questions about his nonexistent nationalist sympathies, which he doesn’t know how to answer appropriately. Gabriel’s unease ends in his intense night with Gretta and in the following reflection about his life. When, at the hotel, his wife confesses him that she was thinking of her first love, Gabriel becomes furious at her and himself, realizing that he has no claim on her. But finally he also experiences an inward change that makes him examine his own life and human life in general. After hearing that Michael Furey’s memory still lives, he recognizes the distinction between human and dead people doesn’t exist, leaving opened the possibility he will change attitude. Moreover, comparing Gabriel to Evelyne - a character which can be considered the paradigm of paralysis- we can notice they are different. Indeed he married Gretta without the approval of her mother showing he’s not so paralyzed and more independent.

His wife Gretta, wasn’t of the same social level of Gabriel, and she seems a woman not subjugated to her husband. Paying attention to the actions and words she address to her husband (for example from the sentence about the galoshes) it’s clear she’s not involved like him.  Gretta creates problem since the beginning because she doesn’t conform.