Analysis of the Short Story The Dead by J. Joyce

The Dead is the last short story of J. Joyce's Dubliners, belonging to the section titled Public life. Right from the title, the reader can imagine who the deads are: they are all Irish people, dead because of their mental and social paralysis.
The themes the writer deals with are life, death, tradition and consciouness.
The story is composed of three parts: protagonist's aunts' wait for him and his arrival at the party, the party and the night in the hotel.
The first part introduces some characters and provides the reader for the setting and the context. Misses Julia and Kate Morkan and the young servant Lily are waiting for the arrival of their niece, Gabriel Conroy at their annual party. Right from the start, the writer presents the paralysis of society writing they keep the party every year. Before Gabriel's arrival, the reader is briefly informed about Misses Morkan social condition and life. From Misses Morkan anxious wait for Gabriel, the reader can understand he is the main character of the story and also an important figure in the family. Gabriel Conroy arrives with his wife Gretta: they are welcomed by the aunts and there is a rituality also in the conventions of greatings. In this first part begins Gabriel Conroys characterization: talking with the servant, he makes a mistake, showing he is not good in communication.
The second part deals with the party and some of the guests are presented. It starts with his cousin Mary Jane who is playing the piano. The atmosphere is happy, the guests dance, they listen to music and after they have dinner. The reader reads that Misses Morkan's annual party is characterized by repetitive actions, the guests who are always the same and also the same food. An important element of this part is the conversation between Gabriel and a woman, Miss Ivors, a nationalist. Throughout their conversation the reader understands more about Gabriel. After dinner, he holds a speech, that is another important element of the short story. Another important element in this part is the presence of epiphany, a moment of revelation and illumination. It is activated by a song in Gretta's mind and when Gabriel sees her so absorbed and moved he wonders why she is so moved and he realizes also she has never behaved in that way when she has been staying with him.
In the third part Gabriel and his wife Gretta arrive to the hotel where they are staying during their stay in Dublin and in it there is the effect of epiphany. Gabriel feels a strong desire for his wife but she is worried about something, so she reveals her husband she is thinking of a past lover, Michael Furey, who used to sing her the same song they heard at the party. She suffers because he died young: he was ill but his desire to see her before her departure for Dublin lead him to go out even if the weather was bad. She says he died for her: Gretta's story shocks Gabriel because a dead has replaced him in Gretta's thoughts and it is the contrary he supported during his speech, when he invited the guests to not think to the past and deads. It makes feel him weak and only a replacement and it brings him away all his certainties about his life. He thinks that all of them are becoming only shadows: life is not in them anymore, they are living in routine, respecting all the rules of tradition but without the fire of life. Gabriel knows it, so he thinks that it is better to die young but it the middle of the passions, like a hero, and not to be old with a fade and empty life. The writer writes that Gabriel's soul has approached the world of deads and that they are always in living's world. He feels his own identity is fade, he is dead because of the passive way he has been living until now, but he is conscious of it and if he really wants to change, he could do it. He has approached inner death, but realizing it, he can save himself because he is not completely dead.
Analysing the characters, Gabriel Conroy is the main character of the short story. Starting from his name, it recalls the name of the archangel Gabriel, who announced Virgin Mary she would be the mother of Jesus Christ. He makes a revelation, but in the short story is not Gabriel who makes a revelation, but he lives it.
Gabriel is a man of letters and a writer. He is considered by everyone an important figure during the party because he holds every year a speech and his aunts considers him as their point of reference. So he tries to do not disappoint the expectations, but he only appears a strong man. Right from the conversation with Lily the reader understands he is a doubtful man, not good in conversation. When Gabriel reflects about his speech before reaching his wife and Misses Morkan, he thinks to remove the quotations from Robert Browning because he thinks guests will not be able to understand them: it emerges he is a haughty man. He loves much Gretta, and she is the centre of his life so he is overprotective towards her (an example is when he wants she wears goloshes). He also would like to control his wife but he is not able to do it (she refuses to wear goloshes). He feels weak also in the discussion with Miss Ivors.
Unlike other characters of Dubliners, he is able to make a decision: he decided to marry Gretta even if his mother did not share his decision. He is also characterized inner contrasts: he does not love his country but at the same time he is not able to leave it. It emerges in the discussion with Miss Ivors, a nationalist who thinks there is not a better country than hers and there is no reason to leave it. She accuses Gabriel to not love his country and at the end he affirms he is sick of his country and that Irish traditions and language do not belong to him. But Gabriel is not coherent with himself and he adfirms all the opposite he really thinks during his speech: he admires Irish ospitality and all traditions, and among them his aunts' annual party. He reflects also about life and death: he says they are living in the present and that they have to live without thinking about the past and sad things like death, but he himself does not do it. Gabriel does not say they are already dead because of their restricted mind, too attached to traditions and he will realize it only at the end of the story.
Moreover, after dancing with Miss Ivors, he goes near a window, as he tries to escape from a danger. He looks out of it and he notices it is snowing: he is in the house, in a hot place with people he knows, but at the same time he imagines how may be out of it, the cold, the silence and the solitude.
Gretta is introduced throughout Gabriel's point of view. He considers her a nice woman: he admires her and when he sees her absorbed in her thoughts while she is listening to the song, he feels for her a strong desire. She is not a traditional woman and it is possible to understand it because of Gabriel's mother opinion about her: she did not want her son married her because he thought she had not got a sufficient education to be his wife. Moreover she does not obey to her husband and also this element underlines she is not an ordinary woman in the Ireland of the beginning of the 20ieth century. She is a sensual woman, introduced throughout her feelings that are very important in the second part of the story, where she can be considered live because of her feelings and her capacity to feel something.
The presence of a dead character, Michael Furey, is very important. His name recalls the arcangel who defeated Satan and who seated near God: in this way the writer underlines the importance of Michael Furey, who has been being a central figure in Gretta'a life. His surname, Furey, recalls the power of passion: he was terribly in love with Gretta he went to her to see her for the last time even if he was ill. Moreover the writer says that he worked in the gaswork: in the gas works there was very hot, and it contributes to underline the idea of the power of passion. Gas was used for lighting: he lighted Gretta life, while Gabriel has been making it more oscure (an important reference in the text is when Gabriel asks the servant in the hotel to bring away the candle, even if the electric light does not work).
Among secondary characters there is Freddy Malins. His surname recalls the world Malign: if Gabriel is the angel, he is an obscure figure, a drunk man, not nice like Gabriel and who is used to do everything with the left hand (the left is the symbol of evil).
The other characters are traditional Irish people: Kate and Julia Morkan, Gabriel's aunts, are old and decaying not only in their aspect, but also in their actions and thoughts. They are only projected to the past, without thinking to their present life, and in this sense they are dead.
Miss Ivors is a nationalist, who does not accept there is a better country than hers and all the other guests symbolize the paralysis of society and its problems: an example is alcholism, that was a symbol of decaying of man. Moreover everyone of them knows the passeges of the party: the ball, the dinner, the music and they seem satisfied with all this routine.
In the short story there are many elements of Irish culture and civilization. First of all, society presents a strong division between men and women: they do not put their coats in the same wardrobe, but women put them upstairs.
The dinner is a symbolical element, related to religion: the dinner may be connected to the Last Supper, which is a religious event when man is purified and Gabriel may be considered as a priest.
There is also a reference to Irish politics: there is a division between nationalist and supporters of the West Briton.

The writer uses a third person omniscient narrator, who tells the story from Gabriel's point of view. In this way the attention is focused on character subjectivity and feelings, underlining also his inner contrast and making understand the reader he is not a hero, but a real man with weakness fears. Realism presents the situation of Ireland but also the situation of every man in that period, when all the certainties disappeared. J. Joyce uses the technique of symbolical realism. The snow is important symbol: at the end of the story it falls covering all the paralysed country and also living and dead. It may be considered the symbol of death because it is cold and it makes everything silent, but also as a purifying element, that erases everything in order to prepare a new life and a new order.
Another important element is light: the light from the gas (Micheal Furey worked there, so it symbolizes life).
The world Mr Joyce presents is static, focused only on social routines and tradition, without breaking the schemes and daring, without imagining and then trying to realize a better life.
The writer underlines the difference between the two parts also with the rythm of narration: the first part is slow and boring, in order to criticize that kind of stereotypes, while the second one is more thoughthful and goes deeply in the analysis of what life and death mean for the protagonist