ANALYSIS OF THE DEAD BY JAMES JOYCE

-         Type of work

-         Setting (space and time)

-         Sequences and their function

-         Main characters and their characterization

-         Use of the language and narration

-         Paralysis

-         Epiphany

-         Symbolism

The Dead is a short story written in 1914 by James Joyce belonging to Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories all set in Dublin in 1904.

The story The Dead can be analyzed dividing it into three macrosequences: the first one deals with the arrival of the guests at the Christmas party organized by Misses Kate and Julia Morkan and their nephew Mary Jane. The second sequence presents the dinner during the party. The third part is set in a hotel and involves the characters of Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta. The first two sequences can be connected by the themes of convention and tradition; indeed the party and the dinner represent actions which are repeated every year in the same way. On the contrary the scene at the hotel symbolizes an event out of the routine which unexpectedly moves characters’ feelings.

The protagonist of the story is Gabriel Conroy, an intellectual and a writer representing a point of reference for the society. His characterization is made up by what he does, what he says, what he think and what others think about him. At the beginning, considering himself more cultured than the other guests, he seems to be too much proud of himself but after having read the whole story the reader can understands he is an insecure man, searching everywhere for demonstrations of his own qualities. He appears to be very in love with his wife Gretta and overprotective towards her; for example, he wants her to wear galoshes to not get ill. Furthermore Gabriel behaves in a different way according to the situations he is involved in; when he realizes to have committed a mistake or when he doesn’t feel at ease, he gets nervous and often breaks off the conversation he is having. Otherwise, when he feels sure of himself he has the control of the situation. His behaviors are more evident in the conversations with Lily, with Miss Ivors and with Gretta at the hotel, when he doesn’t feels at ease and while he is slicing the roasted goose which is an action he has repeated every years at the party. So Gabriel appears to be a confident man just when the situations are organized and they don’t bring unexpected consequences. In other cases he falls prey of his own feelings and emotions that he is not able to control.

The author uses Gabriel’s characters to tell the story from his point of view so the reader has got a subjective perspective about the events.

Near Gabriel’s character there is Gretta’s. She is Gabriel’s wife but we really don’t know so much about her because every information is filtered by Gabriel’s opinions and feelings. So her characterization is built not by what she thinks about herself and others because the author does not give her the chance to express her own thoughts. It depends on what Gabriel thinks about her and what he reveals about her. At the party she seems to be discreet and shy but in the second sequence she turns out as the only one character able to express her own feelings which are anyway seen by Gabriel’s point of view.

Others significant characters are Misses Morkan. Every year they organize the Christmas party inviting the same guests, preparing the same food and planning the same actions. Their only worry is to make sure the party spends without problems.  So they appear to be trapped in tradition and convention, embodied in the party.

 

J. Joyce uses a third person omniscient narrator who tells the story from Gabriel’s point of view. In this way the attention of the reader is focused on the character’s feelings and thoughts, reported as they are. The writer underlines the difference between the two parts of the narration with a different rhythm of narration: the first part goes on slowly, in order to convey a sort of critic of Irish society which is the aim of J. Joyce. The second part is quicker and conveys a deeper analysis of what life and death mean for the protagonist.

 

The paralysis of mind and life significantly appears in the whole story. The title reveals right from the start the immobility of society. So the dead are the Irish people who fit to live in old tradition instead of living as they want to live.

The story presents another important feature of Joyce’s narrative style: the epiphany. It signs the passage from the first part of the story to the second. Indeed the epiphany, regarding Gabriel, begins at the end of the party when he saw Gretta standing outside a room listening to a played song. He felt a sudden strong and strange desire for his wife but when they arrived to the hotel Gretta revealed him that the song had reminded her Michael Furey who had been her lover. Gretta’s revelation made Gabriel realize that all the emotions he had seen in his wife were not signal of love for him but for a dead. So he understood Gretta has never loved him as he has always loved her. He also recognized to have been living his life in a passive way: he is not jealous of Michael Furey, he feels a sense of sadness realizing of not have lived his love as passionately as Mr. Furey did. Thinking about his life, while Gretta is sleeping next to him, Gabriel becomes conscious that maybe people who live passionately expressing all their feelings are to be considered more alive than people who live all their life being paralyzed.

Gabriel has got another epiphany while he is listening to his aunt Julia singing the song titled “Adorna per le nozze”. He suddenly realizes that soon his aunt will die but he doesn’t feel pain because the only thing he is capable to think about is what he would have said for consolation. The episode demonstrates how Gabriel is paralyzed not only in his life but also in his feelings.

Furthermore The Dead presents some forms of symbolism. First of all the name Gabriel refers to the angel who announced the Virgin Mary of her pregnant; on this view Gabriel is expected to make an announcement but he won’t. He is trapped into conventions, living his life passively.

The dinner can be related in a religious way to the Last Supper but here nothing is spontaneous; dialogues and actions are under the invisible control of social conventions.

The two most important symbols are the music and the snow. Music is the thread for the macrosequence of the party; all Misses Morkan and their nephew Mary Jane work with music and at the party Mary Jane plays the piano and aunt Julia plays a song titled “Adorna per le nozze”. The guests well-know their passion and ability for music and appreciate their exhibitions. But there is a more significant episode related to music: the song “The Lass of Aughrim” played by Mr. D’Arcy at the end of the party symbolizes a very important moment in the economy of the whole story. Listening to it, Gretta reminds of her past and dead lover Micheal Furey and she is not able to keep her tears. At the same time, looking to Gretta while she is listening to the song, Gabriel has the first act of his epiphany, feeling a deep and strange desire for his wife.

About the symbol of the snow, the reader sees it as a permanent element during the narration but just at the end he could reach its real meaning: the snow covering all Ireland (as it is said in the last page) represents the paralysis of Irish society making it cold and unable to act. But it is also a symbol of rebirth, in particular for Gabriel, because when it will melt nature will be alive again. According to Gabriel’s thoughts after his dialogue with Gretta at the hotel, the snow could be interpreted also as a unifying element between live and dead; watching outside the window at falling snow, Gabriel makes conscious that the snow is covering the hotel he is into as it is covering the grave of Michael Furey. It emerges a parallelism between live and dead, which let the reader meet again the theme of human paralysis, developed in the whole story.