The Dead is the last short story of the J.Joyce's collection Dubliners. The story can be divided into three sequences:
- the first one is during the dinner;
- the second one is in the hotel;
- the last one is in the hotel during the night.

In the first sequence the narrator introduces the characters, the space and the time of the story. In the first part the reader can find cultural elements of Irish culture: same party every year, same people who make the same dances, in consequence Irish people are considered deads.  Another important element is alcoholism in Ireland that we can see in Freddy Malins, then the religiosity in Mary Jane and in the priest. Gabriel seems to be aware of this situations in his country and he is unique who tries to escape from it, we can see this in the dialogue with Mrs. Ivors. Joyce doesn't represent traditional heroes, in fact his characters aren't able to act (anti- heroes feature).

In the second sequence the story is told by Gabriel's point of view who watching his wife remembers their love story and this provokes in him  attraction for Gretta, but he managed to hold his passions.

Finally, in the last sequences Gabriel is taken by passion and Gretta reveals him the reason of her strange mood and she tells him about the death of young man who died for her love. In the speech Gabriel said that people had to live without thinking about past and the death, but this is false because the young boy remained in the Gretta's thoughts and he was very important for her. Another conclusion is that Gabriel doesn't love Gretta, because he confesses that he has never felt anything like this for her.