The Death is a short story taken from James Joyce's Dubliners. The Dead is the last short story in the collection. In the story the main character is Gabriel Conroy, a man of letters, married to Gretta, a woman from Galway who is an unconventional wife, as she disobeys him. The story deals with the paralysis of the Irish culture, as the characters are standing in their reality without doing nothing, victims of the rituals and conventions of their society. The other characters are used to represent the various aspects of the Irish society, like Gabriel's aunts or Freddy Mallins. Therefore, they are represented with their weakness as James Joyce meant to show the human creature as what it is.
The story is made up of three sequences, used to represent the Irish society in James Joyce period and the human being. In the 1st one people is waiting for Gabriel, representing the expectations of the people there, but also of the text. From the very beginning he makes an error in communication as he's talking with Lily. The story is set in Gabriel's aunts house, where the aunts are giving the annual Christmas party. So, Gabriel is well known and he's considered an important figure. Furthermore, he's expected him to have a speech. Here it is shown the emptiness of the society, which is also paralyzed by its structure. The 2nd sequence is the party. During the dance people have a conversation. The most important conversation is between Gabriel and Miss Ivors, a relevant character by her thoughts. They don't agree about Gabriel vision on Ireland, which is linked to the snow. He wants to travel out from Ireland and he sees over the windows to the snow that makes him desire to escape the paralysis. Furthermore, also the religion theme rises, developed after the dance in the dinner, reminding the Last Supper. The priest may be played by Gabriel Conroy, who is nervous as his speech it's in his opinion too much intellectual for his listeners. In the 3rd sequence, after that Gretta has heard a music that reminds her youngness, Gabriel Conroy and her go to a hotel to stay the night. Here Gabriel sees how Gretta is moved by the music she heard he wants to know why. Gretta, by revealing the reasons of her sadness, obliges Gabriel to face the nature of their relationship and the vacuity of life by a epiphany, a moment of enlightment, as now Gabriel understands he'll never be loved like Michael Fury, but also he also recognizes that he has never loved his wife in such a furious way.
The writer uses various narrative techniques like the stream of consciousness, the free omniscient narrator and the symbolical realism, that allows the reader to see the various aspects of Irish society and to understand more about the character, especially Gabriel, whose name is linked to the archangel who announced Mary she would have gave birth to Jesus Christ. Gabriel is expected to give an announcement, but he doesn't, as it will be done by Gretta. Therefore, he wants the reader to understand there's a meaning beyond the surface of words. Also, uses rhetorical language to show how useless it is. Furthermore, the narrator is mental working with an interior monologue because he adopts Gabriel eyes to see the world.