THE DEAD – James Joyce 

TITLE: starting from the title, it refers to something that creates a melancholic mood

STRUCTURE: The text can be divided into 3 sequences:

• 1^st one: from the beginning up to “laughter would allow him”
• 2^nd one: from “Gabriel could not…” up to “Freddy Malins acting as officer his fork on high”
• 3^rd one: from: “The piercing morning air came…” up to the end

SETTING: Morkan’s house from 10 p.m. to the early morning, snowy day

OCCASION: annual dance/ball 

MAIN CHARACTER: Gabriel:

• a waiting-for person;
• creates expectations in the reader because the other characters are speaking about him, even if he has not arrived yet;
• enters the story in medias res;
• through his actions, the intelligent reader can realize he is vain at the beginning;
• makes a mistake with Lily at the beginning: he says something that embraced her and, in order to improve his wrong question, he gives her money;
• is supposed to hold a speech because it is a tradition and he is an intellectual person;
• uses a rhetorical structure in the speech, but in the end of the story he uses a spontaneous language with his wife;
• during the speech, after thanking his aunts for the invitation, he speaks about Irish hospitality: his cosmopolitism comes into surface, since he compares Ireland with the other country. Therefore, he holds the speech to highlight his cosmopolitan mentality. After that, compares the aunts to the three Graces and finally quotes Paride;
• at the end he realizes he is unable to love (to love = action and perception verb);
• at the end he seems paralyzed and reflects deeply on himself;
• never wanted to accept risks;
• would have been like Michael, who died for love and took a risk

THEMES OF GABRIEL’S SPEECH:

• Irish hospitality;
• comparison between past and present;
• his sad memories;
• three Graces;
• Paride

MUSIC: constant element in the story because everything happens around the music effects

MAIN THEME: the short story speaks about the nature of humanity. In particular, it is about a human being who was convinced to be a certain kind of person, but later on he realizes he has not the identity he would have