The text  constitutes the last story of the Irish writer James Joyce's work Dubliners and it was named "The Dead". It  is set in Dublin, as the title of Joyce's work clearly suggests, at the beginning of the 20^th century.  In particular, the day is the 6^th of January, the Feast of the Epiphany. In addition, it is important to remember that the thread of the entire work is what Joyce defined as "epiphany", that is a very short moment in which a character becomes aware of some aspects of life.

Summing up the content of the text, the reader comes into contact with Morkan sisters' annual dance and dinner in the 6^th of January and in particular the main character of the story is Gabriel Conroy, the nephew of Kate and Julia Morkan.  The situation seems to develop through episodes. To quote some examples: first, Gabriel shows his desire to speak with the housemaid Lily, but she refuses and then obtains money from her interlocutor; then, Gabriel joins his wife Gretta, who jokes about her husband's dedication to  galoshes; and so on.

In the following  situation the reader sees Gabriel dancing with Miss Ivors, an Irish nationalist.  Therefore, the  dance becomes the background for the discussion occurred between the characters, culminating with Miss Ivors' s statement about Gabriel: "Well, I'm ashamed of you," said Miss Ivors frankly. "To say you'd write for a paper like that. I didn't think you were a West Briton", because of his nostalgic attitude towards the past of the Irish people. So, the reader understands that Gabriel does not believe in the present time, causing him to idealize the past:  "O, to tell you the truth," retorted Gabriel suddenly, "I'm sick of my own country, sick of it!"

In the final situation of the story  Gabriel notices that her wife Gretta behaves in an unusual way.  He realizes that her wife is feeling sad  after hearing Mr. D'Arcy singing The Lass of Aughrim at the party. The explanation of Gretta's behaviour comes quickly: she confesses that song was dedicated to her by a lover when she was living in Galway.  The boy, Micheal Furey, died in front of the window of her bedroom, hardly struck by the cold of that time. Gretta's confession becomes the pretext of Gabriel's thoughts about  life and death, the past against the present. The story ends up with the man trying to imagine the graveyard where Michael Furey rests, which constitutes a metonymy to think about the whole Irish people.

Considering  the analysis of the text into depth, the reader can notice that the structure of the story develops by the succession of episodes , in each of which the main character is Gabriel Conroy.  The organization of the text probably has the function to keep alert and fresh the reader's mind, avoiding from boring him/her by describing a single and monotonous situation, as  Morkan sisters' annual dance and dinner is. Indeed the use of the writer of specific expressions makes the reader understand that the event repeats every year in the same way, as if it was a recording started every 6^th of January. Such expressions are: "For years and years it had gone off in splendid style, as long as anyone could remember";  "And then it was long after ten o'clock and yet there was no sign of Gabriel and his wife"; "Freddy Malins always came late, but they wondered what could be keeping Gabriel". All the reported expressions highlight the monotony of the situation and human beings, as if they were machines that stage the annual situation. Obviously, they are unable to escape from this living situation and experience life.  It follows that the individual and the entire society are in a continuous and unchangeable state of paralysis.

Interesting is to notice Gabriel's characterization that  Joyce has built up: the first piece of information that the reader encounters is that he is a man relying on money to fix a mistake, as happened in the quick conversation with the housemaid Lily. Such behaviour may refer to Gabriel's social status, which is an high one, completely different from the social status of servants like Lily. Then, a feature of Gabriel's behaviour, the sense of caution, comes to the surface in the episode in which he checks if Freddy Malins is able to take part into the party. So, the reader sees Gabriel as a reflective man, who thinks well before acting, even if he is rarely not able to control himself. The reaction to Miss Ivory's statement "West Briton" by saying "I'm sick of my own country, sick of it!" is a good example, but also in becoming furious after Gretta said that she was thinking about her first love.  Moreover, his attitude towards reflection is prominent in the last section of the text, after Gretta's confession about her past. In particular, the reflection is based on the observation that life is short and in that moment he understands the love he feels for her wife: "Generous tears filled Gabriel's eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman, but he knew that such a feeling must be love". Love that he was not able to  show her wife in the right way. It follows that Gabriel feels defeated, perceiving  his own fail as human being.  

Even more important to say is that the reflection is built upon the binary pairs of life and death, past and present:  Gabriel becomes aware, he has an "epiphany", realizing that past and present are linked. Indeed the memory of Furey's story still lives in the present time, even if he died. Memories constitute the links between past and present; these links live in our minds, so Joyce wants to communicate us that we are able to preserve past, if we want it.

Gabriel further understands that dying early with a strong passion is better than making a monotonous life, going killed by time. Moreover, he realizes that he does not know his wife at all, but even more important  he becomes aware that he has been a passive husband, acting as a foreign in his wife's life.

Finally, the image of the snow covering both Furey's tombstone and living Irish people metaphorically has the function to recall that there is no difference between dead and living people.