Analysis of The Dead

Just reading the title the reader understands the book is going to deal with the Dubliner inhabitants; indeed the book is arranged in 15 chapters (The Sisters; An Encounter; Araby; Eveline; After the Race; Two Gallants; The Boarding House; A Little Cloud; Counterparts; Clay; A Painful Case ; Ivy Day in the Committee Room; A Mother; Grace; The Dead). Each one deals with a different and independent story, but everyone is set in Dublin.

Joyce’s Dubliners was published in 1914, he wrote the book in the first ten years of 20^th century but probably the stories took place at the end of 19^th century, indeed the first chapter reports the date 1 July 1895.

The Dead is set during the Christmas holiday and it can be separated in 3 sequences: the first one deals with the traditional dinner the protagonist’s family organizes every year in its house, his family is composed by his three aunts; the second part presents the different characters and the described situation according Gabriel Conroy’s point of view; the third one is set  in the house of the protagonist’s family and in a hotel’s room, where the protagonist lodges with his wife Gretta.

The story is told in third person but Joyce wrote the whole story according Gabriel’s point of view; indeed in the Modern Age the narrator wasn’t omniscient and the writer tells the story to make the reader reflect of his/her personal experience. In addition the characters are described according to the Gabriel’s order of meeting.

At the end of the chapter, where the writer puts a change of situation developing after Gretta listens a song in three aunt’s house. The song makes her come mind a young boy Michael Furey, who has been probably her lover. While Gretta and Gabriel is going to hotel, Gabriel is taken by unaware feeling and passion for his wife. In the hotel’s room Gretta tells Gabriel about Michael, the story wreaks in the protagonist new thoughts and feelings, which freezes him and the surrounding place; indeed the cold lasting the whole story seems to be felt only at the end.

The explanation of the title The Dead is clearer at the end; indeed after Gretta’s story, Gabriel compares the snowing as falling sleep and the death. Everyone has the same destiny, indeed during the story Gabriel reflects on his dead uncle and his aunt Julia’s future death but also he reflects on the society, in particular during his public speech.

When Gabriel looks at the window it is snowing and the snow covers the living and the dead people, everyone is determined by the same destiny, that is to say the Dubliner society’s destiny; indeed people live in a materialistic world without values and where they feel lost because they haven’t anymore points of reference.