The story is set, like the other stories that belongs to the collection, in Ireland. "The Dead" is told from an interior narrator and in third person but from no one fixed perspective. The way Joyce uses the free indirect speech creates the effect for the reader of "hearing" first person voices within a third person narrative. The dialogues of the guest is in direct speech. In "The Dead" the death of Michael Furey plays an important role in order to understand Gabriel's epiphany. His name refers to the archangel Gabriel who has the function to reveal an important message, here discovered by his Epiphany. Epiphany is used by Joyce to represent a short moment in that a character becomes aware of himself and of his life: when Gabriel discovers his wife’s past. The epiphany is what allows Gabriel to overcome from paralysis, that distinguish "Dubliners" main characters. So he starts thinking about his wife’s past, the far love between Micheal Furey and Gretta, the living and the dead, past and present; so he makes a reflection through binary pairs and understands that present and past are strictly linked because you can keep an important past event thanks to your mind. In addition the reflection allows him to understand that although Micheal is dead, he is more alive than himself for Gretta.

There are other symbols like the goose that symbolizes for the Christian Symbol providence and vigilance of stands for freedom. Very important at the end is the symbol of the snow, that covers everything. The snow has also functions as a symbol for the death that comes indiscriminately and in the same time it stands for the Gabriel’s will of escape from Dublin, ‘going west’, that may refer to the fading of the sun and for this reason to death.