An Analysis of the Dead

An Analysis of The Dead

In the short story, "The Dead," is the final story in Dubliners which is written by James Joyce. The plot of "The Dead" presents the thoughts and actions of one man, Gabriel Conroy who is a respectable middle-aged professor and writer. On a night, he and his wife attend an annual Christmas party given by the Misses Morkans, Miss Kate and Miss Julia. The party consists of many family members and friends, and it is also considered a yearly reunion. The story “The Dead” revolves around the pains and experiences of Gabriel Conroy and his wife.

This story depicts the emotions of Gabriel Conroy to his wife(Gretta) who once had romantic relationships with a man who died a long time ago; this forces Gabriel realizing that he is not all part in his wife’s life. Gabriel Conroy and Gretta attend the "Misses Morkan's Annual Dance" which is hold by his two aunts, Kate and Julian Morkan. At the party, two things are happened that remind Gretta of her past love, Michael Furey. Firstly, a friend invites Gretta and Gabriel to Galway where she first met Michael. Secondly, a song, "The Lass of Aughrim" sung by Mr. D'Arcy was the song Michael often sang to her on their long walks through the country. After the party, Gabriel is oblivious to her affections and anticipating a romantic evening, brings her to a hotel perceiving that "they had escaped from their lives and duties." (“The Dead” , 146) When Gabriel questions Gretta's apathetic mood, she tells Gabriel the tragic story of Michael 's illness and how Michael had revealed to her, how he no longer wanted to love after he heard she must leave. Gabriel is tormented by the dull; pathetic Gabriel has to offer his wife when Michael has devoted such deep feel passion to her even in death. The feeling when he heard the Michael’s story from his wife:

…So she had had that romance in her life: a man had died for her sake. It hardly pained him now to think how poor a part he, her husband, had played in her life. He watched her while she slept, as though he and she had never lived together as man and wife. His curious eyes rested long upon her face and on her hair: and, as he thought of what she must have been then, in that time of her first girlish beauty, a strange, friendly pity for her entered his soul. He did not like to say even to himself that her face was no longer beautiful, but he knew that it was no longer the face for which Michael Furey had braved death. (“The Dead” , 151)

The change of Gabriel experiences was he realized that he never knew or could have guessed about his wife in his life. Throughout the evening at his aunt’s house, he contemplates about the relationship between him and his wife. Part of the Gabriel’s contemplation:

He had never felt like that himself