How Is Gabriel Presented In The Dead

The Dead by James Joyce presents the peculiar character of Gabriel as the main character of the essay. Gabriel is an individual who is in his last stages of life and expects death at any minute. He no longer feels the same about living, and it is shown through imagery, the motif of time, and point of view.
The visual images presented by Joyce enable the reader to characterize Gabriel as detached and apathetic. For instance, the scene displayed on “one boot stood [standing] upright, its limp upper fallen down: the fellow of it lay [laid] upon its side” demonstrates parallelism between Gabriel and his wife’s current situation. She is on the verge of death while he has to continue living. Consequently, he has grown almost neglectful to the situation
For example, he says that his wife’s face has lost that “girlish beauty”, but he does not like to admit it to himself that “her face was [is] no longer beautiful.” The quote, furthermore, indicates that Gabriel no longer feels love or admiration for his wife since he does not feel the obligation to call her beautiful. As time her beauty has faded, as have his feelings about her and their marriage. Even so, he expects death since he will be at a funeral in which he will try to console his aunt and fail as he assures “that would happen very soon.” Gabriel, therefore, is a character who is constantly living in the past and the future, while ignoring the present. The past if filled with happy memories but also regret and his future is full of tragedy, and although both of these time periods seem bleak, it allows the reader to infer that the current situation is one that is much worse. To summarize, Gabriel has a ticking clock that cannot move from the past, but also looks upon the
Take for example, it begins with Gabriel looking “unresentfully … her tangled hair and half-open mouth” the proceed to says he had “played a poor part of her life.” These are all Gabriel’s thoughts and actions, for he is either a forgiving character or uninterested on the previous occurrences since he wonders at “his riot of emotions of an hour before.” Additionally, the latter quote supports the fact that he is apathetic since he admits to himself that he has never shown interest or much love to his wife; hence, the poor part in her life. One can predict that his marital status has waned because of his disinterest in his wife and lack of effort. The point-of-view, therefore, enables the reader to place the fault of their current status to him without knowing how his wife feels about him or their marriage. In short, the third-person allows the reader to have a full tour in Gabriel’s thoughts and brains and draw judgment towards