The Dead By James Joyce
Unburdened by excessive length and convoluted storytelling, James Joyce’s The Dead is able to detail and explore simple and brief, though highly intimate, moments of visceral human emotion and engage deeply with an array of themes. In this sense, The Dead is driven far more by an investigation of characters’ motivations, emotions and reactions, and the continued development thereof, than it is by plot. Nevertheless, the story’s enduring success reflects that this has resonated with audiences. Despite, or perhaps due to, The Dead’s concise length, being only 15,672 words, Joyce is able to tell a fully formed, sophisticated and emotionally engaging story, which presents and analyses a number of core themes. Consequently, Joyce's seminal story
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of a quaint family celebration is able to successfully reach beyond its seemingly limited scope and incorporate broader themes of love, loss and Irish national character. In order to demonstrate this, each of the aforementioned themes will be investigated and analysed to demonstrate their significance to the narrative, characters’ emotional development and audience engagement. In doing this, a particular focus will be placed on Gabriel and Gretta’s relationship, and the way in which this reflects Joyce’s outlook on love and loss. Furthermore, the distinct ‘Irishness’ of The Dead, both on an explicit and subtle level, and Joyce’s dedication to publishing an authentic, raw representation of what it means to be Irish will be investigated. Moreover, the interrelated nature of these themes, and the way in which Joyce balances them and uses them to further the overall plot, rather than detracting from it, will be addressed. Collectively, this will demonstrate Joyce’s masterful and subtle writing technique, which allowed him to publish a story that is, in many ways, far more insightful and nuanced than it initially appears.
Thematically, love plays a prominent role in The Dead, and is central to the story’s development, although it is portrayed in an exceedingly cynical and almost undesirable way. Largely, Joyce represents love as a necessary, though sometimes rewarding, burden rather than a wholesome blessing (Boysen 2007) (Murphy 2000). Boysen (2007, p.1) eloquently explains Joyce’s often bleak representation of love:
“Throughout the majority of Dubliners (1916), the phenomenon of love is severely distorted and bitterly debased due to the socio-ideological circumstances in this modern metropolis; but even though love should be able to steer round the lethal traps set up by the Catholic and capitalistic order of society, it is nevertheless far from certain that things will turn out well”
Evidently, rather than presenting an idealistic, pure portrayal of ‘true’ love, Joyce opted to investigate the finer, everyday struggles of maintaining love, predominantly through the lens of Gabriel and Gretta’s marriage (Boysen 2007) (Jones 2000). As such, Murphy (2000, p.3) flippantly describes The Dead as being a love story that commences “on an evening in the life of Romeo and Juliet ten years after Romeo has married his ‘country cute’ Juliet against parental opposition, that common obstacle to the smooth course of true young love.” This serves to illustrate the tumultuous and matured nature of Gabriel and Gretta’s marriage, and the burdens they face in attempting to preserve and further their relationship (Murphy 2000). Consequently, it becomes clear that The Dead is by no means a typical, hyperbolic love story, and instead deals with emotionally sincere, commonplace human struggles, including, “tiresome social obligations and physical fatigue; the burden, even the loving burden, of children; small abrasions from rude colleagues and snotty servants” (Murphy 2000, p.4). Collectively, these are highly relatable and crushingly real emotional issues, which Joyce presents with a visceral finesse in order to display love’s onerous, incessant nature, and emphasise the toll life itself has taken on Gabriel and Gretta’s relationship.
Clearly, Gabriel and Gretta’s marriage is mature and evolved, and faces numerous issues, and is not merely a naïve, even unrealistic, portrayal of love in its enthusiastic initial stages (Murphy 2000). Thus, in many ways, The Dead analyses the minutiae and struggles of love, long after pure romance, and even enthusiasm, has waned (Murphy 2000). Murphy (2000, p.3) expands upon this, positing that The Dead is heavily reflective of Joyce himself and his mindset and outlook on life, and ultimately describes The Dead as “an elegy for the impossibility of perfect human intimacy even between a man and the wife he admires and desires, an understated lament for the impossibility of complete harmony.” Boysen (2008, p.1) further emphasises this, in stronger terms, “Joyce reveals furthermore how one of society’s most honoured institutions of love, matrimony, is nothing but state institutionalised prostitution that ties the married couple to life in mutual bitterness and unhappiness.” Moreover, Mr D’Arcy’s rendition of ‘The Lass of Aughrim’, which initiates Gretta’s remembrance of Michael Furery, her lost lover, and sets up the story’s climax, is further evidence of the story’s forlorn outlook on love (Monterrey 2011). Monterrey (2011, p.69) describes this scene, stating, “…like the wool pictures anticipating frustrated love and untimely death, the lyrics allude to a solitary love in the rain.” The use of phrases such as “solitary love” and “frustrated love” serve to further emphasise Joyce’s pragmatic, perhaps even pessimistic, outlook on love (Monterrey 2011) (Murphy 2000). Nevertheless, The Dead is more than simply a forlorn projection of love’s many imperfections, and it also uses love to depict and facilitate profound and meaningful emotional development.
Although for the majority of The Dead love is presented with a cynical, dejected tone, the story nevertheless culminates with Gabriel undergoing a genuine emotional transformation, and consequently provides reason for optimism. As a result, The Dead is atypical of Joyce’s short stories, particularly those in his Dubliners collection, in the sense that it concludes with an optimistic, hopeful tone (Boysen 2007) (Jones 2000). Ultimately, Joyce utilised Gabriel and Gretta’s marriage, and in particular their climactic conversation about Gretta’s former, deceased lover Michael Furery, as a tool with which to enable and demonstrate Gabriel’s emotional development (Jones 2000). In this sense, the themes of love and loss are inextricably connected in The Dead, and play equally prominent roles (Jones 2000). Boysen (2007, p. 401) elaborates, demonstrating how The Dead strays from the archetypal formula for Joyce’s stories, as well as displaying the inherently interrelated nature of love and loss:
“For the first and only time in the collection of short stories, Joyce offers not only a criticism of the circumstances that corrupt and destroy love, but a draft of a progressive ethics of love as well which takes its point of departure from the acknowledgment of the other, the living and the dead”
Walzl (1966, p.21) reinforces the critical role that the themes of love and loss play in Gabriel’s profound emotional transformation, explaining, “The Dead is a story of maturation, tracing the spiritual development of a man from insularity and egotism to humanitarianism and love.” Only by ultimately accepting Gretta’s continued love of Michael Furery, if not understanding it, and realising that her feelings for him may never be as strong or passionate, could Gabriel truly evolve as a person, and accept that life is larger than his needs and desires (Boysen 2007) (Jones 2000).
Hence, with Gabriel accepting that he will never wholly have Gretta’s love, their relationship exists in something of a purgatory between love and loss. Obviously it still exists, and is therefore not entirely lost, but, equally, it is now deeply strained, and far from love (Boysen 2007). Boysen (2007, p.401) clarifies the complex and intricate nature of Gabriel’s emotional state, and demonstrates the immense toll this takes on his various interpersonal relationships, “Gabriel is caught between an arrogant cultural feeling of superiority and latent feelings of inadequacy, and he projects this inner drama out into the social world, which thus becomes a stage for his continuous strivings for self-affirmation.” However, as Gabriel becomes aware of Gretta’s true feelings, this changes dramatically (Jones 2000) (Boysen 2007). Jones (2000, p.110) asserts that this is in fact a hopeful occurrence, which snaps Gabriel from a selfish, egotistical state of mind, and allows him to consider the feelings of others. She states, “If we read hopefully, a transformation occurs. A deadened world begins to come to life. This happens for Gabriel after contact with the dead, in memory, in anticipated losses, in learning of a love he never had.” ?? (??) (Find out their name???) corroborates, eloquently summarising Gabriel’s character development, “…his sympathy towards his wife transforms lust into love and as he gains transforming insight into his life, his feelings of superiority seem to vanish away and step by step lead him to his self- knowledge.” Both Gabriel’s love, or, at least, strong feelings, for Gretta, and an empathetic sense of loss, given he ultimately considers and feels Gretta’s distress over Michael’s death, strongly influence this transformation.
Ultimately, driven by both love and loss, Gabriel is forced to re-evaluate the state of his marriage, and his future more broadly. Moseley (1965, p.432) details this, further emphasising the extremity of Michael’s transformation, “Arriving at an objective understanding of Michael’s love for Gretta, Gabriel realises that he has never felt real love, but ‘he knew that such a feeling must be love.’” Thus, it appears, somewhat ironically, that the love most prominently discussed and analysed in The Dead may never have truly been love at all, supporting the indefinite, purgatory-like state of Gabriel and Gretta’s relationship (Moseley 1965). However, if love never truly existed between the two, then the revelation of its absence cannot be truly be considered a loss either. Yet, undoubtedly, love and loss are felt strongly, and are influential, throughout the story – whether they are true or not – which is indicative of the nuanced subjectivity Joyce cultivated in The Dead. Moreover, both love and loss play an integral role in Gabriel’s personal development, and force him to accept things beyond his control, and realise the existence of forces far greater and more influential than him.
Furthermore, in both The Dead particularly, but also his Dubliners collection as a whole, Joyce faithfully conveys a distinctly Irish tone and sense of national character, which is critical an understanding of the story itself.
Thus, The Dead depicts and addresses several prominent aspects of Irish nationality and culture, and in doing so Joyce displays a strong, unmistakable sense of nationalism (Bendiba 2013). Bendiba (2013, p.3) explains the pervasive nature of what she dubs ‘Irishness’ in Joyce’s work, “the Irishness of Dubliners can be studied at, at least, five levels: religious questions, cultural aspects, political situation, geographical distribution and personal experience.” Evidently, given the broadness of these themes, a sense of Irish parochialism influences nearly all aspects of The Dead. Bennion (1997, p.1) corroborates, but goes further and posits that the story’s characters are not only uniquely Irish, but uniquely Dubliners, “As the name Dubliners implies, the main characters in these stories are typical people, each of whom somehow represents Dublin society.” Kelleher (1965, p.425) elaborates upon this, providing insight into the significance of Irish patriotism in developing an understanding of Gabriel and his emotional struggles, “All the others at the party, except for Mr. Browne, are Irish and Catholic and, however perfunctory their sentiments, nationalists. Only Gabriel is alienated, cut off from his roots.” Gabriel’s struggle with his sense of …show more content…
self and identity is a prominent feature throughout the story as he “chases his own ideal self-image all night long” and is further exacerbated by his comparative lack of Irish patriotism, which leaves him ostracised (Bendiba 2013, p.4). Demonstrably, an explicit sense of Irish nationalism heavily influences The Dead in a broad, almost omnipotent, sense. However, Joyce also included a number of more covert allusions to Irish history and culture, which add significantly to the story’s authenticity and overall tone.
The ‘Irishness’ of The Dead extends beyond an overt sense of nationalism, such as that displayed in Gabriel’s conversation with Miss Ivors, as Joyce also subtly incorporates elements of Irish culture, history, and mythology to provide the story with a sense of authenticity.
Kelleher (1965) demonstrates the extent to which Joyce took this, citing Mary Jane’s initial mispronunciation of Gabriel Conroy’s last name - calling him instead Mr Connery - with the errant vowel indicating she possesses a Dublin lower-class accent. Kelleher (1965, p.419) also explains the significance Mr Conroy’s name, and Mary Jane’s subsequent mispronunciation, hold in Irish
folklore:
“Conroy derives his name from the Irish name Cú Roí; Connery is from the quite different Conaire. The tragic hero of “The Destruction of Da Gerga’s Hostel” is Conaire Már mac Eterscél, king of Tara, who is killed by reavers, some of them his own kin, in a hostel located to the south of Dublin on the River Dodder”
of a quaint family celebration is able to successfully reach beyond its seemingly limited scope and incorporate broader themes of love, loss and Irish national character. In order to demonstrate this, each of the aforementioned themes will be investigated and analysed to demonstrate their significance to the narrative, characters’ emotional development and audience engagement. In doing this, a particular focus will be placed on Gabriel and Gretta’s relationship, and the way in which this reflects Joyce’s outlook on love and loss. Furthermore, the distinct ‘Irishness’ of The Dead, both on an explicit and subtle level, and Joyce’s dedication to publishing an authentic, raw representation of what it means to be Irish will be investigated. Moreover, the interrelated nature of these themes, and the way in which Joyce balances them and uses them to further the overall plot, rather than detracting from it, will be addressed. Collectively, this will demonstrate Joyce’s masterful and subtle writing technique, which allowed him to publish a story that is, in many ways, far more insightful and nuanced than it initially appears.
Thematically, love plays a prominent role in The Dead, and is central to the story’s development, although it is portrayed in an exceedingly cynical and almost undesirable way. Largely, Joyce represents love as a necessary, though sometimes rewarding, burden rather than a wholesome blessing (Boysen 2007) (Murphy 2000). Boysen (2007, p.1) eloquently explains Joyce’s often bleak representation of love:
“Throughout the majority of Dubliners (1916), the phenomenon of love is severely distorted and bitterly debased due to the socio-ideological circumstances in this modern metropolis; but even though love should be able to steer round the lethal traps set up by the Catholic and capitalistic order of society, it is nevertheless far from certain that things will turn out well”
Evidently, rather than presenting an idealistic, pure portrayal of ‘true’ love, Joyce opted to investigate the finer, everyday struggles of maintaining love, predominantly through the lens of Gabriel and Gretta’s marriage (Boysen 2007) (Jones 2000). As such, Murphy (2000, p.3) flippantly describes The Dead as being a love story that commences “on an evening in the life of Romeo and Juliet ten years after Romeo has married his ‘country cute’ Juliet against parental opposition, that common obstacle to the smooth course of true young love.” This serves to illustrate the tumultuous and matured nature of Gabriel and Gretta’s marriage, and the burdens they face in attempting to preserve and further their relationship (Murphy 2000). Consequently, it becomes clear that The Dead is by no means a typical, hyperbolic love story, and instead deals with emotionally sincere, commonplace human struggles, including, “tiresome social obligations and physical fatigue; the burden, even the loving burden, of children; small abrasions from rude colleagues and snotty servants” (Murphy 2000, p.4). Collectively, these are highly relatable and crushingly real emotional issues, which Joyce presents with a visceral finesse in order to display love’s onerous, incessant nature, and emphasise the toll life itself has taken on Gabriel and Gretta’s relationship.
Clearly, Gabriel and Gretta’s marriage is mature and evolved, and faces numerous issues, and is not merely a naïve, even unrealistic, portrayal of love in its enthusiastic initial stages (Murphy 2000). Thus, in many ways, The Dead analyses the minutiae and struggles of love, long after pure romance, and even enthusiasm, has waned (Murphy 2000). Murphy (2000, p.3) expands upon this, positing that The Dead is heavily reflective of Joyce himself and his mindset and outlook on life, and ultimately describes The Dead as “an elegy for the impossibility of perfect human intimacy even between a man and the wife he admires and desires, an understated lament for the impossibility of complete harmony.” Boysen (2008, p.1) further emphasises this, in stronger terms, “Joyce reveals furthermore how one of society’s most honoured institutions of love, matrimony, is nothing but state institutionalised prostitution that ties the married couple to life in mutual bitterness and unhappiness.” Moreover, Mr D’Arcy’s rendition of ‘The Lass of Aughrim’, which initiates Gretta’s remembrance of Michael Furery, her lost lover, and sets up the story’s climax, is further evidence of the story’s forlorn outlook on love (Monterrey 2011). Monterrey (2011, p.69) describes this scene, stating, “…like the wool pictures anticipating frustrated love and untimely death, the lyrics allude to a solitary love in the rain.” The use of phrases such as “solitary love” and “frustrated love” serve to further emphasise Joyce’s pragmatic, perhaps even pessimistic, outlook on love (Monterrey 2011) (Murphy 2000). Nevertheless, The Dead is more than simply a forlorn projection of love’s many imperfections, and it also uses love to depict and facilitate profound and meaningful emotional development.
Although for the majority of The Dead love is presented with a cynical, dejected tone, the story nevertheless culminates with Gabriel undergoing a genuine emotional transformation, and consequently provides reason for optimism. As a result, The Dead is atypical of Joyce’s short stories, particularly those in his Dubliners collection, in the sense that it concludes with an optimistic, hopeful tone (Boysen 2007) (Jones 2000). Ultimately, Joyce utilised Gabriel and Gretta’s marriage, and in particular their climactic conversation about Gretta’s former, deceased lover Michael Furery, as a tool with which to enable and demonstrate Gabriel’s emotional development (Jones 2000). In this sense, the themes of love and loss are inextricably connected in The Dead, and play equally prominent roles (Jones 2000). Boysen (2007, p. 401) elaborates, demonstrating how The Dead strays from the archetypal formula for Joyce’s stories, as well as displaying the inherently interrelated nature of love and loss:
“For the first and only time in the collection of short stories, Joyce offers not only a criticism of the circumstances that corrupt and destroy love, but a draft of a progressive ethics of love as well which takes its point of departure from the acknowledgment of the other, the living and the dead”
Walzl (1966, p.21) reinforces the critical role that the themes of love and loss play in Gabriel’s profound emotional transformation, explaining, “The Dead is a story of maturation, tracing the spiritual development of a man from insularity and egotism to humanitarianism and love.” Only by ultimately accepting Gretta’s continued love of Michael Furery, if not understanding it, and realising that her feelings for him may never be as strong or passionate, could Gabriel truly evolve as a person, and accept that life is larger than his needs and desires (Boysen 2007) (Jones 2000).
Hence, with Gabriel accepting that he will never wholly have Gretta’s love, their relationship exists in something of a purgatory between love and loss. Obviously it still exists, and is therefore not entirely lost, but, equally, it is now deeply strained, and far from love (Boysen 2007). Boysen (2007, p.401) clarifies the complex and intricate nature of Gabriel’s emotional state, and demonstrates the immense toll this takes on his various interpersonal relationships, “Gabriel is caught between an arrogant cultural feeling of superiority and latent feelings of inadequacy, and he projects this inner drama out into the social world, which thus becomes a stage for his continuous strivings for self-affirmation.” However, as Gabriel becomes aware of Gretta’s true feelings, this changes dramatically (Jones 2000) (Boysen 2007). Jones (2000, p.110) asserts that this is in fact a hopeful occurrence, which snaps Gabriel from a selfish, egotistical state of mind, and allows him to consider the feelings of others. She states, “If we read hopefully, a transformation occurs. A deadened world begins to come to life. This happens for Gabriel after contact with the dead, in memory, in anticipated losses, in learning of a love he never had.” ?? (??) (Find out their name???) corroborates, eloquently summarising Gabriel’s character development, “…his sympathy towards his wife transforms lust into love and as he gains transforming insight into his life, his feelings of superiority seem to vanish away and step by step lead him to his self- knowledge.” Both Gabriel’s love, or, at least, strong feelings, for Gretta, and an empathetic sense of loss, given he ultimately considers and feels Gretta’s distress over Michael’s death, strongly influence this transformation.
Ultimately, driven by both love and loss, Gabriel is forced to re-evaluate the state of his marriage, and his future more broadly. Moseley (1965, p.432) details this, further emphasising the extremity of Michael’s transformation, “Arriving at an objective understanding of Michael’s love for Gretta, Gabriel realises that he has never felt real love, but ‘he knew that such a feeling must be love.’” Thus, it appears, somewhat ironically, that the love most prominently discussed and analysed in The Dead may never have truly been love at all, supporting the indefinite, purgatory-like state of Gabriel and Gretta’s relationship (Moseley 1965). However, if love never truly existed between the two, then the revelation of its absence cannot be truly be considered a loss either. Yet, undoubtedly, love and loss are felt strongly, and are influential, throughout the story – whether they are true or not – which is indicative of the nuanced subjectivity Joyce cultivated in The Dead. Moreover, both love and loss play an integral role in Gabriel’s personal development, and force him to accept things beyond his control, and realise the existence of forces far greater and more influential than him.
Furthermore, in both The Dead particularly, but also his Dubliners collection as a whole, Joyce faithfully conveys a distinctly Irish tone and sense of national character, which is critical an understanding of the story itself.
Thus, The Dead depicts and addresses several prominent aspects of Irish nationality and culture, and in doing so Joyce displays a strong, unmistakable sense of nationalism (Bendiba 2013). Bendiba (2013, p.3) explains the pervasive nature of what she dubs ‘Irishness’ in Joyce’s work, “the Irishness of Dubliners can be studied at, at least, five levels: religious questions, cultural aspects, political situation, geographical distribution and personal experience.” Evidently, given the broadness of these themes, a sense of Irish parochialism influences nearly all aspects of The Dead. Bennion (1997, p.1) corroborates, but goes further and posits that the story’s characters are not only uniquely Irish, but uniquely Dubliners, “As the name Dubliners implies, the main characters in these stories are typical people, each of whom somehow represents Dublin society.” Kelleher (1965, p.425) elaborates upon this, providing insight into the significance of Irish patriotism in developing an understanding of Gabriel and his emotional struggles, “All the others at the party, except for Mr. Browne, are Irish and Catholic and, however perfunctory their sentiments, nationalists. Only Gabriel is alienated, cut off from his roots.” Gabriel’s struggle with his sense of …show more content…
self and identity is a prominent feature throughout the story as he “chases his own ideal self-image all night long” and is further exacerbated by his comparative lack of Irish patriotism, which leaves him ostracised (Bendiba 2013, p.4). Demonstrably, an explicit sense of Irish nationalism heavily influences The Dead in a broad, almost omnipotent, sense. However, Joyce also included a number of more covert allusions to Irish history and culture, which add significantly to the story’s authenticity and overall tone.
The ‘Irishness’ of The Dead extends beyond an overt sense of nationalism, such as that displayed in Gabriel’s conversation with Miss Ivors, as Joyce also subtly incorporates elements of Irish culture, history, and mythology to provide the story with a sense of authenticity.
Kelleher (1965) demonstrates the extent to which Joyce took this, citing Mary Jane’s initial mispronunciation of Gabriel Conroy’s last name - calling him instead Mr Connery - with the errant vowel indicating she possesses a Dublin lower-class accent. Kelleher (1965, p.419) also explains the significance Mr Conroy’s name, and Mary Jane’s subsequent mispronunciation, hold in Irish
folklore:
“Conroy derives his name from the Irish name Cú Roí; Connery is from the quite different Conaire. The tragic hero of “The Destruction of Da Gerga’s Hostel” is Conaire Már mac Eterscél, king of Tara, who is killed by reavers, some of them his own kin, in a hostel located to the south of Dublin on the River Dodder”