The Dead

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When I started reading the story “The Dead” by James Joyce, I thought the main character would be Lily, because the way writer mentioned her name at the beginning of the story. As we were reading through the story we saw few more characters involved in the story. Then all the focuses went to Gabriel and his wife Gretta. There was something going on between them, because writer didn’t mention them together in the same spot that much, even when everyone was leaving, she was upstairs listening to some song, while Gabriel was downstairs trying to find out is anything wrong with her. Then end of the story writer told us why she was acting like that. That tells us what kind of ‘Character’ Gretta is.

Clue – The Dead

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One thing that interested me was the relationship between Gabriel and his wife, it’s not something that interested me until page 78 where they depart the party, “She was walking on before him so lightly and so erect that he longed to run after her noiselessly, catch her by the shoulders and say something foolish and affectionate into her ear.” The seemed distant throughout the event and barely interacted, it made me wonder if their marriage was not going so well, the fact that they are not even walking together is also peculiar to me.

In the final paragraph on page 78 we get a clue as to how their marriage is going, “He longed to recall to her those moments, to make her forget the years of their dull existence together and to remember only their moments of ecstasy.” It seems that he views their marriage as boring, taking a turn for the dull as the years went by, remembering fondly their first times together and yearning for those days to return. Until that point we just get a few hints of their relationship, the fact that they don’t stay close throughout the party, her making fun of his insistence on using “galoshes”, him reluctant to share his “row” with Molly Ivors, all gives us hints that maybe everything is not going as well as it should, and that “snapshot” of just a few sentences on page 78 is the final clue needed to put it all together.

“The Dead” Clue Blog Post (Group 3)

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Originally in class the question as to “Why did everyone gather for Misses Morkan’s annual dance?”, was brought to light. When Gabriel began his speech in honor of Misses Morkan’s, this question is answered. “I wish from my heart it may do so for many and many a long years to come– the tradition of genuine warmhearted courteous–Irish hospitality, which our forefathers have handed down to us and which we in turn must hand down to our descendants, is still alive among us” (pg72). From Gabriel’s choice of words it seems that the annual dance has became a tradition within this community. The Morkan sisters, host this dance in order to pass down morals practiced by previous generations. Later in the speech Gabriel continues to  mention the “new generation” whom are actuated by new ideas and new principles. He believes due to the sceptical, thought-tormented age they live in, that this “new generation”, educated or hypereducated, may lack qualities of humanity, of hospitality, and kind humor, which belong to an older day. Misses Morkan’s annual dance however, give these kids (new generation) an opportunity to be surrounded by people of all ages, in hopes of influencing them to stay true to their kindhearted, people loving ways. The dance is the physical representation of the “old days” way of living and loving thy neighbor, still being practiced.

The Dead Clue

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The snapshot I chose from “The Dead” was the speech that Gabriel gave after they had eaten dinner at the party. As Gabriel delivered the lengthy speech, the text stated “A hearty murmur of assent ran around the table. It shot through Gabriel’s mind that Miss Ivors was not there and that she had gone away discourteously: and he said with confidence in himself”. From the quote was see a newfound confidence that we had not seen from Gabriel up until this point. The question that I thought this moment helped to clarify was would the character Gabriel change during the story. It was clear from his very introduction of the story that Gabriel did not do very well in social settings. When his character entered the story, the first social interaction that he had with another character Lily was awkward and he invaded her personal space with questions about her love life which resulted in her being offended. Another poor social experience that he had at the party was with the character Miss Ivors. During his conversation with her, he was constantly defensive as she asked him questions about his culture and how he has a lack of interest in it. As she continues to interrogate him, he eventually loses is composure and tells her that he was sick of Ireland. From these two examples it was clear that there was a change in Gabriel’s character to the point where he was confident enough to deliver a speech to all the people who attended the party.

The Connect Snapshot of Rip Van Winkle and The Dead

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The two snapshot that I have chosen from both stories of Rip Van Winkle and The Dead are the problems between Rip and his wife, and the argument  with Gabriel and Miss. Ivors. The snapshot of Rip Van Winkle is at the beginning of page six when the author states ” Rip Van Winkle, however was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. if left to himself, he would have whistled life, in perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually dinning his ears about his idleness, his carelessness and the ruin he was bringing on the family.” The snapshot of The Dead is at end of page 62  with the conversation of Gabriel and Miss. Ivors starts off  ” O innocent Amy! I have found out that you write for The Daily Express. Now aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Why should I be ashamed of myself? Well I’m ashamed of you, To say you’d write for a paper like that. I didn’t think you were a West Briton. It was true that he wrote a literary column every Wednesday in The Daily Express, for which he was paid fifteen shillings. But that did not make him a West Briton.” In both of these snapshot it show how both Rip and Gabriel are being treated unfairly of the things that love to do by these two ladies. Rip love to be free, love to do what ever he want and love to help people. In his wife eyes she think of him being careless and lazy of the of the work that he has to do at home which is the farm but Rip know that the farm is useless and that their no point working on it. She also think that he doesn’t care about his family and wants nothing to do with them but Rip care for his children but hates his wife. Gabriel, he love to write his literary column every Wednesday, that was his way of show his love for literature but Miss. Ivors just makes funny of him and called a West Briton( is a derogatory term for an Irish person who is perceived as being too anglophilic in matters of culture or politics) in front of everyone at the party and then try to say that she was joking but we all know that she meant it. Gabriel being a nice person that he is doesn’t say anything that would offend her because they are friends but deep down he said “literature was above politics.” So those are the two close comparison that I have chosen for these stories.