Charcaters:
Gabriel - main character
Lily - the caretaker's daughter
Miss Kate, Miss Julia: Gabriel's aunts, teach choir and dance
Mary Jane - lives with her aunts, plays the organ at church
Misses Morkan - holds the annual dance
Freddy Malins - the man they fear may show up drunk
Gretta Conroy - Gabriel's wife
Miss Ivors - dances with Gabriel, calls his a "West Briton"
Mr. Bartell D'Arcy - friend and singer at the dance
- There are three times in the story that Gabriel's self-image is challenged. The first is in the pantry with Lily when she makes a snide comment towards men saying, "The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you."
- The second time is when Gabriel is dancing with Miss Ivors and she informs him that she knows that he writes for The Daily Express, a conservative Dublin newspaper opposed to Irish independence. She calls him a "West Briton," an insulting name for an Irish man who supports the union with Britain.
- Finally, Gabriel is devastated after realizing that his wife, Gretta, has previously been in love with a man who died for her. A man named Michael Furey. Gabriel not only loses his passionate feelings for his wife on that night but he also comes to realize that he will never be able to live up to her old romance. The song that was playing back at the dance which stirred up Gretta's emotions about her old lover was called The Last of Aughrim.
- The story, as a whole, seems to be a very detailed account of mini-scenes that work as one. Nothing really big or exciting happens at one point in the story but it is rather more focused on the description of small moments that have deep meaning.
- in the author description on page 1944, it is described that "The Dead" represents four aspects of life, "childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life." Another main part of writings by Joyce is that the end with an epiphany. In this case, Gabriel's epiphany is that he will never measure up to the man that his wife used to love.
An excellent summary of the story. The only thing I would have to add is that when Gabriel's wife reveals her feelings about Michael Furey, Gabriel doesn't "lose his passion", but merely realizes that he's never actually had it. He's jealous of Michael because even though he lived such a short life, it was full of passion and love. And Gabriel realizes that his life, though long and successful, is empty of those things and therefor not as great as Michael's.
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