The Dead

        The Dead is the final short story in Joyce's collection titled The Dubliners. Dr. Reed mentioned that The Dubliners followed a "short story cycle," because it seems to fit with the rest of Joyce's stories as it deals more with the idea of death. The story focuses on a tragically flawed man named Gabriel who is attending an old fashioned dinner party held by his aging aunts in Ireland. Joyce's third person omniscient point of view and stream of consciousness way of writing showed insight into Gabriel's thoughts. When reading the story, I began to get annoyed with his need or desire to wear his intelligence like a shield-it's like he wanted to sound pretentious and narcissistic to the rest of the dinner party guests. For most of the story, he was focused on what he would say for his speech that night, and he worried whether or not his poetic reference to Robert Browning would be over his audience's head (1948).
        While the dinner party continues on, Gabriel continues to narrate the merriment of the other guests, his confrontation with Miss Ivors, and his fascination with his wife, Gretta (1953). After the party, while he is traveling back to the hotel with his wife, Gabriel conjures thoughts of his wife getting excited about the prospect of becoming intimate with him. He doesn't seem to notice her reserved or distant attitude while they are riding back to their room, and he is surprised when after they kiss she begins to cry. She explains that she had been thinking about an old friend she dated when she was younger who died for her. This is an important moment for the story because Gabriel feels foolish for mistaking her sadness for excitement and begins to feel insecure about his relationship with his wife (1971).
        In class, we noticed that Gretta's dead lover's name was Michael, the name for a strong angel who wielded a sword. Gabriel's name is also a biblical allusion to the messenger angel that delivered God's news to prophets on earth. Here we dissect the characters of Gabriel and Michael. Gabriel is pretentious and insecure: he spent most of the story talking about nonsensical facts and never took action on any of his desires with his wife. Michael traveled to see Gretta even though he was sick and died just to see her: he couldn'y live without her and took control over his life. The two men differed in many ways, and just like their names represented, Michael took action and was brave while Gabriel only delivered speeches or messages containing other people's ideas or needs.

                Angel Gabriel                          Angel Michael