The Dead

Im sorry this is so late... i did not realize i never posted my blog the first time!

Well, when i started reading this story, from the descriptions of the house, to the setting of stage coaches trotting by, i felt as though this was a part of the Irish culture i had never fully been aware of. The whole idea of this family having a party every year, when people come from all over, to socialize, eat goose, and drink liquor, seems more proper, and elegant that the rustic culture that comes to mind when i first think of "Ireland." 

The first day of class we wrote on the board that Ireland was trying to distance themselves from the pretentious, proper gatherings and personalities of England. Not that this story is full of pretentious people, but parts of it, i felt as though i was reading scenes from the Great Gatsby. The scene in which Mary Jane is playing the piano, and Gabriel does not really care for the song she is playing, seems like a forced, dual purposed performance: to entertain the guests, and perhaps show off? 

This interpretation may be me completely stumbling off the main path of this story, but it was my first instinct that there were parts to this party that were a little fake, and staged, which skewed away from the traditional, relaxed Irish culture i knew before reading this story.  

The Dead

One question that kept coming up throughout the story for me was what it meant to be alive or dead. There was the literal meaning, of course, in reference to Michael Furey, Gabriel's mother, and others, but there was also death in the figurative sense, namely, in regards to Gabriel.

The passage where this all seems to come together for me is when Gabriel is in the hotel watching Gretta and remarking that she was not the beautiful girl that she once was; as if she died from her former life, and is in a sense, dead, as Gabriel is. The difference is that while Gretta (and Michael) were once alive, Gabriel feels he has never been.

The Dead

One passage that caught my attention is on 391 in which Joyce describes the place setting and food on the table in great detail. He makes the amount of life in the room clear, be it through laughter, color, and varying emotions of the people there. He mentions, for instance, the “two little ministers of jelly, red and yellow”, “bunches of purple raisins”, “chocolates and sweets in gold and silver papers” and “pudding in a huge yellow dish”. This description of a joyous feast almost chaotic with details is followed by one discussing the diners themselves. They, too, are shown to be drenched in both happiness and chaos, the room thick with “a great deal of confusion and laughter and noise” (392). This lively passage, however, takes on a different tone when the guests reflect nostalgically on their favorite opera singers and wonder “why they never play the grand old operas now” (394). What was once a party celebrating life through colors and emotions is now nostalgia, the focus shifting to something from the past instead of their present cheer.

I think Joyce put these tones next to each other in the passage to comment on the natural tendency to focus on the past. The guests, after all, are surrounded by life and vivacity but still end up dwelling on unobtainable memories. This idea of living in the past instead of the present, or through the dead instead of the living, is everywhere in the story. The characters mourn past performers, a dead horse, a dead lover, and, for Gabriel, even country dead to him. Not even the colors of the food and the jubilance of the conversation are enough to keep the guests from nostalgia. Like Gabriel, who is torn between the old hospitality of Ireland and its present state, the guests are unable to escape from the dead.

"The Dead": The Schizophrenia of Sentimentality

One passage I found very interesting is when Gabriel gives his speech before the guests. He is, of course, very sentimental about Irish traditions and the like, despite the fact that only a little while earlier he had told Miss Ivors how he was "sick of his own country." This seems to be a contradiction, but, essentially, what Gabriel does in both instances is that he fails to share the completeness of how he feels. I think I have a sense of what he feels because I feel something similar myself, and it is a very hard feeling to describe: I honestly can't stand it when people blindly pledge their whole selves to America and only America, and of course America's always right, and when they talk about the future there's never any question of whether the rest of one's life is to be lived in America. At the same time, it's not as if I truly hate this country--all of my memories, friends, etc. to this point in my life are here. But the point is that there is a whole world to see, and you shouldn't be content to see one tiny portion of it if there's nothing stopping you from seeing more. I've heard it said that the world is like a book and those who don't travel have only read one page.

This idea of a complex relationship with place definitely ties in with our discussion about "Araby"--about how you have to leave the familiar place to learn about yourself. I've found this to be very true in my life. I've gone on a few missions trips through my chuch youth group to West Virginia, and I definitely feel like my perspective on things changed a ton after I got back from the first trip--I started to care less about stupid things that used to cause my sister and I to fight a lot.

The comment that Miss Ivors makes to Gabriel along the lines of "what about learning more about your own people/country/culture?" has validity, yet at the same time is short-sided. The same question arises when considering going on a service-oriented trip: do you really have to go somewhere to serve people? The answer is no; however, the learning experience is so much greater when you see things in a way that you're not used to seeing them.

In a way, it's kind of humorous when you consider how often people appeal to the spirit of tradition to gain their audience's favor. When I was a junior in high school, I read a book called Moral Politics by cognitive psychologist George Lakoff in AP Government. It's about the various metaphors that liberals and conservatives use in shaping their worldviews. Essentially, the only metaphor that both sides share is the metaphor of Nation As Family. However, within this metaphor, conservatives are much more concerned with the Family being rooted in tradition. Liberals, meanwhile, might like the idea of tradition, but kind of wish the tradition was a little different. So both liberals and conservatives (because most worldviews kind of essentially boil down to this, though it shouldn't have to be this way) try to use tales of our "fathers" when trying to reach out to a broad audience (think of the titles of John McCain's and Barack Obama's respective books: Faith of My Fathers and Dreams From My Father). The slight humor in my eyes (some may not really find it humorous) is the obvious fact that everything about Barack Obama, his fame, and his vision, is oriented the future and not really the past. Everyone always try to connect everything to the past, which Gabriel does as well, and feebly so, in his speech. Why? Because it's easy. Because it's hard to face the complexity of one's relationship with place.

Details, Details

Joyce’s attention to detail truly draws the reader into his stories and makes them feel as if they are gossiping with the ladies, dancing with the other guests, and sitting at the table sharing a meal with his characters, especially in his story, “The Dead.” My mouth started to water when I read page 168, where Joyce describes every detail of the magnificent feast, from the “fat, brown goose” to the “small bowl full of chocolates and sweets wrapped in gold and silver papers.” I could see it so clearly in my imagination that I almost reached out my hand to pluck one of the oranges from its pyramid. Then, on page 179, Joyce describes Gabriel’s wife. His alliteration of the “s” sounds when Gabriel was “surprised at her stillness” makes the event seem hushed and quiet. The author painted a picture when he described how Gretta leaned on the banister of the main stairs, yet she was shrouded in shadow. The sheer amount of adjectives that Joyce uses in these couple of paragraphs builds an anticipation that follows the reader through the story until Gretta finally reveals what was truly on her mind.

Joyce does not write fanciful happily-ever-afters, but strives to write stories that connect with people on a deeper level by mimicking real life. However, real life is not easy to write about due to the fact that it does not often have grand, solid endings. Real life would be very boring to read about, but Joyce spices it up with his masterful use of detail.

"The Dead" Reflection

As I was reading "The Dead," I found myself wondering when the relevance of the title would emerge. The first 30 pages or so give no indication of why this title might be appropriate for the story. In fact, the introduction of death through Gretta's story about Michael Furey does not appear until page 188, only three or four pages from the story's end. When it does become apparent, however, it occurs in a few powerful pages of text further examining the relationship between Gretta and Gabriel and eventually life itself. I was particularly struck by the shift Gabriel experiences in his feelings toward his wife. Joyce portrays this masterfully, beginning on page 183 when Gabriel is watching his wife walk ahead of him and feeling intense feelings of desire and love, or so he thinks at the time. Joyce describes Gabriel's arms "trembling with desire" (185) and his overwhelming desire to be close to his wife and reignite the fire between them. Gretta, though, has other things on her mind, and her disclosure of what she's feeling triggers the change in her husband's emotions. Upon hearing his wife's tale about the young man who died for her sake, Gabriel falls into a meditation on love and life. He considers just how strongly Michael Furey must have felt for Gretta in order to have died for her, concluding that he himself has never felt such emotion, even for her. This shows a distinct reversal of his feelings, from full of lust for his wife to concluding that he has never felt love for her, now that the story of Michael has illuminated for him what love truly is. Gabriel finally begins musing on his existence as a whole, seeing his fading identity in comparison with the dead, seeing the entire world as dissipating. The significance of the title here resounds in full force, as the story draws to a close that questions the permanence of life and the world. The penultimate paragraph provides a dizzying portrayal of Gabriel picturing the souls of the dead and imagining his own mortality. This gives way to the concluding paragraph, a beautiful and rather haunting description of the snow falling over all of Ireland and eventually falling through the universe as a whole. While the title's importance may not be apparent in the earlier section of the story, it resonates with immense gravity at the end, as the story ends with Gabriel's transformed thoughts on life and its inevitable conclusion.

Reflections on 'The Dead'

Joyce’s words flow in such a beautiful and poignant fashion that it’s almost impossible to choose just one example to highlight something about “The Dead.” But one of the many passages that is particularly memorable for me is on page 191, after Gretta has told Gabriel of Michael Furey’s death. Gabriel’s own self-reflection is so powerful and telling. Joyce sets the scene with the snow falling outside, which is a perfect backdrop to the thoughts that are spinning in Gabriel’s head: his own thoughts about life and how he doesn’t want to fade slowly. He thinks to himself, as the snow is falling, and as he’s reflecting upon the evening with his Aunt Julia who is old and incapable of having a meaningful conversation with anyone anymore, that it is “better to pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.” Snow covers all things—living and dead, but soon enough, it melts. James, in this story, unlike in some of the other short stories we’ve read thus far, describes Dublin with vividly beautiful images enhanced by the white snow that covers them. For a brief amount of time, a place that may not always be quaint and stunning is breathtaking. But soon enough, it will all be gone, just as his feelings of intense love for his wife were a product of the moment at hand. After he found out about Michael Furey, he realized not only that his wife didn’t love him in the same way she loved Michael, but that he had never actually even experienced love. Although there are signs throughout the story that Gabriel and Gretta are in a functional relationship, they’re not happy. They live dull, passionless lives. I think Michael Furey, in both life and death, represents everything Gabriel wishes to be. Gabriel wants a way to escape, as he had hoped to escape in the hotel room with Gretta. But he soon sees that perhaps death is the only true escape. Gabriel envies Michael Furey not because he was the true love of Gretta’s life, but because he lived a life of passion, and died with that same passion still there. None of Michael Furey melted like the snow. Nothing about him was temporary except his concrete presence in this world. Seventeen years of his life left a stronger impression on Gretta’s heart than her own husband could ever hope to achieve. And this passion and undying love is what is missing for Gabriel, and he will live the rest of his life being envious of the dead.  

The Dead

The scene that stood out to me most in the The Dead is when Gabrielle is reflecting on his relationship with his wife as the couple leaves the Aunts’ dinner party (pg 183). This moment is particularly striking because it breaks up a story line convoluted with many loosely associated characters. Until this pivotal moment, the plotline follows a string of lesser relationships, focusing specifically on pleasantries and mild interactions between guests at the dinner party. These relationships are far less intense than that of Gabrielle and his wife---in comparison, the associations seem like trivial and superficial. IN contrast, when Gabrielle reflects on his marriage, the story follows a much more intense relationship, full of with emotional memories and deep secrets. However, the scene is not entirely romantic, and is tinged with sadness. For instance, page 183 reads that Gabrielle longed “to make her forget the years of their dull existence together and remember only their moments of ecstasy. For the years, he felt, had not quenched his soul or hers.” Although Gabrielle’s deeply personal association to his wife is supposed to be more intense in comparison to his lesser relationships to the fellow partygoers, Gabrielle comes to the conclusion that all of his associations have some shallowness. Indeed, when Gabrielle discovers that his wife as once truly in love, his perception of their relationship begins to break down. Even his marriage is superficial to some extent. In the last paragraph, I was confused as to what Joyce meant when he says: “The time had come for him to set on his journey westward.” I thought it meant that Gabrielle was re-analyzing all of his associations after the incidence with his wife. By traveling westward, I assumed Gabrielle wanted to explore and reassess Ireland and his connection to the place, as Miss Ivors suggested at the party.

Freddy's Screwed

The passage I chose to write about begins when Freddy Malins is escorted in to the party and ends at the ellipse. I chose this passage because it focuses on drunkness and alcoholism which as we have discussed in class are common stereotypes associated with Irish culture. I wish to examine how Joyced addresses this. When Freddy enters the party he is laughing and "rubbing the knuckles of his fist backwards and forwards into his left eye" as he tells a story to Gabriel. All the characters seem a bit upset by Freddy's drunken antics... but none of them make any serious efforts to subdue him. Aunt Kate simply says how horrible he is and leaves the room with Gabriel. Mr. Browne pours Freddy lemonade and himself whiskey. It seems in this passage that alcohol is condemned in social settings but still readily provided. Freddy is able to act as he pleases despite rebukes from his hosts. Freddy is not obliged to make any efforts to sober up or to drink the lomonade and the passage ends with him again rubbing "the knuckles of his fist backward and forward in to his left eye." This rhetorical device could reflect an opinion of Joyce's that alcoholism among men is a source of stagnation of paralysis in Ireland. Although the women and Gabriel scorn men like Freddy Malins and Mr. Browne for their drunkenness, they still provide them with booze at social functions and make no efforts to break this cycle. And the men are unwilling to alter their old habits.

The Dead?

When I first began reading "The Dead", I thought it was about Gabriel's search for or lack of identity in the midst of his proud Irish community, whom he secretly resents. It is very evident that he doesn't fit in, and that he longs to be somewhere else, a part of something that is not bogged down with the traditional Irish culture of his hometown. "I'm sick of my own country, sick of it!"(154). Although he sets himself apart in many ways from his Irish counterparts, he still longs to be accepted and admired by the people whom he looks down upon. "They would think that he was airing his superior education. He would fail with them just as he had failed with the girl in the pantry"(145). However the theme of the story is somehow related to acknowledging, reverencing, or remembering those who have passed on. Gabriel makes several references to the dead, for example his mother, those famed people whom he mentioned in his speech, and his wife's old lover Michael. Though there seems to be an underlying message behind his connection with the world of the dead versus the world of the living, I'm not exactly sure how this relates to the story and what the reader is supposed to take from it.
Although Gabriel feels disconnected from his culture and people, I think he is very drawn to Ireland the place because he makes various in depth descriptions of the land and his surroundings. He seems to appreciate his homeland in this aspect and this presents some ambiguity concerning his true feelings about the place that he grew up in. His language almost sounds reminiscent, as if he has left Ireland and is thinking back on his experiences. Although there seems to be some strain on the relationship between him and his wife, I thought it was so beautiful the way that he admired her and esteemed her throughout their time spent together. Even at the end of the night when his desires are denied and she tells him of a past lover who she still holds dear to her heart, he shows compassion and patience towards her and turns his attention from his needs to hers.

"The Dead"

Pages 188 through 190 seem to address the possible meaning of "the Dead" that the title conveys. In this passage Gabriel shows the reader a type of emotion previously unseen, that of his adoration for his wife Gretta. At the dinner his emotions appear to be geared towards himself and his worry of how others will perceive him. He does not believe his speech is adequate and even worries about "making himself ridiculous, quoting poetry they would not understand". Gabriel does not want these people, his family, to see him as conceited or acting as if his superior education is above them. However, it is with Gretta that Gabriel is able to exude his true emotions and it is also here that he his lack of confidence in himself is portrayed.
It appears that Gretta was the one person who fully understood him. His mother gave him an education and a lifestyle that allowed him to become the seemingly influential person that he is, but it appears that Gretta brought out something in him that was rarely shown. However, once she tells him about her previous love, a boy "who died for her", Gabriel becomes instantly defensive. I think he begins to wonder if he was second best, if the boy had lived, would she have chosen him?
People die and affect the lives of those living, but life has to go on. This makes me wonder if by "the dead" Joyce did not solely mean the loss of life, but possibly the loss of a will to live. It seems that Gretta saved Gabriel from a life under his mother's control. The fact that he became so angry and so worried that he might lose her to this man in Galway, indicates that he might be in fear of losing someone who keeps him living.

The Dead

The last five paragraphs of “The Dead” are a humongous shift in tone and narrative compared to the rest of Joyce’s story. The preceding pages deal mainly with superficial and everyday happenings of close friends and family and do not touch upon things like the “soul, “shades”, and “death,” that are found towards the end of the story. This shift from a mundane and neutral tone to a dark and death obsessed one is the most compelling aspect of this short story.

Epiphanies are commonly used by Joyce to give his short stories greater meaning and mysteriousness. These epiphanies are usually found towards the end of the story and completely change the reader’s feelings and conclusions about its meaning. In “The Dead” Joyce once again employs this tool to express the inner nature of the character Gabriel. Until the final pages of the story the readers learn little about the character of Gabriel; we know that he is a great orator, loves his family, and has a slight aversion to Ireland (revealed when Mrs. Ivor asks him to accompany her to Galway.) Besides these things the narration gives us little information about the true nature of Gabriel. When Gabriel’s wife, Gretta, tells Gabriel about Michael Furey and his death and passionate love for her, Gabriel has an epiphany about death and his life as a whole. He discovers that he has never experienced love in the way that Michael and Gretta did and suddenly Gretta seems like a stranger after years and years of marriage. He envies Michael for dying at a time when his life actually meant something and “shivers” at the thought of death at an old age. The intensity of passion and love that is present in Gretta’s story causes Gabriel to reflect upon his fading identity and the closing in of death. One of the most interesting sentences of the final paragraph of the dead is, “The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward.” This sentence comes after Gabriel describes the dullness of his life and the disillusionment he has about his marriage. Gabriel is having what we call in America “A mid-life crisis,” the past 40 years are flashing before his eyes and he is questioning whether he has actually accomplished anything that he set out to accomplish. Instead of buying a sports car Gabriel wants to journey westward, most likely America, where he can rekindle his life. Gabriel feels bogged down by the nationalism and the overall emphasis on the past that is present in Ireland and wishes to escape all of this by traveling westward; this can be seen in the final paragraph where he is describing the snow falling upon the graves of his dead countrymen.

Superior to the Irish?!

A passage that I find uniquely interessting is on page 145. The narrator is talking about Gabriel "He would only make himself ridiculous by quoting poetry to them which they could not understand. They would think he was airing his superior education".

When I read this story, the first thing I thought about was reading this story as a Marxist and looking at the class structure. This quote declare that even around the upper class, such as Miss Ivors who is undoubtedly a nationalist, Gabriel see's himself as better than them. But it is not just the people who are at that party, but he see's himself better than all Irish folk. Other clues that points to this is even the way he view his aunts. They are regarded as having no class, but that is only in comparison to himself. Also, the conversation with Miss Ivors shows him having little or no respect for the Irish at all.

I believe James Joyce showed this very well by the language and techniques he uses to describe Gabriels situation. First, he sets Gabriel u for an encounter with the maid. His assertiveness with the maid lets the reader see that Gabriel just does't fit in with that crowd. Nearly everyone Gabriel encounters, he says something offensive and/or rude. When Gabriel gives his toast at the dinner table, the sophisticated language that used gives the reader the sense that he is trying to make u for all his past encounters.

Altogether, I get the sense that Gabriel does want to fit in and be regarded to as Irish. On page 152, when Ms. Ivors calls him a ' West Briton', Gabriel doesn't believe that that actually makes him a West Briton simply because he writes for 'The Daily Express'. Though he wants to fit in, Gabriel does not want to live as the stereotypical Irishman.

First Blog Posting

Hi everyone.

For your first blog posting, I'd like you to focus on Joyce's "THE DEAD." Choose a passage from the story and write about--in terms of language, theme, character, description/detail. Or compare it to the other stories we've talked about in class. What questions do you have? Try to work through these questions or ideas about the story in your posting.

WELCOME STUDENTS!

Hi everyone, and welcome to LHSP 230.003: Ireland and America. We'll be talking in the first few weeks about the course objectives, assignments, readings, and of course the trip at the beginning of May. Here are just a few details: We'll be leaving for Dublin on May 2, spending about a week in Dublin, living in small apartments in the city centre. Then we head out to Galway and Inismean, one of the smaller and less traveled of the Aran Islands, for a few days. While in Dublin we'll hear guest lectures and readings, see films and theatre events, and you will work on research for your final project.