Although a scene of a funeral home might come to mind when a reader first hears a short story aptly named “The Dead,” the tale actually takes place in the festive setting of a winter dance at the home of the two aunts of the main character, Gabriel Conroy. James Joyce’s short story “The Dead” has a literal title, because its main concept is death – both physical death and spiritual death.
Gabriel Conroy and his wife, Gretta Conroy, attend a party held by Gabriel’s aunts, Kate Morkan and Julia Morkan. The mood of the party is intentionally festive. It’s an annual event – “the Misses Morkan’s annual dance” (1227). But parts of the evening turn out to be quite nostalgic. The nostalgia comes from certain guests attending the party who are reminiscing about the past. Most of the people discussed in the story from the past are now dead at the time of party, so nostalgia gives way to considerations of the dead, thus emphasizing the theme of death prevalent throughout the rest of the story. Gabriel is Kate and Julia’s favorite nephew because he is the son of their dead sister, Ellen (1229). Another deceased family member, the “late lamented Patrick Morkan” is also mentioned (1241). Not only is there mention of people who have already died, but there is also mention of people who are soon to die. Past deaths and future deaths both resound in the story. Gabriel thinks that his Aunt Julia “would soon be a shade with the shade of Patrick Morkan and his horse” meaning that she is very near death, since Patrick Morkan and his horse are deceased (1248).
The language that Joyce chooses to use in the story is also vastly symbolic of mortality. Certain phrases and words are used throughout the story to emphasize death. Gabriel tells his aunts...
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...f some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age” (1248).
The story ends with death intermingling with life. Snow is falling over the houses and over the graveyard where Michael is buried (1248). The image of snow falling over the houses of the characters in the story, as well as over the graveyard (which is basically the houses of dead people, such as Michael, because it is where their bodies are laid to rest), connects life and death into one central theme. “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead” (1248). Gabriel finally realizes that one cannot avoid death.
Works Cited
Joyce, James. "The Dead." The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. By Joseph Laurence Black.
Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2007. 1227-1248. Print.
The presence of death in the novel looms over the characters, making each of them reflect on the
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