Conflict In The Dead By James Joyce

This literary study will analyze the conflict of intercultural values that are found within the modernist and traditionalist views represented in these two stories by William Faulkner and James Joyce. The evolving conflict of traditional values versus modern values found in early 20th century Dublin reveals the often pompous and closed society that exists within the microcosm of family life. Joyce’s main character Gabriel is a character that must face this traditional and often stuffy type of Dublin aristocracy, as her tries to reinvent himself as the modern man. This type of ‘death” in traditional values is also part of the familial conflict that Emily must also face as a Southern woman facing the defeat of the South and the modern Northern society that takes away her traditional role as a prominent leader in plantation society. In essence, these two stories similarly represent the intercultural conflict of traditionalist and modernist societies that Emily and Gabriel must face in ever-shifting cultural values they affect their immediate social environment.

In Joyce’s “The Dead”, the conflict between traditionalist Irish values of a traditional aristocracy often clashes with the youthful modernist perspective of Gabriel, the main character in this

Brown. He not only shows the typical aristocratic air that is pompous, but reflects the admiration that the ladies have for him when they gather around for a drink. In this manner, Joyce is clever in showing the traditional behaviors, which make it clear that all is not as happy as it might seem, but is really a series of events that teach us about the boring behaviors these people present. When drinks are to be served to Aunts and ladies of the party, reflecting Gabriel’s irritated observations of traditional life aggravate him a great deal in Mr. Brown’s