How Is Gabriel Presented In The Dead By James Joyce

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In the short story “The Dead” by James Joyce, it presents an insight into the character of Gabriel through imagery, motif, and diction as he watches his wife sleep. The author presents Gabriel as an insecure character to the audience. Also, the author uses literary techniques to present the different aspects of Gabriel’s character.
First of all, since the beginning, the author presents imagery with the title “The Dead. As a result, we can figure a loss, but from who or what? For example, in the first paragraph from line one to five, the author is describing how Gabriel is looking over his wife while she is asleep. We know Gabriel is detached from his wife as he just watches his wife “half-open mouth” and “listens” to her “deep drawn breath.” Here we can sense a death bed from Gabriel’s wife. This imagery shows us how even though their relationship is not in good terms, he still cares for her. Gabriel moves from the past to the future. He becomes aware of the change in his relationship with his wife and his own. This is seen with the “one boot stood upright” and the other is “fallen down”, this imagery represents the relationship between Gabriel and his wife. Later on, Gabriel is insecure as he mentions he is troubled by his “riot of emotions”. All these images foreshadow and emphasize that there is a …show more content…

At first, he is in the present as he gazes over his wife while she sleeps. We, the readers are following Gabriel through time, as for how he experienced his life events from the past. We spend a “few moments” with him as he describes his wife past relationship and how “it doesn’t pain him” anymore. He thinks of the what “had had happened”, her “old beauty” since she aged she is no longer pretty as she once was. So, he does not worry. Later, we jump into the future as he foreshadows Poor Aunt Julias death! His emotions are all over the

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