the dead

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Recommended: Love in victorian literature

The story “The Dead” by James Joyce is about the Christmas party, thrown by the Morkan sisters. But it is mostly about love, lost love and incapability to forget those who have been loved and lost. “He longed to recall to her those moments, to make her forget the years 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” (145). The relationship between Gabriel and Gretta is just one of the conflicts in this story. His selfishness and focusing on himself makes Gabriel blindness as ignorance of Gretta’s past life.
Aunts Kate and Julia Morkan threw a Christmas dance and dinner party. They invited a variety of relatives and friends. The housemaid Lily was anxiously greeting guests. Aunts could not anticipate for the arrival of their favorite nephew, Gabriel, and Gretta. As they arrive, Gabriel tries to talk with housemaid Lily about her love live, but she snaps in answering to his question. Later he joins his aunts and Gretta. Gretta and Gabriel discuss their decision to stay at a hotel after they leave the house. The arrival of drunk Freddy Malins disrupts the conversation. Gabriel takes care of Freddy, so he can join the party while other guests are chatting and dancing. The party continues with a piano performance by Mary Jane. After the performance they start to dance and Gabriel pairs up with Miss Ivors. Just before dinner, Julia sings a song for the guests. The dinner is ready and Gabriel sits at the head of the table to slice the goose. After nagging, everyone start eat, and Gabriel delivers his speech, in which he compliments Kate, Julia, and Mary Jane for their hospitality and talking about this as an Irish strength. Then, he insist...

... middle of paper ...

...Gabriel never asked her about her past loves. “ The smile passed away from Gabriel’s face. A dull anger began to gather again at the back of his mind and the dull fires of his lust began to glow angrily in his veins”(149). After Gretta told Gabriel about Michael Furey, he looks surprised to find out that she was involved with a boy before meeting him. Whit his selfishness he could care about other people too and not focusing just on himself. Gabriel realizes that at the end of the story but it took the dead Michael Furey to teach him this lesson.
The price of settling was reconciled to Gabriel in the end. Both Gretta and Gabriel paid a price of a life without great passions of a lover. Gretta knew the love, while Gabriel realized he had never know that feeling. Could “The Dead” title be a indication to Gretta’s love with someone that was dead instead of the living?

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