The Dead By James Joyce Literary Devices

The fragment, taken from “The Dead”, describes how Gabriel, after having an enlightening conversation with his wife, starts crying generously. He concludes that, as he had never cried or felt in that way, he should truly love his wife. His eyes are full of tears and that creates a limited sight, which makes that in the dark, he sees something resembling the shape of a young man under a tree and other human shades. He feels that his identity is disappearing as well as the world in which the dead ones used to live.

As for the language used in the fragment, the word “generous”, which generally refers to give or share, has the intention to explain how deep Gabriel´s sorrow was, for his tears were copious and covered his eyes. This is reinforced

He defends those traditions because in certain way, they represent what is considered good and decent, they are a prove of education and social status; but at the same time, they are an attempt to be accepted as part of English society and are a simple and effective way to avoid reality and the political and social problems that are present. Secondly, Ireland´s fight for independence revivals nationalism and with it, sense of belonging and identity is renewed. These political and social struggles, are reflected in the paragraph with Gabriel´s awareness of changes that collapse his world and that are symbolized through the unusual snow falling in the country and the sudden presence of shadows. He realizes that life is not what he wanted to believe, there are events and feelings that he cannot understand but that will transform him internally.

After reading the story, we realize that awakening from the long deep dream of old believes and misconceptions mean to destroy and reconstruct, and in the fragment above, the author shows how devastating this awakening to a new reality may be. How to get consciousness and discover unknown feelings and reality can be painful, and how this process can change a person´s conceptions and his very