The Dead Joyce Analysis

Amongst James Joyce’s illustrious words in “The Dead”, Gabriel acquires a self realization about the life and marriage he partakes in. Gabriel, who felt distance between the place he had lived, Dublin, as well as distance in his marriage, still managed to enclose himself securely in both and was not leaving permanently anytime soon. Separation became apparent in Joyce’s form of a euphemism, while depicting his wife, whom he did not recognize at first as a painting Gabriel would name, “Distant Music” (182). Music and hymns throughout the short story, in which Gabriel felt little connection with, symbolize the separation and distance Gabriel kept with the world he enclosed himself in. Words used, define the knowledge Gabriel obtained regarding the beauty of his wife, however, he never learned her

When Gabriel mentions his yearning to leave Ireland, others such as Miss Ivors protest the matter, which, although complicated, parallels his marriage; longing to leave but already grew with it. Joyce’s words perceive Gabriel as a man of acceptance, considering he acknowledges the distance, yet stays because he feels trapped by “snow…all over Ireland” (194), with snow symbolizing his marriage and other constraining artifacts in life. At the party, Gabriel saw but did not recognize his wife, he could not connect with her emotionally. Many have found their profound love with Ireland effortlessly and many have found love with their significant other painlessly. However, both him and his wife and tied to each other, in an endless cycle of lust for one another and lust for something or someone far away, such as the young boy who died for his wife’s sake and the rest of the world left untraveled. By thinking about the snow which enclosed him and his wife in the hotel, he feels cemented and fastened in his marriage with his wife, just like his feelings towards living in