Group Presentation

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Group Presentation Cherry, Rita,
Grace, Sally and Betty 2002/11/20
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SUMMARY and STRUCTURE
Narrative Point of View 3rd person point of view
(omniscient) Summary I.        The first part in
a Christmas party One night around Christmas
time, Gabriel Conroy goes with his wife Gretta to
the Christmas party held at the home of the
Misses Morkan his aunts, Kate and Julia, and
their niece, Mary Jane. A piano plays in a
parlor full of dancing couples. Gabriel tells
his aunts that on account of the cold, he and
Gretta will be staying in a hotel nearby rather
than returning home that night. The group
assembles to listen to Mary Jane play a difficult
piano piece, and Gabriels mind wanders to his
mother, who had opposed his marriage and
described Gretta as country cute. Gabriel
remembers how Gretta nursed his mother through
her long and ultimately fatal illness.
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SUMMARY
The group pairs off for dancing. Gabriel finds
himself with a young woman named Miss Ivors, who
becomes cross with him because he writes reviews
for The Daily Express. An Irish Revivalist, she
asks sharply if he is a West Briton then, she
seems to be joking. Gabriel is baffled and
reflects that hes never had any trouble with
Miss Ivors before. Old Aunt Julia sings a song,
and the crowd assembles for dinner. Gabriel
finally takes a break from carving in order to
eat, and the table discusses the state of
operatic tenors in Ireland. After the pudding,
Gabriel gives a long speech on the topic of Irish
hospitality and the generosity of times gone by.
II. The second part Gabriel and Gretta are on
their ways to hotel The hour is late the party
is breaking up. Gabriel and Gretta linger, he
tells a story about Patrick Morkan, his
grandfather, and his horse Johnny. At last,
Gabriel and Gretta leave, walking through the
cold to their hotel.
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SUMMARY
Gabriel is full of joy and happiness about his
wife as he looks at her, he begins to think of
scenes from their private life together. They
finally find a cab, which takes them to their
hotel. Gabriel begins to feel stirrings of
desire as he thinks about Gretta he imagines how
he will call her to him when they are alone in
their room. III.   The third part in the hotel
room In the room, Gretta seems tired and somewhat
sad. Gabriel questions her, and she at last
confides in him that after she heard a song
played at the party, it reminded her of the
memory that when shes still a girl living in
Connacht, she was in love with a boy named
Michael Furey, a seventeen year old singer who
died of consumption after waiting for her in the
rain as she prepared to leave for a Dublin
convent. The song triggered the memory of the
young lad for her, and it torments Gabriel with
jealousy that she had a love before him and
Michael still lives in her mind.
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SUMMARY
Gretta begins to sob, and Gabriel is overcome
with humiliation and shame. While he was
complacent with his wife and desiring her, Gretta
was remembering another man with whom she had
truly been in love. Gabriel imagines himself as
foolish and clownish person he tries
halfheartedly to comfort Gretta, then lets her
hand fall and walks to the window. Later, Gretta
is fast asleep. Gabriel looks at her and thinks
about her past romance, feeling what a poor part
he himself has actually played in her life. He
thinks that her face is no longer the face for
which Michael Furey was willing to die. Gabriel
thinks of the dead lad and thinks that his two
aunts will soon also be dead. In the silence of
the room, he begins to go over the events of the
evening, and so, he begins to see the night for
what it was From his aunts supper, from his
own foolish speech, from the wine and dancing,
the merry-making. The relationship between sex
and death becomes quite clear.
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SUMMARY
Tears fill his eyes he feels as though the
solid world is evaporating around him, and he is
conscious of the flickering forms of the dead.
Gabriel looks out the window and sees snow
falling softly in the night. He thinks about the
snow falling all over Ireland, piling up over the
cemetery where Michael Furey lays buried. He
climbs into bed, and his soul swoons as he hears
the snow falling faintly throughout the universe,
falling upon all the living and the dead
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The Background of this Writing
Compare with the Lost Generation in American
Literature in its narrative techniques, tone and
style For example F. Scott Fitzgeralds Babylon
Revisited and Ernest Hemingways The Snows of
Kilimanjaro
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CHARACTERS
Main character Gabriel Conroy The main character
in "The Dead" and the most important character in
Dubliners. egotist the coin
he gives to Lily
dislike of the piano sound played by Mary
Jane emptiness his relationship with Gretta
and others Gabriel and James Joyce share some
characteristics, and Joyce may well be presenting
us with a picture of what he and his life would
have been like had he remained in Dublin.
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CHARACTERS
Minor Characters Gretta Gabriels wife. As
noted earlier, Joyce gives Gretta some of the
characteristics of his wife Nora, particularly
Nora's origins in the West of Ireland as well as
her strength and determination.   Michael Fury
He is the dead love of Gretta. His role is
significant in that his love for Gretta can never
be matched by Gabriel, Gretta's husband. Before
learning about Michael, Gabriel describes his
marriage to Gretta as "years of...dull existence
together." However, learning about Michael only
emphasizes part of Gretta that is dead. Gabriel
can never relive what she had with Michael.
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CHARACTERS
Bartell D'Arcy The tenor. He played the song
called "The Lass of Aughrim". This song was
significant in that it reminded Gretta of her
relationship with Michael. Without this song, the
memories that Gretta has of Michael would not
have been rekindled.   Molly Ivors Party guest.
Miss Ivors is an earnest nationalist. She
challenges Gabriel's Irish identity and heritage.
She accuses him of being a "West Britton" rather
than Irish. The accusation she makes upsets
Gabriel greatly, although he knows it's the
truth. This loss of pride and denial of his own
heritage is just another aspect of Gabriel that
is dead. Kate and Julia Morkan Hosts of the
Annual Morkan dance. Aunts of Gabriel. They are
important because they are symbolic of a dead
generation. They hold on to their old traditions
of the annual dance, appreciation of music and
the arts. However, they have the tradition and
culture that Gabriel lacks and definitely never
appreciates. Gabriel needs to revive this
precious part in his heart so that he will know
what identity he has and who he is.
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CHARACTERS
Johnny the Horse is mentioned in a story told
mockingly by Gabriel in which Johnny the Horse,
lonely and confused, circles a statue of King
Billy. The story is significant because by
circling the statue, Johnny is showing
recognition and attachment to the past. Gabriel,
however, cannot understand it because this part
of him is dead. Mary Jane Niece of Kate and
Julia Morkan. She comments on the monks and the
coffins by saying, The coffin is to remind them
of their last end. This statement is rather
gloomy, yet helps to set a dark tone for the
party. Ellen Morgan She is the dead mother of
Gabriel. Her picture still hangs in the Morgan's
home as a reminder or another presence of death  
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CHARACTERS
Freddy Malins Party guest. He is a drunkard.
His presence is a reminder of all that is lost
and confused. In his state, he is like a walking
dead.   Parkinson He is a dead tenor that Miss
Kate brings up in conversation. He is another
mentioning of a dead character. He is part of the
old generation of singers that are lost with
time. The idea of the old generation being
forgotten and dead is being reinforced.
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IMAGERY OF NAMES

• Lily-- In choosing this name Joyce wants the
  reader to make the associations that the flower
  has  with
• 1) death (it is frequently used at funerals)
• 2)the Archangel Gabriel (it is symbolic of the
   this guardian of the gates of death) and
• 3) Easter,and thus with rebirth. The reader will
  want  to decide whether or not there is a rebirth
  at the end of this story.
• Gabriel-- In the Bible, one of the archangels.
  In the New Testament he revealed to Zechariah the
  coming birth of John the Baptist and appeared to
  Mary in the Annunciation to tell her she was to
  be the  mother of Jesus. In Christian tradition
  it is believed that he will blow the trumpet on
  Judgment  Day. Gabriel represents fire, is
  called the prince of fire, and associated with
  gold.

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IMAGERY OF NAMES

• Michael represents the element water, is called
  the prince of snow, and is associated with
  silver. Michael is primarily the angel of the
  Last Judgment and Gabriel of the Annunciation.
• Mr. Browne-- In Dublin, Browne is a distinctly
  protestant name.
• Romeo and Juliet The reference to the picture
  of the balcony scene in Shakespeare's Romeo and
  Juliet is prophetic it foreshadows the scene
  Gretta will recount to Gabriel of Michael Furey
  standing  below her window.
• The two murdered princes in the tower--Richard
  III, king of England form 1483-1485, may have
  been responsible for the murder of his  two
  nephews in order to protect his ascension to the
  throne.

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IMAGERY OF NAMES

• West Briton--A pejorative term for one who denies
  a separate Irish nationality and sees Ireland as
  simply a  western extension of Great Britain.
• Paris--Son of Priam, King of Troy, and his wife
  Hecuba. Paris had been exposed on a
  mountainside as an  infant because his mother had
  a dream that he would be the cause of the
  destruction of Troy. Pariss seduction of Helen
  causes the Trojan war and eventually brings the
  ruin of Troy.

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SYMBOLS
Ø  The Title The Dead Ø   Setting Around
Christmas time Place Ushers Island.  
Music Each performance reveals the
performers inner emotions and feelings.  The
performance itself is as a contrast to the state
of the performer.  
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EX. Arrayed For the
Bridal Arrayed for the bridal, in beauty behold
her A white wreath entwineth a forehead more
fair I envy the zeohyrs that softly enfold her

enfold her And play with the locks of
her beautiful hair May life to her prove full of
sunshine and love
full of love yes! yes!
yes! Who would not love her Sweet star of the
morning! Shining so bright! Earth9s circle
adorning, fair creature of light
fair creature of
light
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SYMBOLS

• Paintings
• Two Princes in the Tower Silent Death
• Romeo and Juliet--Passionate Love
• Phrases----
• these monks sleep in their coffins /
  accepted the glass mechanically..which is the
  underlying theme of death.
• Terms
• Michaels coffin
• Windows
• Snow Image----Death or Rebirth

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Paintings of Romeo and Juliet
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THEME

• The dead v.s. the living

• The living dead
• Fixed in the past
• Gabriels aunts
• Grettas attachment of past romance
• 2. Emotionally dead? lack of love
• Gabriel

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THEME

• Humans shallowness
• Lilys opinion toward men (p. 2242, first line)
• Mrs. Malin does not confront her drunk son
• Kate and Mary Janes argument of popes authority
  .
• Guests shallowness ( p. 2247 line17 from the
  top)
• The impalpable alienation among the guests.

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THEME

• Egotism
• Gabriels egotism
• Pride v.s. Love ( p. 2267, line 11 from the
  bottom)
• Formality and Ritual
• Dance of the Morkans
• Mary Janes academy piece.
• The monk sleeping in coffins. (p. 2255 at the
  bottom)

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THEME

• Gabriels Self-revelation epiphany
• Revelation of his shallowness, deadness and
  egotism
• ( from the bottom of p. 2267 to the end. )
• His rediscovery of self
• ( p. 2268, line 10 from the bottom )
• Acceptance of life and death
• ( p. 2268, last sentence )

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References
Tindall, William. A Readers Guide to James
Joyce. The Noonday Press. New York
Farrar, Straus Giroux 1959. Ryf, Robert S. A
New Approach to Joyce. Berkeley and Los
Angeles University of California
Press, 1966. www.sparknote.com
www.stg.brown.edu/org/WWD/WWDdead