The Dead: A Psychological Perspective James Joyce’s “The Dead” can be interpreted form a psychological perspective that focuses on the impact of the cognitive and subconscious influences that impacted the content of Joyce’s work. In analyzing “The Dead” from this psychological perspective, there are insights that reveal how confused, disturbed, insecure, and troubled Joyce was in his personal life. The first article is by Coen and is entitled “What Will Become of Epiphanies? A Psychoanalytic Reading of James Joyce’s ‘The Dead.’” One of the more interesting points that was made in this article was that Coen describes how there are elements being juxtaposed against one another in Joyce’s story. These contrasting elements represent death and life. One example of this contrast between life and death was where Joyce wrote, “The morning was still dark. A dull yellow light brooded over the houses and the river and the sky seemed to be descending” (Joyce). This description uses all dark and dull matter to symbolize death. The morning sky, which could be described as brilliant specks of color trying to break through the early morning dark sky, were instead simply referred to as dark. Then, right after this description, Joyce’s entire mood and writing style changed. He wrote, “…Gabriel’s eyes were…bright with happiness. The blood went bounding along his veins and the thoughts were rioting through his brain, proud, joyful, tender, valorour…” (Joyce). This excerpt is full of descriptive words that are used to show how passionate Joyce felt about describing and portraying Gabriel during this scene.
The second article is by Monterrey and is entitled “Framed Images as Counterpoints in James Joyce’s ‘The Dead.’” There are various similarities between this article and the one by Coen that was previously described. One of the biggest similarities is the focus on the emphasis of inner conflicts in the psychological interpretation of the work. Although there were hints, as described by Monterrey, of Joyce’s insecurity in the conflicts, there was a more significant contradiction that was highlighted. This point is different than the ones made by Coen. For Monterrey, there is a major contradiction in the setting of Ireland. He wrote, “…his [Joyce] conception of Dublin as a centre of paralysis had been counterbalanced by his acknowledgement of certain Irish virtues – hospitality in particular – of which he could not see much on the continent” (Monterrey 63).
The third article is by Rendall, and it is entitled “Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ and the Midlife Crisis.” The main point made in this article, similar to the points made in the first two articles described above, is that there were internal conflicts that existed and with which Gabriel struggled. One of the more interesting points that was made, which was not made in the previous articles is that Gabriel was going through a midlife crisis, which also means that Joyce himself was going through one. The way that this crisis could be explained or highlighted is in the fact that Gabriel’s age is never mentioned. Instead, he is only referred to as a young man. This omission creates a sense of ambiguity, and it also allows the readers to picture Gabriel as they so please. By never stating his age, Gabriel could be viewed as a younger man. But, if his actual age were stated, it may be hard for readers and for Gabriel himself to see him as a young man, no matter how youthful he appeared (Rendall 262).
The fourth article is by Ryan and is entitled “I’m Sick of My Own Country: Ethics and Aesthetics in James Joyce’s ‘The Dead.’” The focus in this article is not on the insecurities that plagued both Gabriel and Joyce’s lives. Instead, it is on how Joyce viewed Ireland. This point is similar to the one made by Monterrey that Joyce did not feel any hospitality or love from a land that was supposed prided on it (Ryan 166).
Joyce’s ability to simply transition from one concept to a completely different and opposite one gives a bit of insight as to how he perhaps felt about death. Some scholars have postulated that the internal struggles of the characters were representative of the internal struggles that were going on within Joyce himself (Coen 121). If this were true, there are a few possible psychological motivations behind doing this. One motivation could be that writing about the internal struggles of the characters, which may very well likely have been similar to those he was dealing with, was cathartic for Joyce. In this case, writing about the characters and how they dealt with their struggles may have served as a form of therapy or simply as a platform for Joyce to speak his mind.
It is also possible that Joyce wanted to write about these internal struggles, which again may have been similar to his own, to let his readers know that the internal conflicts they may be dealing with are normal. If this were true, Joyce would be allowing his work to serve as the common ground meeting point for group therapy and support. People can relate to struggles that others are going through if they have had similar experiences or are dealing with some of the same emotions. Although the conflicts may not be the exact same, sometimes just knowing that other people have either been through them or are going through them can motivate people to triumph over them.
Another part of the internal struggles that Joyce could have been writing about in “The Dead” was his extreme insecurity. Some scholars have proposed that “Gabriel’s insecurity, extreme self-consciousness, and discomfort with women” were instead of the focus of “The Dead,” as opposed to the concepts of life and death (Coen 121). From a psychological perspective, this symbolism of internal struggles relating to deeply rooted insecurities in a story called “The Dead” indicates just how strongly the issues affected Joyce. In juxtaposing concepts of life and death, Joyce could be indicating to his readers how his own struggles were coming a matter of life and death. If he were to overcome them, he could freely live the life he had intended to live, but if he could not triumph over them, they would lead his figurative or even literal death.
The contradiction that was highlighted in the works by Monterrey and Ryan held a great amount of significance as well. This contradiction revolved around Joyce knowing that Irish virtues include hospitality, yet he saw or experienced none in Dublin (Monterrey 63). This is representative of how Joyce felt in his own life. In areas of life, such as family and relationships, that were supposed to feel warm and welcoming, Joyce experienced tension and uneasiness. What this indicates is that Joyce was terribly uncomfortable in his own skin, living in his own world of insecurity where he was too afraid to connect with anyone. The lack of hospitality that he felt from others made Joyce feel isolated, thus putting him into his own evil cycle of life and death.
Aside from the conflicts that were present in all of the articles, there was the point made by Rendall about Gabriel being in a midlife crisis. This likely represents the notion that Joyce did not feel as old as his age indicated. This could perhaps, from a psychological perspective, be because he had deprived himself of many of life’s activities, events, and interactions because of his own insecurities. Therefore, he had a lot of life that he did not live, which again could represent a figurative living death, and this is why he is refusing to acknowledge how old he actually is.
Works Cited
Coen, Stanley J. “What Will Become of Epiphanies? A Psychoanalytic Reading of James Joyce’s ‘The Dead.’” Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 2 2000: 119-128. Print.
Joyce, James. “The Dead” Norton Critical Edition of Joyce’s Dubliners. 2006: 2276-2313
Monterrey, Tomas. “Framed Images as Counterpoints in James Joyce’s ‘The Dead.’” Atlantis Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies 33 2001: 61-74. Print.
Rendall, Thomas. “Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ and the Midlife Crisis.” Joyce Studies Annual 8 2011: 262-271. Print.
Ryan, Barry. “I’m Sick of My Own Country: Ethics and Aesthetics in James Joyce’s The Dead.” Nordic Journal of English Studies 29 2012: 166-188.