“The Dead” In James Joyce’s short story “The Dead” we notice how not living life to its fullest potential can be detrimental to a persons self esteem. The title contributes to this revelation by setting a strong focus on death and mortality, which serves as a constant reminder throughout the story. Joyce chooses to reveal this to us in forms of motifs of music to structure the story, and with this use of musical references the meaning of the story comes out in so many different ways creating a melody, thereby binding the music, and story together. Joyce uses the main character Gabriel to reveal to us the overall reoccurring theme, and how emotionally dead these characters are which leads up to Gabriel’s epiphany at the end of the story. With a title like “The Dead” we imagine that it is going to take place in some gloomy place, like a graveyard. However, to our surprise the story opens up to a Christmas party in which Mr. & Mrs. Conroy, Gabriel and Gretta, are invited to attend. We do not get the feeling of gloom or death, but more of a warm inviting environment. However, with the progression of the story the focus shifts towards the isolation and insecurities that Gabriel is exemplifying. We first see this taking place when he is questioning himself about his speech that he is planning on giving later on in the night. Gabriel is wondering whether or not to quote Robert Browning because he “fears they would be above the heads of his hearers.” (2174) He feels it better to quote “Shakespeare or from the Melodies would be better.” (2174) It seems relevant that we read this within the first pages of the story, because the Irish Melodies he mentions were “extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th century.”(2174) These collections of songs by Thomas Moore included one called “O Ye Dead.” Even though Joyce does not mention Thomas Moore directly in the story line, it is implied by our footnotes as though Joyce acknowledges the relevancy, and he places it there intentionally to continue on with the plot of the story. The theme of mortality and “The Dead” are constantly reinforced throughout the entire story, with Gabriel making jokes with his aunts by telling them that his wife had “taken three mortal hours to dress herself.” (2173) His aunts constantly claim to love him the most out of all their nephews because he is their dead elder sister’s son. We start to see how Joyce is setting the tone, and how Gabriel’s “emotional sterile” attitude towards his wife progresses. We also start to notice how Joyce keeps repeating the imagery of falling snow, to keep reminding us to pay attention because, this will add to the musical motifs later on in the story.
The story line continues, and the niece of Kate and Julia Morkan, Gabriel’s aunts, Mary Jane “was playing her Academy piece.” (2178) Gabriel in the same room could not bear to listen to her play the piano because “the only person who seemed to follow the music was Mary Jane herself.” (2178) Gabriel trying to distract himself from the awful music notices a picture above the piano “of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet” (2178) who we all know from Shakespeare’s play that Romeo and Juliet both die for love. Joyce places that there for us because later on in the story we come to find out that Gretta’s childhood sweetheart did the same for her. These images serve as constant reminders that the shadow of death is always lingering in the background, and you don’t have to look that hard to find it.
The characters now having dinner are discussing opera, and coincidentally enough there happens to be an opera singer sitting at the diner table with them. D’ Arcy, a tenor. They discuss two operas over dinner Mignon, one of Mary Jane’s “pupils had given her a pass” (2185) to see, and Dinorah, Lucrezia Borgia. Joyce places these opera’s intentionally because they are foreshadowing what is to come between Gabriel and Gretta, almost as though these two characters are part of the opera themselves.
The plot thickens with another reference to a song that is relevant to the story line “The Lass of Aughrim.”(2193) Gretta hears the tenor D’Arcy singing it. However it’s the way he sings it with his “hoarseness, faintly illuminated the cadence of the air with words expressing grief:
O, the rain falls on my heavy lock
And the dew wets my skin,
My babe lies cold… It strikes up an emotion that Gretta has been burring for so long, and ones that Gabriel has never seen before. The lyrics to the song are strikingly similar to the image of Michael Furey, Gretta’s childhood sweetheart, and how he died in the rain for her so long ago. Gretta now is put in a position where she tells Gabriel about her love affair with Michael, and how her love for him is still as strong as it was when he was alive. Gabriel realizes that “a man had died for her sake… to think how poor a part he, her husband, had played in her life.” (2198) Joyce makes us wonder if Gretta feels the way Gabriel feels about his wife. He leaves us questioning how their relationship will continue on after this. We end the story of the snow falling all over Ireland, and over the graveyard “where Michael Furey lay buried.” (2199) As Gabriel drifts off to sleep, “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe, like descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” (2199) In conclusion, Joyce’s use of musical references created a deeper meaning for this story. The images in this story add to the drama and melody that a good song would do to us. In the last paragraph Joyce’s use of darker words, set up for a very depressing ending, very different from the Christmas party that they had just attended earlier in the night. We can now see how the darkness and isolation has completely overwhelmed Gabriel and “The Dead” have once again left their mark on the living.