The Dead versus The Living

“The Dead” is the last story in the collection of short stories in the book ‘Dubliners’ by James Joyce. The story takes place over the course of a night, more specifically, during an annual dinner party hosted by the three Misses Morkans. The story centers around the Morkan’s favorite nephew Gabriel Conroy and his social interaction and insecurities.

Joyce explores a number of themes in “The Dead”- like class distinction, the Irish nationality, betrayal, paralysis etc—however, the main theme is one that explores the question of mortality and the relationship between the living and the dead and therefore the past and the present.

One can say that in “The Dead” the relationship between the living and the dead is analogous to the two sides of a coin, or to put it in a slightly different way, its an intimate relationship in the sense that it is very fluid—and reversible. The difference between the living and the dead is life and the lack of life, however, if one were to go deeper into that difference, death can also be seen as paralysis—whereas life is characterized by constant change. This is why the relationship between the dead and the living is reversible in the story, because the characters are in a state of paralysis in the book (which is also one of the themes that Joyce explores). The Morkans host the same dinner party every year, where the same people come, where Freddie Malins always comes under influence—the characters are stuck in a rut of inaction and numbness where nothing ever changes- and so though they are not literally dead, the inaction in their life is as close to dying without the actual act of death. On the other hand, the dead in the story—Michael Furey, Mrs. Conroy’s past romantic interest, lives through her memory of him. In fact, in a epiphany, Gabriel Conroy comes to the rather painful realization that Michael Furey had been more alive than he ever was because, “he [Gabriel] had never felt like that himself towards any woman, but he knew that such a feeling must be love” and hence it was “better  [to] pass boldly into that other world, in full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age” (Joyce, 152). The idea behind this realization is that life is short and its even shorter when one thinks about the dangers of falling into a rut.

Joyce was able to explore this theme very well, due to the fact that the story was written in third person narrative. So, though majority of the story focused on Gabriel Conroy, Joyce was still able to step away from the protagonist—for example, the story begins with Lilly (the help), “Lilly the caretakers daughter, was literally run off her feet,” (Joyce, 119)— for long enough so that the reader could read between the lines and explore the theme himself.

Therefore what I took from my reading of “The Dead” was that the technique one uses (first, second or third person) has a strong influence on the narrative, and on translating the idea or the theme behind the piece for the reader.

-Smriti Bansal

Works Cited

Joyce, James. "The Dead." Dubliners. New York: Dover Publications, n.d. 119-52. Print.