The Dead

The Dead

  • Submitted By: brichar6
  • Date Submitted: 12/03/2008 9:51 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1272
  • Page: 6
  • Views: 1

In the short story "The Dead", James Joyce writes about a fictional character named Gabriel. At first it seems like Joyce creates a character that is more of a shell of a person rather than a whole complete man because Gabriel is originally portrayed by Joyce as a stereotypical Irish elitist. However, Gabriel is not a stereotypical Irish Elitist, and while it seems like Gabriel is a flat character, the more you examine him, the more apparent it becomes that he is actually a deep character.
From the first description of Gabrielle, he is portrayed as a stuffy, uptight, stout, rich Irishman. Gabriel starts off his night by complaining as soon as he walks in the door as well as belittling his wife when she chastises him for forcing her to wear galoshes and for his overbearing parenting. Even by this brief intro, Gabrielle is automatically portrayed as nothing more than a stereotypical egotistical elitist. Gabriel thinks that he is so superior to the guests at the party, that he can not even enjoy the music or the company of the people he is around because he is constantly internalizing the fact that he is smarter than the guests. The whole night he is preoccupied with trying to impress people that he assigns no value to. Gabriel thinks that the guests are so stupid that during his grand speech, he does not even have the hospitality to be genuine with the guests and instead degrades them by presenting a speech that is filled with fake spontaneity. Immediately James Joyce paints a picture of Gabriel that makes Gabriel look like the most stereotypical boring Irishman who has no regard for anyone he comes in contact with.
The first time in the story where the reader's original assumptions about Gabriel are removed is when Lily follows Gabriel into the pantry in order to help him remove his overcoat. Gabriel attempts to make small talk with Lily in order to show her that he cares about her and while doing so, he offends her by indirectly asking when she...

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