"The Dead" is the last of the fifteen stories that constitute the Dubliners, and it

has various characteristics that distinguish it from the others. This book of histories can

be considered as an introduction to its following narrative was written a part in Dublin

and another during his exile at Trieste, where he moved in 1904 with Nora Barnacle, his

woman, whom it had met a few weeks before, with a contract as an English teacher. In

this city, which by its location he was exposed to different European customs, he would

remain more than fifteen years, before definitively establishing itself in Paris.

Joyce intended to present in Dubliners the stages that mark the life of a man and,

by extension, those of Dublin since it was also his intention to represent this city as an

individual. Thus, he presents the stories divided into four groups. "The Sisters," "An

Encounter" and "Araby" make up the first, which tells the boy's childhood and first

contacts in the city. "The Boarding House," "Eveline," "After the Race" represent the

problems of adolescence: the disappointments and frustrations of a young man in the

city.

The vicissitudes through which he passed to maturity are described in "Clay,"

"Counterparts" and "A Painful Case." The fourth group is formed of "Ivy Day in the

Committee Room," "A Mother" and "Grace," which refer to the public life of Dublin

and the maturity of the individual. They also convey a clear sense of failure, ruin, and

annihilation, as well as a veiled critique of politics, art, and religion. Later on, because

of the delays gave by his publisher, he would have time to add two more stories, "A

Little Cloud" and "Two Gallants, to the groups of stories about adolescence and

maturity respectively.

Years later, the writer would complete the collection with "The Dead." Between

the first story, which describes the paralysis and death of a priest, seen through the
sensibility of a child, and the last that leads to death in the title and in what he tells, the

reader is offered the passion that, Parnell, the dead hero, continues to awaken in his

compatriots. An allegory of the state of Ireland after having brought to death its national

hero.

The years that separate the first tale of the last marks a considerable difference in

the mood that motivated them. In a letter addressed to his editor, though the writer

refused to introduce the changes that he had suggested because it would amputate "the

chapter of the moral history of my country" (Ellmann 230), he expressed his determined

intention to initiate with his work a campaign of spiritual liberation. The softening of his

expression, he would say to his editor, would deform the mirror in which he wanted to

see his people reflected, and that would retard the course of civilization in Ireland"

(Ellmann 230).

Years later, when he had written "The Dead," he wrote to his brother Stanislaus

and lamented the overly angry and cynical view of his earlier stories. In the letter to his

brother, who shared much of James' exile and was always at his side during difficult

times, the writer confessed who may not have been quite right with the image of Ireland

that he had created in Dubliners, mainly because it had failed to reflect the physical and

natural appeal of Dublin over other European cities. An intense nostalgia (he had just

returned from Rome, where his attempt to start a new life as a bank employee had

failed, the city had let him down) makes him say that in no other city has he been more

at ease.

Apart from the beauty that was associated in his mind with the memory of his

homeland, he cites two aspects that he thought he had not transmitted properly: I have

reproduced none of its ingenious insularity and its hospitality. The latter virtue so far as
I can see does not exist elsewhere in Europe (Richard Ellmant 166) In "The Dead" the

author tried to extend the vision offered about Dublin and its people, that without that

last piece would have been incomplete. The memory of the world left behind is

transformed here, to become more understanding, kinder and more lyrical.

Hospitality, as one of the most traditional and celebrated virtues of the Irish

people. It was, as the author claimed, one of the central themes of "The Dead," not only

because it is invoked and discussed, but also because it operates as a determinant in the

base of the story, by providing the framework for much of it. Thanks to the hospitality

hosted by the sisters Julia and Rate Morkan every year, a group of friends and

acquaintances of the hosts meet to celebrate the usual affection and friendship of The

Christmas season.

Therefore, it is pointed out by Gabriel's Conroy, the main narrative character,

that hospitality and humanity constitute the essence of the Irish soul, but that those

virtues are in danger of disappearing by the little appreciation of a "new and very

serious and hypereducated generation (Joyce 238)". A desire that this tradition did not

die out is expressed in the rhetoric, between serious and mocking, as demanded by the

occasion, which the speaker lavishes in his speech, in a good way not very different

from that of the previous year. It is not surprising, in Gabriel's speech, to find a similar

representation of the Joyce ideas. Whatever his feeling for Dublin and whatever its

complexity, Joyce felt safer away, contemplating his favorite city at a suitable distance.

Such distancing proved necessary for life as well as art. (Tindall 7)

This is one more of the autobiographical references that the writer generously

introduces to its creation, and Gabriel is one of the characters that more accurate

represents the feelings and thoughts of its creator.

 Gabriel Conroy is an exile within the country and maintains the same Joyce's

ideas on art, as evidenced in the dispute he has with Miss Ivors. They had both studied

together at the Royal University, and both would continue the teaching career. In that

moment in the story the coincidences end. What separates them most is Gabriel's theory

that ''Literature was above politics'' (Joyce 233).

The Miss Ivors character, taking advantage of the situation, invites him to join a

group of friends who are planning a trip to the Aran Islands. The western islands of

Ireland represented the unavoidable door to approach the Celtic twilight. Also, the

simple and challenging life of its dwellers and their dry and sparse language contained

the Irish essences, so these islands were the remains of the native culture without

British contamination.

Gabriel prefers a place outside Ireland for his summer vacation, which it's

always useful for a language teacher. The clash of cultural interests raised in all its

crudeness. Why visit other countries when is not known at all? Why the eagerness to

learn other languages, when there is one in the country, the Gaelic, which is unknown?

Harassed Gabriel will say that Gaelic is not his language and that "I'm sick of my

country, sick of it'' (Joyce 235). In fact, he is fed up, like Joyce was, with that new

hypereducated generation that with its intransigence and fanaticism was ending the

kindness, humanity, and tolerance that have always been the signs of identity of the Irish

soul.

In "The Dead," the second part of the story focuses on the couple of Gabriel and

Gretta. Part of the story of the couple is inspired by a fact of the life of Joyce, who due

to his constant jealousy, was characterized by not tolerating the absence of his wife for a

long time. And so, on a trip to the west of Ireland to meet Nora in the city of Galaway,
from where she and her family originally were, knew the romantic and tragic episode

that Nora had lived in her early youth. A young villager, gravely ill, was in love with her

and was unable to overcome her imminent departure. As a result of the rain and cold in

the farewell night, the boy would find death. This is the same sad story that Gretta tells

Gabriel in the story after the notes of a popular song brought suddenly to the memory of

Gretta the tragic death of Michael Furey, the young man in love with her in Galaway.

The life of Gabriel Conroy in his inner exile of Ireland is perhaps which Joyce

imagined would have been his life if he had stayed, a life marked by failure. At the same

time, with a metaphor, Joyce expressed his vision of Ireland itself as a country of the

dead, where the memories were more live than the present. The dead assume great

power over the living.

In every space of Ireland snow touches the dead and the living together

linking and fixing them in a state of tedium of frozen paralysis. The events of

the party repeat each year like a carousel: Gabriel gives a speech, Freddy

Malins arrives drunk, everyone dances the same memorized steps, everyone

eats, and words of death cover the party in which past, present and future are

interwoven together (Salvagno 19)

"The dead" is not only about those who are dead, but also those who did not

know how to live with passion, to enjoy, that is, they did not know how to live with the

idea that life is not eternal.

 Sources

Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce. New York: Oxford University Press, 1966.

Joyce, James. Dubliners. London: Grant Richards LTD, 1914.

Richard Ellmant, Stuart Gilbert, ed. Letters of James Joyce. Vol. II. London: Faber and
Faber, 1967.

Salvagno, Chiara. Mapping Dublin in James Joyces. Padova: Universit degli Studi di
Padova, 2013.

Tindall, Willian York. A Reader's Guide to James Joyce. New York: Syracuse
University Press, 1995.