Reading Guide for Joyces The Dead

Joyce is very careful about every word, image, name, song title, historical reference, and allusion
he includes in his storiespay attention to the details as you read, because nothing is random.
Think about the following questions:

1. The Dead is the final story in Joyces collection entitled The Dubliners about life in turn-of-
the-century Dublin. Nearly all of the stories deal with some type of paralysisemotional,
social, spiritual, economic, physical, historical, artistic, or creative. Are any of the characters in
this story suffering from any type of paralysis? Which ones and how?

2. What is the significance of the title of the story? To what/whom might it refer? What
examples of death do you see in the story? Find some specific passages in the story to support
your answer.

3. What might the snow falling general all over Ireland symbolize in Joyces story? Why such
an emphasis on snow? (The story begins and ends with the snow, and it is frequently mentioned
throughout.)

4. What is Gabriels attitude towards Ireland? What examples do you see in the story to support
your interpretation? Look in particular at the discussion between Gabriel and Miss Ivors.
(Reminder: the term West Briton refers to an inhabitant of Ireland whose allegiance is more to
England than Ireland.) Knowing that Joyce felt constrained by Irish society/culture and felt that
he had to leave Ireland to develop his artistic potential, what do you think Joyce is saying about
his country in the story?

5. What is the significance of the individual names in the story? (Think especially about Gabriel
and Michael Furey.)

6. Why do you think Joyce puts so much emphasis on the banquet and the abundance of food in
this story? What might it symbolize?

7. In Gabriels dinner speech, he speaks of genuine warm-hearted courteous Irish hospitality.

Considering the fact that Joyce felt the Irish were stuck in the past, what are we to make of
Gabriels emphasis on hospitality? Is he including references to Irish hospitality to suit his old-
fashioned audience? Is he lamenting the loss of something that makes Ireland unique? Is his
speech to be understood ironically? What is your interpretation of his dinner speech?

8. How are class and gender issues explored in this story?

9. Joyce refers to a revelatory moment when past, present, and future coalesce in a flash of
insight as an epiphany. What is the main epiphany for Gabriel in this story and what is its
significance?
10. What does Joyce mean by the following admonition (thought by Gabriel): Better pass boldly
into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age ?
What relevance does it have to the rest of the story?

11. The final paragraph of the story is generally thought to be one of the most finely wrought and
beautiful passages in 20th-century fiction. It is also one of the most ambiguous. What is your
interpretation of the ending of the story?

12. Stream-of-consciousness is a technique used by many modernist (early 20th-century) writers,

including James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, and Marcel Proust. It is
essentially an attempt to articulate a persons subconscious (non-verbal) thought processes,
requiring the reader to go into the artists internal world. Its characteristics include the
following:
Free, seemingly random associations of thoughts
Jumps in time and place; combination of memories and current reality
A lack of clear transitions; irregular syntax and structure
Fragmented, discontinuous narrative
Inclusion of other languages, allusions, and obscure references
Frequent changes in narrative voice, often with unidentified speakers
Shifts in point of view
Joyce employs a few of these elements in The Dead, although not as extensively as he does in
later works like Ulysses. (We will see more obvious examples of this technique when we read T.
S. Eliot.) Can you find any examples of any of these elements in The Dead? Where? What
effect do they have on the reader?

13. What do you think Joyces overall message or theme in this story is?