This essay analyzes the title of James Joyce's short story "The Dead" from his collection Dubliners. The title refers not to the literal dead character Michael Furey, but to the main character Gabriel Conroy. During a party with his wife, Gabriel feels betrayed when she becomes lost in thoughts of Furey, revealing Gabriel's own shortcomings. On their journey back to the hotel, Gabriel reflects on his failure to truly understand his wife and connect with her. He realizes he has been "more dead than alive" and unable to live as fully as Furey lives on in her memory. The title suggests the story examines who is truly alive versus dead - it is Gabriel, not Furey, who

1. Essay: (5) The Title The Dead obviously refers to the figure of Michael Furey. Or does
it? Discuss who you believe to be the “dead” of the title..
This essay is regarding the above statement based in the story of the Book The
Dubliners: The Dead by James Joyce. The title make us think what is the relation
between it and all the events that can appear in the story, the title make the reader
reflect about this relation during all the story. But in the end it’s shown the dead is not
referring to Michael Furey, a dead man loved by main character’s wife in her
younghood, who makes to define what is alive and dead in life and in dead. Michael
Furey’s dead presence makes the main character reflect about his own life and what
being dead really means, semantically or pragmatically speaking.
The first clue that shows us the literal life is when the story begins; it is shown in a
party. Gabriel Conroy and Gretta, his wife go to visit his family in Dublin. They attend to
a party at his aunts’ home. During this party some events make him think about the life
after the party, in the hotel he thinks about the dead.
The Conroys are very well received by their hostes and most of the people in the party.
But then, during the party when Mrs. Ivors, the only one who did not like Gabriel’s
behavior during the latest time, finished his little chat and dance with Gabriel while he
met his wife again and tells her he was asked and invited to go for a trip to the west of
Ireland and he had said he wouldn’t and his wife clasped her hands excitedly and gave
a little jump praying him to go…he coldly answered she could go if she liked. When
Mrs. Ivors left the party her wife didn’t realize about the situation. All these events show
a very literally alive life.
During the next steps it is shown the difference of life and dead when Conroys were on
their way to the hotel Gretta was walking on before him so lightly and so erect that he
longed to run after her noiselessly, Moments of their secret life together burst like stars
upon his memory. He watches all the way back and thinks then to be alone with her.
During this trip Gretta was almost staring at lots of things but seemed to be lost in her
own thoughts as she would tell him later in the hotel room. Meanwhile, he has been
thinking about a honeymoon they could have in the hotel. But entering into the room in
the hotel, she was lost in her own thoughts again and he couldn’t catch her attention
and make her come to him. He even thinks she is annoyed about something. When
she started to tell him what she was thinking of he feels betrayed by her. Gretta’s
thoughts could not be focused on him but on her reminiscing with the dead Michael
Furey and, that makes everything get a frame, that is of extreme importance. This

2. Furey was dead, but he was so alive in her memory. (Page 230) “ The smiled passed
away from Gabriel’s face. A dull anger began to gather again at the back of his mind
and the dull fires of his lust began to grow angrily in his veins.”…(page231) And Gabriel
thinks about their trip home, while he had been full of memories of their shared past,
"she had been comparing him in her mind with another." His rage gives way to shame
and self-degradation: he sees himself as "a ludicrous figure,... therefore, Furey was
alive in her mind. Michael Furey is the final eruption of the past in her.
These last stanzas show that all these feelings are replaced by shame and that leads
to the thoughts of dead/alive. Gabriel is realizing what happens in his proper life.
Gabriel realizes very clearly he has been in another stage meanwhile he has no idea
who his wife is, what she feels, what she thinks and what she wants for life. This
realization also brings truth of himself; he is not who he thought he was. He is a
pathetic human being, more dead than alive. He could not win the dead that was more
alive than he ever. He was almost no contendant, no strong, not even a good company
for her, he could have been felt empty and alone, worst than dead and the dead brings
out new realizations of Gabriel’s life and interfere with the way he is living it. He feels
destroyed, defeated, dead.
While the title of the book says the topic is the dead the book shows what we consider
the alive and dead people are. Semantically or pragmatically thought. Living deads or
dead alived. Furey is not dead in Gretta’s mind and Gabriel is the dead and all the
other ones. Aren.t they? Who are the dead ones?
Woks Cited
“Thee Dubliners”, “The Dead”, James Joyce