The Dead

“The Dead” is a story about Gabriel Conroy reckoning with his own limitations. Gabriel repeatedly struggles with social interactions, in which he often projects his anxieties outward rather than inward. When he is welcomed into the house by Lily, their conversation abruptly ends due to Gabriel’s awkward comments. Rather than reflect on what he has said, Gabriel tries to fix the situation by giving Lily a generous tip. The tip does nothing to calm his anxieties, and he alludes to class differences and his overeducation as to why he struggles in these circumstances. After, Gabriel dances with Miss Ivors. She is as educated as Gabriel and from the same social class, but her comments about Irish nationalism result in a similarly awkward interaction. Rather than joke with Miss Ivors, Gabriel retreats from her into a corner of the room. He blames her rampant nationalism for the awkwardness. Gabriel is the common denominator in these repeated awkward interactions, but he always blames someone or something else. Even when he is worrying that the literary references in his speech will not be appreciated by his audience, he never considers altering his speech. Instead, he blames others for not being as educated as himself. Gabriel is anxious, but he believes that his anxiety is due to him being thoughtful or empathetic toward other people. Rather, he is simply an insular person who does not seek to understand or empathize with others. He mistakes his anxiety for empathy.

Through the evening, Gabriel begins to see a new side of his wife. At points, he quite literally sees Gretta in a new light. As she contemplates a song, he stares at her. The way the light and shadows fall on her makes Gabriel think that he is seeing a new side of Gretta. At first, this thought excites him. He sees her from from a selfish perspective, believing that there is more to Gretta that he can make his own. He only sees her in lustful, romantic terms and focuses on the ways that this new understanding of Gretta affects his own feelings. He wants to be with her as a form of control, to dominate this new side of her and bring the unknown part of Gretta into the Gretta that he knows as his wife. What he mistakes for contemplation, however, is actually sadness. He is right to think that he is seeing a new side of Gretta, but his lack of empathy means that he cannot understand that there may be more motivation to her contemplation than just surface level intrigue.

When they return to the hotel room, Gabriel and Gretta place themselves in a private, secure place. They no longer need to perform their personalities for the other dinner guests. In such a safe place, Gretta can open up to her husband. She explains that the song reminded her of an old romantic interest named Michael Furey. He sang that same song to her on the night before she left Galway. Gretta blames herself for Michael’s death, as he sang to her while already sick, braving the cold to make a romantic declaration. This memory and this guilt have shaped Gretta’s life. While she is happy with Gabriel, she has held a secret for so long and, until this evening, the sadness has festered inside her, making her unknowable to her husband. There has always been a part of her which has been unknowable to Gabriel and, until now, he has not noticed. Gretta expresses the emotion that Gabriel cannot. She collapses into tears and cries herself to sleep. She emotionally spends herself because she has finally unleashed the secret which has made her reserved, careful, and considered for her whole life.

Gabriel’s reaction to Gretta is telling. At first, he is angry. He is furious that his wife has withheld something from him and ashamed that he was not able to detect this hidden secret. He once prided himself on knowing her so well, but this pride has been revealed as hollow. Gabriel treasured his memories of them together, memories which he felt defined their relationship. Now, he is forced to confront the reality that these memories may not quite be so definitive for Gretta. She has definitive memories of her own which are separate from his. However, Gabriel hides this fury. The irony of his reaction is that he is annoyed that Gretta has hidden something from him, but he keeps his annoyance hidden. He perpetuates the cycle of silence, ensuring that he remains as unknowable to her as she is to him. The lack of reaction is an unconscious revenge, in a way, in which Gabriel denies his wife knowledge of his true feelings as a petty, diminished echo of the way in which she has withheld knowledge from him.

Eventually, Gretta falls asleep and Gabriel is alone. Earlier, he felt lonely because he suddenly knew his wife less well than he once believed. Now, as the only conscious person in a dark room, his physical state reflects his lonely thoughts. The narrative to this point has been fiercely internal, focused on Gabriel and his emotions in the same way that Gabriel himself focuses only on his own thoughts and feelings. But seeing the snow outside, falling indiscriminately on everything, Gabriel is forced to reckon with his place in the world. For the first time, the narrative becomes generalized. Gabriel’s thoughts expand to all of Ireland, to the living and the dead. To Michael Furey and to his wife, the world beyond himself, which he recognizes as legitimate and complex for the first time. This understanding is freeing for Gabriel. No longer do people have to be trapped by the past, the unknowable and impenetrable private world that was the subject of lively debate over the dinner table. His thoughts and feelings, like the snow, can relate to everything. The living and the dead need not be separate, just as he need not be separate from his wife. The final lines of the narrative suggest that Gabriel is undergoing a revelation, in which he learns to empathize with the wider world beyond his own self.