Scarica Joyce the dead riassunto e descrizione e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! J. Joyce - The Dead - Dubliners Unlike Eveline it is a choral story = it presents a microcosm of all Dubliners’ types, it is the final story and sums up all the characteristics of the protagonists met throughout the collection. It is the longest story in the collection and is often considered the best of Joyce's shorter works It’s divided into 3 parts: 1. The arrival of the guests at the Misses Morkan’s Epiphany party 2. The Dinner and Gabriel’s speech 3. The journey to and the final stay at the hotel Setting In time: the night of the Morkan sisters' annual dance and dinner in the first week of January 1904, perhaps the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6) In place: the Misses Morkan’s house and the hotel room, but also the road from the house to the hotel Characters ■ Gabriel Conroy - The main character of the story, a journalist for an English newspaper. ■ Kate Morkan and Julia Morkan - Elderly sisters who throw a party during Christmas time. ■ Mary Jane Morkan - Niece of Kate and Julia Morkan. ■ Lily - Maid, insulted by Gabriel Conroy when he asks about her love life. ■ Gretta Conroy - Gabriel's wife. ■ Molly Ivors - Colleague of Gabriel's, very patriotic about Ireland. ■ Mr. Browne - Only Protestant guest at the party. ■ Freddy Malins - A drunkard and friend of Gabriel. ■ Bartell D'Arcy - A famous tenor. ■ Michael Furey - Gretta’s former boyfriend in Galway, now dead. Gabriel Conroy, Gretta Conroy, Kate and Julia Morkan, and Bartell d'Arcy are all alluded to in James Joyce's later work, Ulysses, though no character from "The Dead" makes a direct appearance in the novel. 2 main protagonists: Gabriel Conroy and Michael Furey A limited number of significant characters, several other characters all belonging to the same group or background. Moreover, all characters are mainly seen through the eyes of Gabriel. Meaning of the 2 protagonists’ names Gabriel: the Angel of the Annunciation = the hope of a re-birth Michael: the Avenging Angel The title Applied to: Michael Furey (the dead, singular): he is physically dead but extremely “alive” in the heart of Gretta Applied to: Gabriel Conroy (the dead, singular): he is physically alive but dead in his emotional self, his passions and feelings (which he thought to be “alive” are in reality dead, as he is egotistical and self-centred, selfish, disinterested in the others’ lives) Applied to: the whole of Dublin’s community = Dublin as the centre of paralysis J. Joyce - The Dead - Dubliners FIRST PART - THE ARRIVAL OF THE GUESTS Opening in medias res The reader is plunged into the annual dance at Epiphany (not casual, emblematic, symbolic) time, to which the Misses Morkan invite all their old friends and relatives, the members of Julia’s choir and some of Mary Jane’s and Kate’s pupils. The dance is held at their house at about 10 o’ clock. All the guests share the ladies’ love for music. (autobiographical element: Joyce loved music) Characteristics of the setting: the house is dark and gaunt (ever since Kate and Julia, after the death of their brother Pat, had left the house in Stoney Batter and taken Mary Jane, their only niece, to live with them in the dark, gaunt house on Usher's Island,). They have a comfortable but not rich house. They only have a maid, they work to earn a living = lower middle class. Event that sets the story into motion, 1st episode: involves Gabriel and Lily. Lily is the first person mentioned in the story, a maid but very close to the family, she is considered nearly as a member of the family by the Misses Morkan. She introduces the people from the outside to the family group. Because of this function she is the one who enables the reader to observe the first characteristics of Gabriel’s personality. He feels superior because of his higher education and cultural interests, (he smiles at Lily’s pronouncing his surname with 3 syllables) unlike the rest of the family and guests, he is a successful journalist with very open minded views and an international outlook. Upon arriving at the party with his wife, Gabriel makes an unfunny joke about the maid's marriage prospects; he has a patronising attitude to her, he is so self centred and uncaring that he does not realise he has treated her like a servant in a very indelicate way and he fidgets, adjusts his clothing, and, to remedy his involuntary offence, offers her money as a holiday present, making another mistake, she gets offended (“O, then,” said Gabriel gaily, “I suppose we'll be going to your wedding one of these fine days with your young man, eh?” The girl glanced back at him over her shoulder and said with great bitterness:“The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you.”Gabriel coloured, as if he felt he had made a mistake and, without looking at her, kicked off his galoshes and flicked actively with his muffler at his patent-leather shoes..O Lily,” he said, thrusting it into her hands, “it's Christmas-time, isn't it? Just…here's a little…” He walked rapidly towards the door. “O no, sir!” cried the girl, following him. “Really, sir, I wouldn't take it.” “Christmas-time! Christmas-time!” said Gabriel, almost trotting to the stairs and waving his hand to her in deprecation. The girl, seeing that he had gained the stairs, called out after him: “Well, thank you, sir.”) Gabriel in the story: he is the loving darling of his aunts because he is the son of their favourite dead elder sister, he is pampered and admired by everyone, he makes himself waited. He is described physically by the narrator (He was a stout, tallish young man. The high colour of his cheeks pushed upwards even to his forehead, where it scattered itself in a few formless patches of pale red; and on his hairless face there scintillated restlessly the polished lenses and the bright gilt rims of the glasses which screened his delicate and restless eyes. His glossy black hair was parted in the middle and brushed in a long curve behind his ears where it curled slightly beneath the groove left by his hat.) as very elegant, dandyish and posh in order to contrast him with Freddy Malins, the other person described at length in this part of the story (Julia, who had gone half way down one flight, came back and announced blandly: “Here's Freddy.” “Slip down, Gabriel, like a good fellow and see if he's all right, and don't let him up if he's screwed. I'm sure he's screwed. I'm sure he is.” Gabriel went to the stairs and listened over the banisters. He could hear two persons talking in the pantry. Then he recognised Freddy Malins' laugh. He went down the stairs noisily. ..... In fact right behind her Gabriel could be seen piloting Freddy Malins across the landing. The latter, a young man of about forty, was of Gabriel's size and build, with very round shoulders. His face was fleshy and pallid, touched with colour only at the thick hanging lobes of his ears and at the wide wings of his nose. He had coarse features, a blunt nose, a convex and receding brow, tumid and protruded lips. His heavy-lidded eyes and the disorder of his scanty hair made him look sleepy. He was laughing heartily in a high key at a story which he had been telling Gabriel on the stairs and at the same time rubbing the knuckles of his left fist backwards and forwards into his left eye. “Good-evening, Freddy,” said Aunt Julia. Freddy Malins bade the Misses Morkan good-evening in what seemed an offhand fashion by reason of the habitual catch in his voice and then, seeing that Mr. Browne was grinning at him from the sideboard, crossed the room on rather shaky legs and began to repeat in an undertone the story he had just told to Gabriel. ..... Freddy Malins, who was nearing the climax of his story, waved the offer aside impatiently but Mr. Browne, having first called Freddy Malins' attention to a disarray in his dress, filled out and J. Joyce - The Dead - Dubliners Constant presence of the SNOW: escape against claustrophobia 3rd PART: JOURNEY TO/STAY AT THE HOTEL The party ends when it’s still dark, early in the morning. 3 settings, all very important: The house hall again The street The hotel The Hall: Cheerful atmosphere and exchange of “good-nites”. Gabriel is at the peak of his self assurance: his speech has been a success, everyone loves and appreciates him. The street outside is covered with SNOW. Gabriel tells the story of the horse. The group is restricted, Gabriel is more at ease, this narration is very different from the previous speech: it’s more spontaneous, he does not use artificial expressions, stereotyped clichés, he uses irony. It’s a family anecdote, symbolic of Irish paralysis. Gabriel sees Gretta entranced by the music she hears on the stairs and he is mesmerised by the air of mystery and awe that surrounds the scene. He would like to be a painter. It’s a SYMBOLIC MOMENT = CLIMAX: he starts to feel sexual desire for her, which is also made stronger by the memories of their life together in a crescendo. gabriel thinks gretta belongs to him completely, he’s relaxed. The street: Gabriel’s Stream of Consciousness continues, together with his desire and self assurance, he looks forward to the arrival at the hotel to make love to her. He does not notice Gretta is lost in her thoughts. The hotel room: Once in the room Gabriel feels gretta is distant and does not respond to his desire. he enquires and she replies crying telling him the story of Michael Furey.(He stood, holding her head between his hands. Then, slipping one arm swiftly about her body and drawing her towards him, he said softly: “Gretta, dear, what are you thinking about?” She did not answer nor yield wholly to his arm. He said again, softly: “Tell me what it is, Gretta. I think I know what is the matter. Do I know?” She did not answer at once. Then she said in an outburst of tears: “O, I am thinking about that song, The Lass of Aughrim.” She broke loose from him and ran to the bed and, throwing her arms across the bed-rail, hid her face. Gabriel stood stockstill for a moment in astonishment and then followed her. As he passed in the way of the chevalglass he caught sight of himself in full length, his broad, well- filled shirtfront, the face whose expression always puzzled him when he saw it in a mirror, and his glimmering gilt-rimmed eyeglasses. He halted a few paces from her and said: “What about the song? Why does that make you cry?” She raised her head from her arms and dried her eyes with the back of her hand like a child. A kinder note than he had intended went into his voice. “Why, Gretta?” he asked. “I am thinking about a person long ago who used to sing that song.” “And who was the person long ago?” asked Gabriel, smiling. “It was a person I used to know in Galway when I was living with my grandmother,” she said. The smile 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 glow angrily in his veins.“Someone you were in love with?” he asked ironically. “It was a young boy I used to know,” she answered, “named Michael Furey. He used to sing that song, The Lass of Aughrim. He was very delicate.” Gabriel was silent. He did not wish her to think that he was interested in this delicate boy. “I can see him so plainly,” she said, after a moment. “Such eyes as he had: big, dark eyes! And such an expression in them—an expression!” “O, then, you are in love with him?” said Gabriel.“I used to go out walking with him,” she said, “when I was in Galway.”A thought flew across Gabriel's mind. “Perhaps that was why you wanted to go to Galway with that Ivors girl?” he said coldly.She looked at him and asked in surprise:“What for?”Her eyes made Gabriel feel awkward. He shrugged his shoulders and said:“How do I know? To see him, perhaps.”She looked away from him along the shaft of light towards the window in silence.“He is dead,” she said at length. “He died when he was only seventeen. Isn't it a terrible thing to die so young as that?”What was he?” asked Gabriel, still ironically.“He was in the gasworks,” she said.Gabriel felt humiliated by the failure of his irony and by the evocation of this figure from the dead, a boy in the gasworks. While he had been full of memories of their secret life together, full of tenderness and joy and desire, she had been comparing him in her J. Joyce - The Dead - Dubliners mind with another. A shameful consciousness of his own person assailed him. He saw himself as a ludicrous figure, acting as a pennyboy for his aunts, a nervous, well-meaning sentimentalist, orating to vulgarians and idealising his own clownish lusts, the pitiable fatuous fellow he had caught a glimpse of in the mirror. Instinctively he turned his back more to the light lest she might see the shame that burned upon his forehead.He tried to keep up his tone of cold interrogation, but his voice when he spoke was humble and indifferent.“I suppose you were in love with this Michael Furey, Gretta,” he said.“I was great with him at that time,” she said.Her voice was veiled and sad. Gabriel, feeling now how vain it would be to try to lead her whither he had purposed, caressed one of her hands and said, also sadly:“And what did he die of so young, Gretta? Consumption, was it?”“I think he died for me,” she answered.) This statement shows that gretta has been unable to fully move on from her past. her illogical guilt over Michael’s death (given that he was ill and obviously did not die for her) and her love for him that had never died has paralysed her or prevented her from fully loving another. Gabriel’s successive reactions to Gretta’s story: He tries to be ironical He pretends not to be interested in his rival He suspects she wants to go to Galway to see him He feels humiliated by his own jealousy : 1st EPIPHANY: for the 1st time he sees himself as pompous, ridiculous and sentimental he feels menaced by the “ghost” from the past He becomes tender with her He listens to her without intruding into his grief: shift from anger to respect: 2nd EPIPHANY: sensorial perceptions giving rise to thoughts: he realises how little he has mattered in her life, how dead he has been, and how alive Michael has been in her heart, he feels pity and admiration for Michael who braved death for her, he would never be able to be so passionate. He reconsiders all his emotions and feelings at the party, realising how foolish he has been. He thinks that death will soon come for the people around him whom he loves and for him too. For the first time he feels equal to the others and in communion with all, the living and the dead, while the SNOW falls over the living and the dead alike. (His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling.A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every J. Joyce - The Dead - Dubliners part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.) he decides time has come to move west = the wild and romantic side of Ireland where Michael had died, to recover his roots or probably America, to start a new life.