Structural Symbol in Joyce's "The Dead" Author(s): Brendan P. O Hehir Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Apr.

, 1957), pp. 3-13 Published by: Hofstra University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/440479 Accessed: 15/11/2010 23:09
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CENTURY TWENTIETH LITERATU A

Volume3, Number1

SCHOLARLY AND CRITICAL JOURNAL

lpril,1957

STRUCTURAL SYMBOL IN JOYCE'S "THE DEAD"

BRENDAN P. O HEHIR James Joyce'sshort story,"The storyin the Modern Library ediDead," is a moralityplay cast in tion,2his first act is to scrape the the form of an Aristotelian tragedy. snow from his galoshes. That the The question of destiny or freewill snow has a symbolicvalue has been is neitherasked nor answered, and noted by almosteverycommentator hamartiaseemsto coincidewithsin. upon the story, but little attention Joycedoes not definethe degreeof has been concentrated upon the gaGabriel Conroybears loshes.3 They cannot be equated responsibility for his own guilt and therefore with Gabriel himself-they are "acmoral judgment must be suspend cidents" inhering in his "essence" ed. "The Dead," as its titleimplies, -but, taken at face value, theyare is also a ghoststory. This factis ob- perfectly to counadequate symbols servedbyJoyce's brother Stanislaus, tervailthesnow. Galoshes existspewho classifiesthe storyas "about cificallyto resist snow, to protect ghosts:thedead who come back out and insulate against it. Furtherof envyforthe happinessof the liv- more, galoshes are artificial, maning."' Such an unsympathetic judg- made defiancesof nature and the ment, if true, must be applied to elements.They typify man's prideghosts more vindictive than Mi- ful but puny attemptto defeatthe chael Furey's unhappy shad e, eternaland overwhelming universe. thougheven he, in his name, seems Man must shelter himself,or at to carry connotations of the Eu- least his feet, in his overshoes; menides. But justification of these thereforeGabriel's galoshes, and generalities must depend upon not himself,most adequately symanalysisof certainneglectedaspects bolize opposition to the snow. of thestory. But Joyce .has elaborated the sigAt Gabriel Conroy'sfirst appear- nificanceof Gabriel's galoshes into ance in his own person in "The the symbolickey to his tragic posiDead," on the third page of the tion betweenhis wifeand the ghost

of his mother. In theDublin of the hotel rooms.Gretta thinkshis preConroys and the Misses Morkan cautions absurd, but humors him galoshes are exotic importations when she can. Howeverit would be fromabroad, viewedwith the same too ridiculousto weargaloshesto a wordsugsuspicionas all thingscontinental. Christmas party-thevery Gabriel's importation of galoshes- gests to her the comic dialect of a a characteristic blackfaceminstrel show. A correct an -is index of his alienation from of the unfoldunderstanding story's .maternally-induced the normsof the ambient culture. ing requiresawarenessthatthisdifof view existsfromthe first Analysisof a passage earlyin the ference story will extricate some of the betweenMr. and Mrs.Conroy.The of husband and wife meanings tangled in association estrangement with Gabriel's galoshes.4 Gabriel which, in its progress,constitutes has joined his wife and his aunts the substratum of the plot, began, or was at least foreshadowed before where conversation turns upstairs, about his prudent plan to spend the opening of the story,when rethe nightat the GreshamHotel in Gretta,at home in Monkstown, town rather than travel home to fused to wear her galoshes. Aunt Julia represents another Monkstown: "But as for Gretta of hostility to galoshes.She there," he remarks, "she'd walk form are. home in the snow if she were let." does notevenknowwhatthey Gretta's rejoinder identifies her Aunt Kate, herselfunsure, atwithGretta's more closelywith the partyof the tempts, help, to exthat are snow, and reveals how unsympa- plain.Julialearns galoshes theticshe is towardhis attempts to "'guttapercha things" that you "wearoveryourboots": controlhis environment: "Don't mindhim,Aunt Kate,"she "Yes," said Mrs. Conroy."Guttasaid. "He's reallyan awful bother, We both have a pair percha whatwith forTom'seyes now. things. shades green wears them Gabriel says everyone at night and making himdo thedumb- on thecontinent." Eva to eat the stirbells,and forcing on the continent," murmured about.The poorchild!Andshesimply "0, her head slowly. Atunt Julia, nodding hates . neverguesswhat he makesme wear now!" She brokeout intoa peal of laughter... "Goloshes!" said Mrs. Conroy. "That's the latest.Whenever it's wet underfoot I must put on mygoloshes. Tonighteven,he wantedme to put thenm The next on, but I wouldn't. thinghe'll buy me will be a diving suit."#
the sightof it! . . O, but you'll

By now a numberof corollaries can be deduced from the opposition of galoshes to snow. On the one hand we may read the strife of artifice against Nature, and on the other we may see the shadow of a second dichotomy: the continent against Ireland. These sets of oppositions are in through-

out the story, interplay, and the galoshes themselvesdo not entirelydisapGrctta would let nature take its pear until theirfinaldefeatby the course with her children as with snow.At the beginning of the third the weather. Gabriel dominates "act" of the story" theyreappear in whathe can, and whathe cannothe their proper identity,by which will shutout, by galoshes,cabs and phase of the tragicaction the words 4

ilt his goloshes will have come to in his rashpride. (See below) signify Snow and galoshes, however effectively theyfunctionas symbols, are little more than symbols.The realities behind them can be distinguishedspecifically only by following carefullythe dramatic actionsof Gabriel Conroy. Gabriel's firstcontact with anotherpersonin the storyin his disastrous encounter with Lily, the maid. Her bitterretortto his condescending pleasantryabout marriage, and the backfireof his atation by giving her money, force him to panicky retreat upstairs. Lily's complaint,"the men that is now is only all palaver and what theycan get out of you," (p. 227) ironically paraphrases what the reader later learns about Gabriel's relationship to his wife, and may therefore subconsciouslysting Gabriel'samourpropre,but herspeech has also a more overt effect. Lily's syntaxand vocabularyare of a social class lower than Gabriel's, and she pronounceshis last name with threesyllables. Like James Joyce,Gabriel Conto sounds and words royis sensitive and speech."His own speech is precise,but he is not so snobbishas to be disturbedby the vulgarityof a maidservant. What disturbshim is the reminder of vulgarity'subiqand Gauity. Ireland is unrefined, his exbriel mustconstantly falsify in order to forget this.Vulperience garity forced upon him rips through his insulation and unnerveshim until he can repair the breach. He recognizeshe will not be safer among the company upstairs than he was with Lily-he fearsthe discoursehe has prepared for the evening will be over the heads of his hearers:
5

Th'lcindelicate clackiigof the incn's heels and the shuffling of theirsoles reminded him thattheir gradeof culmake himselfridiculousby quoting to themwhichtheycould not poetry understand. thathe Theywouldthink education. lie was airinghis superior would fail withthemjust as he had failedwiththegirlin the pantry. (p. 229)
is a marked class-conscious awareture differed fromhis. He would only

Throughout '"The Dead" there

to regain control of the situtemnpt

ness of speech levels. The drunken joviality of the "screwed" Freddy Malins is set offagainst the opaque garrulousnessof his mother,who shareswithhim a catchin the voice and a slightstutter. The odious Mr. Brown,we are told,"assumeda very low Dublin accent so that the reyoung ladies, with one instinct, ceived his speech in silence." (p. 235) Later in the evening Brown on his own name. puns atrociously Uncultivatedspeech surroundsGabriel,just as does the snow,and by the end it has penetratedthe obtuseness he wearslike a divingsuit, to drown his pride. Early in the second "act," long before the ghost of Michael Furey has begun to stir under the moongreynettlesand black mould of his of the restlessdead grave, the first who give the storyits name enters the risingaction. While Mary Janc Morkan plays on the piano a difficult and unrewarding Academy piece, Gabriel, unlistening and allows his nursing his irritations, attentionto driftto the picturesin the room.Firsthe sees a representation of the balcony scene fromRomeo and Juliet,and beside it a depiction of the murderedprincesin the Tower-emblems of Love and Death, with Death coiled in the heart of Love-the major themes

of the storyin which he is himlself quircd, Gabriel sided with Gretta, an unconscious actor. A photo- and yet his mother'sphrases rangraph of his motheris also in view. kled. Obviously the conflict had never been resolved. The ghost of Gabriel's thoughts centeron her. The late Ellen Conroy,ned Mor- Ellen Conroy had never ceased to fromher sisters. insinuate that Grettawas "country kan, had differed Aunt Kate called her "the brains cute." This accusation Gabriel carrier," but she had lacked the could only incessantly deny, and at Morkan musical talent. She had times,as when Gretta laughed at been serious and matronly,and the urbane prudence of a civilized of fam- man, when she refusedto wear her "verysensibleof thedignity ily life." (p. 239) (Of her husband, galoshes and ridiculed his, it was Gabriel's father,we learn nothing particularlyannoying to have his but his name and place of business: mother'staunts float up again, re"T. J. Conroy of the Port and quiring his desperatedenial. Docks.") Ellen was the guiding Immediately after this recollechand in the upbringing of her tion of his mother, Gabriel encounsons, what theywere todayshe had ters Molly Ivors. With his mother made them-"thanks to her, Con- in the plot, the action is now fully stantine was now senior curate in under way. The encounterreveals Balbrigganand, thanksto her, Ga- more fullyGabriel's characterand briel himselfhad taken his degree attitudes,and during it his self-reIt is also gardingpride begins to corruptinirnthe Royal University." tlanks to her,one maybe sure,that to hybris. Gabriel was able to think of his Molly Ivors is a foil,an externaliiother's sisters as "two ignorant ized projection of a hidden aspect old women," and to call Patrick of Gabriel. They are both the same Morkan, his mother's father, a age, since "they were friends of "glue-boiler." It is thanks to her many years' standingand theircaat the driving social ambition to tran- reershad been parallel, first scend the world of the starch-mill Universityand then as teachers." in Back Lane and the music pupils (p. 241) But she is a Gaelic enfam- thusiast, he an admirerof continenbelonging to "the better-class ilies on the Kingstownand Dalkey tal literature. In everyway theyare line" (p. 225) thathe had acquired antipodal and yet akin. In their his breadth of view, his contacts quarrel he cannot get the best of with the continent-in short, his her-"he could not riska grandiose galoshes. Yet Gabriel was not en- phrase with her"-and where he is tirely happy in rememberinghis perplexedand agitated,she has the mother:"A shadow passed over his last word.The occasion of thequarthatGabriel face as he remembered her sullen rel is Molly'sdiscovery opposition to his marriage. Some is the "G. C." of book reviewsin slightingphrasesshe had used still the Daily Express, an imperialist rankled in his memory; she had newspaper. For this she calls him once spoken of Gretta as being "West Briton,"-a hybrid neither countrycute and that was not true truly British nor Irish. Gabriel wants to say that he places literaof Grettaat all." (p. 239) Gabriel had been at the centerof ture above politics, but his rebetween his 1pressed an unresolvedconflict political self is on Molly's mother and his wife. As duty re- side: "She had no rightto call him 6-

of Whenshe demands a WestBriton. . . even in joke." recklessness. forhis choice him an above explanation Molly 244) politics places (p. the reply liter- of theeastward but her repressed literature, journey, outburst: aryselfis theonlyone in thecom- is an explosive Gapany capable of appreciating retorted "she liked[his]re- "O, to tellyouthetruth," briel'sinterests: own sick of "I'm Gabriel my suddenly, viewimmensely." (p. 242) Gabriel country, sick of 243) (p. it." to wonderabout himself permits and halfconsiders sincerity, Molly's Twice Miss Ivorsaskshim why, herone of thedead: "Had shereal- but silent."Of course, he remains ly any life of her own behindall you've at sheproclaims no answer," her propagandism?" (p. 246) But last. And Gabriel has no answer. if Ga- His Mollycould equallywonder liesdeeperthanan isare sue difficulty brielwerereally alive,forthere or even of summer holidays, hintsthatshe does have a life of mindhe his of a politics-in region her own;-her "warmgrasp" and refuses of part A review to explore. of his hand,together firm pressing will conversation with his of Molly tone" and indicate withher "softfriendly heat the of real source the in his ear, and all those in his retort. whispers to Molly'sinvitation in her behaviorthatpuzzle the shifts includof course Aran had Isles Gabriel,indicatethat Miss Ivors ed Gretta: feelsforhim a chastepassionunsen- "It would for Gretta too be splendid by his dehumanized perceived He does not, certainly,if she'dcome.She'sfrom sibilities. Connacht, feel safely she?" superiorto Molly: "It isn't him to thinkthat she unnerved "Her people are," said Gabriel look- shortly. wouldbe at thesupper-table, (p. 242) ingup at himwhilehe spokewith hercritical Gabriel's sharp rejoinderindieyes."(p. 246) quizzing The next roundof the combat cates that echoes of his mother's lurkwithinMiss goes also to Molly.Her invitation slighting phrases to Gabrielto come withher next Ivors' innocentquestion.To the to the suggestion on a tripwestward thatGrettacame from summer Aran Isles is a directchallenge. Connacht, Gabriel reactsas if to of politicsto lit- the accusation thatshe is country The compromise he deniestheimerature which Molly had compre- cute.Instinctively from hended in the epithet "West Brit- putation, Gretta and separates on"-a compromise in itself sym- her countryness, curtly conceding of the com- only that "her people" may have bolic and symptomatic promisesof Gabriel's life-is trans- borne the taint.Two pages later is blown lated into simple termsof concrete this flimsy equivocation geography. From Dublin as the aside by Grettaherself, asserting centerone may travel either west, hertruenature unwiththefrank to the Aran Isles, or east, to France premeditated devastation ofa snowor Belgium or Germany.Gabriel's storm. to knowwhatwas She wants compromisesare tenable only so the row Gabriel had with Molly long as he remains unaware of Ivors:
them as compromises. Molly's forcsaid Gabriel "Therewas no row," ing him from the middle ground shewanted me to go "only unnerves him and rouses him to moodily, 7

for a trip to the west of Ireland and I said I wouldn't." His wife clasped her hands cxcitedly ald( gave a little jump. "O, do go, Gabriel," she cried. "I'd love to see Galway again." (p. 245) 6 This is no simple case of husband and wife at cross purposes. Gabriel has had his face set resolutely toward the East, away from any acknowledgment of Gretta's countryness. Now Gretta confronts him with the ineluctable fact, and he can only respond by rejecting her: "'You can go if you like,' said Gabriel coldly." (p. 245) Here is the dramatic turningpoint of the story.It is not merely a tiff between Gretta and Gabriel. She has forced to his attention her country origin, her westerness, and rather than confess the fact to himself and to his dead mother, Gabriel in effectdivorces his wife. This rejection is his tragic error, and Gretta herself is not unaware that she has been cast off: She looked at him for a moment, then turned to Mrs. Malins and said: "There's a nice husband for you, Mrs. Malins." IHenceforthGretta is a free agent, owing allegiance to no one but herself. Gabriel has released her to return alone to Galway, and that is exactly what she does. Every action now will hasten Gabriel to his doom.

glorytheobelisk whichstood about a mile away, in plain sight of the Misses Morkans' house. Gabriel has no insightinto the meaning of the snow,nor does it occur to him For him the monumentrepresents an ideal serenity aloof fromthevulgar turmoilof theChristmas party.7 famishedhostsof the dead gresses,
As the party at the Morkans' proflock to the feast, pressing in like that Wellington's Monument is essentially no more than a tombstone.

Unmindful of impending fate, Gabriel consoles his mind with a silence of the table .. ." (p. 258) vision of the Wellington MonuAs Gabriel stands to begin the ment. Although ironically capped after-dinner speech that has been with snow, it remains a splendid weighing upon his mind all eveEastern symbol. Wellington, him- ning,he turnsonce more for solfh:e selfa Dubliner,had made his mark to a mentalview of the Wellington to the eastward,in France and Bel- Monuiment: "The WellingtonMonand a grateful umentworea gleamingcap of snow gium and Germany, British nation had erected to his thIt flashed westward over the

the shades around Odysseus.When Aunt Julia singsbeforedinner her old song, Arrayedfor the Bridal, the intensityof the followingapplause is conditioned by the unspoken prescience that Death is soon to be her bridegroom. Later in the night,after his own calamity, Gabriel will recall this awareness: "Poor Aunt Julial She, too, would soon be a shade ... He had caught that haggard look upon her face for a momentwhen she was singing Arrayed for the Bridal." (p. 286) At dinner the conversation it mightin Joyce's runs,as naturally Dublin, to opera- and concert-singers. But soon in reminiscences the (lead artistsof the past drift,one by one, to the table. The talk then turns unaccountably to the Trapwho pistmonksof Mount Melleray, live in unbrokensilence and sleep in theircoffins, to remind them,as Mary Jane puts it (anticipating the story's finalsentence), "of their last end." The topic, grown lugubrious, ends at last, "buried in a

ti

white fieldof FifteenAcres." (pp. 259-60) Here the monument still dominatesthe snow,but thereis a curiousjugglingof perspective. Gabriel visualizes the monument at the east of his mentalpicture,since its snow-cap "flashed westward" over the Fifteen Acres, and the Wellington Monument in fact is east of the Fifteen Acres. But the monumentis west of the Morkan house on Usher's Island, Gabriel's actual position. Therefore, in focussing his thoughton his Eastern Gabriel's mind has traveled symbol, westward, past the monument, past even the white fieldof the Fifteen Acres,to take its view of the flashing monument from the farther westernshadows. The speech itself is interwoven with similar unconscious ironies. Gabriel had feared his talk would be over the heads of his hearersand had thoughtof his aunts as ignorant old women,but to scorea point off Miss Ivors he determined to cater to his audience. Althoughhis attackon Molly was pointless, since she had leftbeforesupper,the stratsucegymade his speech immensely cessful.Later Gabriel would characterize his behavior as "acting as forhis aunts ... orating pennyboy the presentsuccessintoxicates him. His tributeto his aunts ringswith and he delivers a panesincerity, gyricupon the Irish national virtue of hospitality,which he has never found equalled in all of his experience abroad. Having told Molly Ivors he was sickof his counhe pours forththe fulsomeeultry, ogies of a patrioticorator.But even the into Gabriel's toastmastership lugubrious note of the table-talk enters,for he invokes "those dead and gone greatones whosefamethe world will not willingly let die." 9
to vulgarians. . ." (p. 283), but for

And not only the great are dead and gone--"thereare always," Gabriel continues, such "in gatherings as thissadder thoughts that will recur to our minds: thoughtsof the past,of youth,of changes,of absent facesthatwe misshere tonight. Our path through life is strewn with
many such sad memories . . ." (p.

In that gathering,her thoughts of the past and of Galway freshly stirred,and with her heart saddened by her husband's rebuff, sits Gabriel's wife,Gretta.Unwittingly the melancholy words reflectthe circling of her mind through thoughtsof youth and changes,to sadder memoriesof Michael Furey. But Gabriel is oblivious of such possibilities-he goes on to homilize: "We have all of us livingduties and living affections which claim, and rightlyclaim, our strenuous endeavors." Yet it is preciselyby disowninghis livingduties towards to the values Gretta,in conformity of his dead mother, that he permits his wife'sdetached living affections to fastenupon the memoryof her dead lover. His tragic failure divertseach of themfromthe living to the dead. The third "act" opens as the partyis breakingup. While Gretta is dressing upstairs, Gabriel tells a tale about his grandfather, "the late lamented Patrick Morkan," and his horse,Johnny. At the conclusion of his anecdote, "Gabriel paced in a circleround the hall in his goloshes amid the laughter of the others." (p. 267) In thusmocking thedead Gabriel showsthe first symptoms of the madness that comes fromexcessof pride. Upstairs somebodyis "foolingat the piano," and Gabriel, looking upward, sees a woman, his wife, "leaning on the banisters,listen-

262)

makeout whatshe along wearily under the murky ing."He cannot

is listeningto, but thinksof her as posed for a picture he would call "Distant Music,"-little suspecting how distantfrom him she is.8 Gretta is listening to Bartell D'Arcy singing,in the old Irish tonality, with a voice made plaintive and hoarse by a cold, words expressing grief. What Grettaactuallyhearsdistant,hoarse,waveringin the old Irish tonality-is the voice of her dead lover, Michael Furey. Even thesong'swordsevoke him: 0, the rain falls on my heavylocks And thedewwetsmyskin. . . When Gretta comes downstairs Gabriel observes color on her cheeks and her eyes shining;--"a sudden tide of joy went leaping out of his heart," (p. 272) -but she does not turn towardshim.

morningsky,dragginghis old rattlingbox afterhis heels." (p. 276) T'he horse,like all living creatures, is cumberedby the trappings of his mortality. At the hotel, drunk with desire for Gretta,Gabriel "felt that they had escaped from their lives and duties, escaped from home and and run away together friends with wild and radiant hearts to a new adventure." (p. 277) He does not realize how truly all old life has he is encome to an end. At first raged by Gretta's apparent failure to reciprocatehis desire,and when finallyshe comes to him along the shaft of "ghastly light from the street lamp"-the only illumination of this climactic scene-he misunderstands the reality thus symbolized. He misses the point entirely "Mr.D'Arcy," she said,"whatis the when she kisses him saying, "You nameof thatsongyou weresinging?" are a very generous person, Ga"It's called The Lass of Aughrim," briel." (p. 280) His infatuation makes him think she is yielding said Mr.D'Arcy .. she repeat- until,in a burstof tears,she speaks "The Lass of Aughrim," of The Lass of A ughrim and of the ed. "I couldn't think of thename." singerwho hauntsher-a personshe In a group of fourtheyleave the knew once in Galway. The dull at the back of Gahouse, and, unable to find a cab, anger gathering walk eastwardalong the quays. Ga- briel's mind involves then more briel walks with Miss O'Callaghan, than thwarted lust. His mother's his mind intoxicatedwith thoughts old taunt and the incident with of his wife.Gretta,however,walks Molly Ivors coalesce in thisremindahead through the slush, without er of Gretta'sgirlhood.The anger galoshes,alongside Bartell D'Arcy, grows from the fear that a vital the embodimentof her dead past. threatmay crouch in that western They all catch a cab at the corner backgroundhe had dismissedand of WinetavernStreet,and Gabriel, ignored almost out of existence: in the grip of ate on this last trip "'Someone you were in love with?' Grettaand him- he asked ironically." (p. 281) eastward,fantasies In the subsequent scene occurs selfgalloping to catch theirhoneymoon boat. In high spiritshe calls what Aristotlecalls the Tragic Ina gay greetingto the ghostlysnow- cident with Reversal of Intention. covered statue of Dan O'Connell. Gabriel's ironic probing, his sudBut the cab seems more akin to a den suspicion that Gretta wants to than to a honey- go to Galway to resumean old lovehearse or a coffin moon coach: "the horse galloped affair (he so desperatelywants to
S()

deny the real claims of her background that he is willing to accept a base motive for his wife's desire to revisit the west) are set off innocent, against Gretta'sgrieving, childlike responses. Each replyunmeditated, unsubtle,guileless-is devastating to Gabriel's elaborate position:

The windowwas so wet the window. as I couldn'tsee, so I ran downstairs I was and slippedout the back into was thepoorfelthegarden and there lowat theend of thegarden shivering.
. . . I imploredof him to go home at

once and told him he wouldget his deathin therain.But he said he did not wantto live.I can see his eyesas well as well! He was standing at the there wasa tree. still end of thewallwhere "Whatwas he?" askedGabriel, . . . And whenI was onlya weekin ironically. he died and wasburiedin "He was in thegasworks," she said. theconvent where his people came Oughterard, (p.282) from. thathe 0, theday I heardthat, The last twistof the knifecomes was dead! (pp. 284-85) when Gabriel's anger has ebbed, when his lust has cooled, and he Gabriel's artificial world coltoo is sorrowful. In genuine sym- lapses under the slow driftof Gretand he is leftalone pathy-for Gabriel is a very gen- ta's memories, erous person-he asks her: at the end with the realitieshe has evaded. His undone, he is "And whatdid he die of so young, fallen,and is pride left to grope his way Gretta?Consumption, was it?" to a new reconciliation with "I thinkhe died for me" she an- blindly life-on termsmuch humbler than swered.(p. 283) before.Grettasobs herselfto sleep, and a shorttimelater Gabriel himGretta's tale of Michael Furey self lies down unresentfully beside flows on, in the cadences of her her: "So she had had that romance native rustic dialect. Gabriel no in her life: a man had died forher longer flinchesfrom a syntax less sake. It hardlypained him now to culturedthan his own. "I was great thinkhow poor a part he, her huswith him at that time,"she begins, band, had played in her life." (p. and her long reverypours slowly 285) Looking back soberlynow upon his foolhardy pride, his conout: sciousnessis filledwithdeath. Even be let out. Grettais touched with it: "He did he was ill ... and wouldn't ... He was in decline,theysaid, or not like to say even to himselfthat I never likethat. knew something right- her face was no longer beautiful, ly. . . . We used to go out together, but he knew that it was no longer you know,Gabriel,like the the face for which Michael Furey walking, He wasgo- had braved death." (p. 286) In his do in thecountry. waythey ing to study singingonly for his mind the ghosts gather: Patrick health.. . . And whenit came to the Morkan and his horse; poor Aunt timeforme to leave ... I wouldn't Julia-soon, too, to be a shade-one hima letter by one they were all becoming be let see himso I wrote I ... wouldbe backin thesum- shades. In the partial darkness saying of Michael Fureyappears, mer,and hopinghe would be better the form I left standingunder a drippingtree.Gabefore then.... Then thenight up against briel's soul "had approached that . .. I heardgravelthrown 11

Wellington'sMonumentwestregion where dwell the vast hosts from of the (lead. . .. His own identity ward across the white field of Fifwas fading out into a greyimpal- teen Acres, across Ireland's "dark pable world: the solid world itself, central plain . . . the treelesshills which these dead had at one time ... the Bog of Allen and, farther reared and lived in, was dissolving westward. . . the dark mutinous and dwindling." (p. 287) To his Shannon waves"-to the crooked sleepy mind as he turns to watch crossesand headstonesof the lonely the snow falling obliquely against churchyard on the hill where Mithe lamplightoutside the window, chael Furey lies buried. (p. 288) a phrase occurs: "The time had Gabriel might have expressed the come forhim to set out on his jour- quiescence of his resolved metaney westward." (p. 287) physicalrelationshipwith his wife The meaning of this "journey and his wife's buried lover in the westward" has been adumbrated words of a poem by James Joyce, throughoutthe story,and yet on She Weeps over Rahoon: the literal level it has no significance at all, for Gabriel had Dark too our hearts, O love,shall lie The refplanned no tripwestward. and cold erence cannot possiblybe to Molly As his sad hearthas lain .. Ivors' holiday trip, since that is project for the followingsummer. The journeyis a symbolicformulaThe story does not of courseforce tion fromGabriel's subconsciousof the extreme conclusion that Gathe east-west patternin which the briel Conroydies a literaldeath in of his life has been ex- a room of the Gresham Hotel. He activity pressed,and marks a complete re- is dead, in the Christiansense only, versal of his orientation.For Ga- to the World; or, in the vernacular briel the thought-one of the great sense of the same words, asleep. elemental tropesof human experi- Later in the day he will rise from ence-can only mean that the time sleep, into a purifiedlife, and rehas come for him to turn toward turn home with Gretta to Monksthe setting sun, and to journey,not town, where life is lived in the to the Aran Isles, but to Aran of awarenessof death. Sunset is a nethe Saints, the Isles of the Blest in cessaryantecedent to sunrise,and the dim Atlantic. The time has in a sense Gabriel may be identified come when he must accept the fact with the sun. It is already early that life is inseparablefromdeath, morningwhen he goes to bed and when he must accept his own mi- begins his journey westward, so nuteness in the scale of eternity; that his mental voyage not only wheAlhe must begin, in short,to follows the path of the snow, but (lie. The snow symbolizesdeath's anticipates that which the sun is egalitarianand pervasivepresence. to follow. It falls faintly, like the descent of Gabriel's tragicfall is essentially their last end, upon all the living a fortunate one. Death is the chief and all the dead, and blots out dis- problem of life and tragedyis the tinctions between them. Gabriel vicariousexperienceof death. With Conroy'sswooningsoul followsthe the dying hero we approach that snow in an ever-westering journey, region "where dwell the vast hosts 12

anddied,buthe becomes, of the dead," and with his reborn sinned inl a "foenix the end, revive on we and immorculprit."' spirit put The JohnsHopkinsUniversity tality. Gabriel Conroy may have
'Stanislaus Joyce, "James Joyce: A Memoir," trans. Felix Giovanelli, Hudson Review, II (1950), 502. 2Dubliners (New York, 1926), p. 226. All page referenceeshenceforth to "The Dead" are to this edition. !Since this paper was written,a recent article has been called to my atseveralpoints tentionwhichestablishes similar to those made here about the galoshes and Gabriel's mother-Morgan Blum, "The Shifting Point of View: Joyce's'The Dead' and Gordon's 'Old Red'," Critique I (Minneapolis, Winter, 1956), pp. 48-49. However, I thinkMr. Blum fails to make clear the dichotomybetween Gabriel (and his mother) and the Misses Morkan. Gabriel himselfis the sole source of denigration of his ancestry-his terming his grandfather"the old gentleman" indicates not snobbish defensiveness on his part but deferenceto his aunts. 4The passage runs from page 230 (the kissing of Gabriel by his aunts) to page 232 (the interruptionof the conversationby the arrival of Freddy Malins) . "By the word "act" I mean each of the three dramatic divisions of the of which ends on page story,the first 238 and the second on page 264. ,Galway is the chief town of IreConnacht, land's westernmost province, offthe coast of which lie the Aran Islands. 7A perhaps pertinentobservation is the fact that in Ireland a Wellington is also a "guttaperchathing that you wear over yourboots." Boots are shoes, rubber and Wellingtonsare knee-high storm-boots. 8This scene has been analyzed by Allen Tate in "Three Commentaries: Poe, James, and Joyce," Sewanee Review, LVIII (1950), 1-15. Later reprinted in Allen Tate and Caroline Gordon, The House of Fiction (New York, 1950). may be made (ill-advisedOAttempts Gabriel Conly, I believe) to interpret roy'swestern journeyin termsdeduced from Joyce's apparent personal preference for lands east of Dublin. But a journey in one directionor the other may be inevitable-it is only the midway point, the position of the WestBriton, that is untenable. The tension between east and west can never be unambiguouslyresolved. An interesting text for meditationin this regard is an entry reflectingmany of the themesof "The Dead" in the notebook kept by Stephen Dedalus prior to his own Icarus-flighteastward to Newhaven-Dieppe-Paris (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Modern Library,pp. 297-298): April 14. John Alphonsus Mulrennan has just returnedfromthe west of Ireland. European and Asiatic papers please copy. He told us he met an old man there in a mountain cabin. Old man had red eyes and shortpipe. Old man spoke Irish. Mulrennan spoke Irish. Then old man and Mulrennan spoke English. Mulrennan spoke to him about universeand stars.Old man sat, listened,smoked,spat. Then said: -Ah, there must be terriblequeer creatures at the latter end of the world.I fear him. I fear his redrimmed hornyeyes.It is withhim I muststrugthisnighttill day come, gle all through till he or I lie dead, gripping him by the sinewy throat till . . . Till what? Till he yield to me? No. I mean him no harm."

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