The Dead (unfinished)

           In “The Dead” by James Joyce, visual description rises as one of the keys to understand the story. Throughout the story, Joyce incorporates visual depiction as a mean to show the view of Gabriel and change he undergoes. In the early stage, it is the narrator who depicts the character, especially in a superficial manner.

She had preceded him into the pantry to help him off with his overcoat. Gabriel smiled at the three syllables she had given his surname and glanced at her. She was a slim; growing girl, pale in complexion and with hay-coloured hair. The gas in the pantry made her look still paler. Gabriel had known her when she was a child and used to sit on the lowest step nursing a rag doll.

Description is focused on the features which can be identified with observation. It lacks profound understanding of a person as a human but considers one as a background. What Gabriel sees with his own eyes is “a picture of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet“. The first interaction that Gabriel makes is the one with Miss Ivors which is described to be an unpleasant one. Still, he tries to see what is behind the things that can be seen. Such effort appears in somewhere close to the end of the story. Gabriel starts to acknowledge his wife Gretta as a person. The change occurs after Gretta experiences her epiphany when listening to The Lass of Aughrim. Gabriel’s emotion, love, is not only expressed through the narration but also through his tenderness and thoughtfulness. His constant effort to understand Gretta shows that Gabriel’s attitude has changed from the beginning of the story.