When I read The Dead I felt that it could be interpreted in many different ways. One piece of the text that seemed to have an open interpretation of Gabriel’s interaction with Lily the caretaker. Was his interaction lecherous or was it just an innocent conversation that just became a bit awkward. Gabriel himself is a character who comes off as feeling both superior and inadequate to others. He is very self-conscious and that can make reading his interactions with others a bit vague. We can never really know what Gabriel feels about something because James Joyce seems to give information but leave out just enough to make it open for interpretation and without resolution.

Some of the themes in the book story that we discussed were religion, love, and consciousness. One of the biggest themes is love and desire and the loss or absence of that. Gretta has to deal with the loss of the Michael Fur, someone who she felt had died of a broken heart over her. In reality, he most likely died of tuberculosis exacerbated by the standing out in the rain.

This theme and loss and death is woven into the text through the aging aunts, Gabriel’s dead mother, and Michael Fury. The life and death around him make him think about his own role and feelings towards others. He learns about his true feeling for his wife and the short comings he has when it comes to interactions with others. Many of Gabriel’s internal struggles are exemplifies through the poetic devices used in the text. Especially, at the end in his moments of desperation and devastation. Repetition, imagery, inversion, simile, and alliteration were all used to convey the emotions in the last paragraph.