User talk:Mattypevear

Various Analysis of The Dead
The Dead is a story that has drawn a lot of study and with this comes a great deal of varying analysis. The short story by Joyce has been looked at and written about over and over again by literary critics. The Dead leaves much open for interpretation, not directly answering any of the questions it raises, and critics have taken these unanswered questions and have attempted to answer them throughout the years.

Much of the analyses revolves around the character of Gabriel Conroy, the main character of the story. Critics often disagree over whether Gabriel is an upstanding gentleman, or a low-life buffoon.

One literary scholar, John Wilson Foster attempts to argue that Gabriel is not such a villainous low-life character, but is in fact a hero. Foster attempts to argue that Gabriel is the only one living at the party. Foster essentially takes many of the previously interpreted negative interactions that Gabriel has and instead frames them as positive interactions, and it is not Gabriel being rude and pretentious, but the other members of the party who are being rude towards Gabriel. Foster uses the conversation between Molly and Gabriel, stating that Molly is in fact the one who is being bitter and rude, and that Gabriel does not giver her money as a way of demeaning her, but instead to establish a previously defined relationship. .

Another critical debate that has been created by The Dead is what exactly is the realization that Gabriel Conroy comes to in the end of the story? There are those who believe that his realization is positive, that Gabriel is able to uplift himself from his environment, as well as those who believe it is  a negative realization, that Gabriel accepts that he will in fact die someday. Vincent P. Pecora, argues that this should not be a concern, that worrying about Gabriel's realization in the end of the story, can ruin the narrative that Joyce has laid out. .