James Joyce's 'The Dead' Revisited

This paper does not follow the well-known critical practice of Charles Perke, Edward Brandabur and Phillip Herring who, regarding The Dead, James Joyce s earliest masterpiece, as the conclusion of Dubliners, classify Gabriel as one of the dead. Instead it concurs with such critics as William York Tindal, Kenneth Burke and Allen Tate who, interpreting The Dead as a story of Gabriel s spiritual maturation, discuss the famous snow vision at the end of the story as a signifier of his rebirth experience. A new reading of The Dead, which is the aim of this paper, examines the very processes which produce both form and content, thereby demonstrating that The Dead is a story of Gabriel s spiritual growth and that the supreme snow vision is prepared for his spirit which progresses towards a richer synthesis of life and death, a higher altitude of flight and wider horizons.