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McLoughlin Dubliners Blog 3

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It’s obvious that the main character from “The Dead,” Gabriel Conroy, is a kind of a control freak. In the beginning, when he is talking to Lily, the servant girl, he feels uncomfortable with her reply to his assumption about her getting married so he offers her a Christmas tip to remain in control. Later, when he is conversing with Miss Ivors about his writing and traveling, she tries to convince Gabriel to take a holiday with a group in Ireland. He gets frustrated with the conversation: “O, to tell you the truth, retorted Gabriel suddenly, I’m sick of my own country, sick of it!” (Joyce 164). Gabriel is only agitated because he lost control of the conversation.
Another thing that I noticed that was interesting to me about the last story in Dubliners was how some things never really change. Unfortunately, fabulous dances in beautiful homes have gone out of style; however, the way that one certain song can bring back so many memories is still very much alive in today’s day and age. In Gretta Conroy’s case, the song she heard on the piano on the night of the party brought back intense memories that proceeded to put her in a funk. Her husband, Gabriel, fails to understand why she is so struck by the song. He notices her change in behavior and, instead of wondering what could have had this kind of affect on his wife, longs to have control over her emotions and behavior.

Gabriel is obsessed with being in control partly because of the favoritism his Aunt Kate and Aunt Julia show him. Every year, Gabriel gives the speech at the party. Every year, he is in charge of carving the goose. Every year, he is on the lookout for Freddy Malins, who has been  known to show up drunk to such events. The mindless repetition that all Dubliners characters insignificantly exist in is present in Gabriel’s life as well. He lives the same day over and over, and the same party every single year. Once again, the Dubliners characters settle into a comfortable routine, afraid to change the Dublin way of life. This constant repetition of Gabriel being in control has warped his sense of living.
His meaningless way of living shines through at the end of the story when Gabriel confronts his wife about her funk that the piano song had put her in at the party. When he learns that the song reminds her of a man she used to be in love with, he finds himself getting jealous, but only because he had no control over his wife and her feelings. However, when he learns that the man Gretta was in love with died passionately after trying to see Gretta one last time, he realized how passionless his life was. Gabriel understood that the man who died for Gretta lived his life more fully than Gabriel is currently living his own life because the man had passion and love.
The most frustrating thing about reading this last part of the story was how Gabriel became self aware of how meaningless his life really was, but instead of doing anything about it, he just accepts that is how his life is, unwilling to break out of the comfortable routine that the Dubliners characters are trapped in. It’s like all of the characters want to break free from the routine that makes day to day lives so meaningless, whether they know it or not, but it’s just not possible because the city of Dublin has this invisible hold on the characters, paralyzing them with a fear of change.

Source: Joyce, James. Dubliners. Penguin Group, 2014.

 -Madison McLoughlin

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