James Joyce's The Dead Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

James Joyce's The Dead - Essay Example n in the following lines: â€Å"A light fringe of snow lay like a cape on the shoulders of his overcoat and like toecaps on the toes of his goloshes; and, as the buttons of his overcoat slipped with a squeaking noise through the snow- stiffened frieze, a cold fragrant air from out-of-doors escaped from crevices and folds†. There are other common allusions to the near freezing Dublin weather in which the story is set. The instance when Gretta Conroy, Gabriel’s wife caught cold infection is again a literal citing of the word â€Å"cold†. The sole occasion when â€Å"cold† was used in the metaphorical sense is when Gabriel replies unenthusiastically to Gretta that â€Å"You can go if you like, said Gabriel coldly†. Talking of the dark aspects of the story, in the context of Gabriel’s address to the gathering, he mentions how â€Å"our path through life is strewn with many sad memories† and continues in a morbid tone, how â€Å"were we to brood upon them always we could not find the heart to go on bravely with our work among the living" and further in the narrative he says â€Å"His soul had approached that region where dwelt the vast hosts of the dead†. This poignant remembrance of his own past had shaken up his composure. Gabriel had now been overwhelmed by a sense of losing his love and the pain associated with it. Joyce depicts the state he is in with the following dark imagery: â€Å"into a grey impalpable world", "all the living and the dead". As for the â€Å"light† in The Dead, there are again two interpretations – one is light as in humor and frivolity the other is insight or revelation. There are plenty of instances of both cases. Phrases such as â€Å"laughing very heartily†, â€Å"There was a great deal of confusion and laughter and noise†, â€Å"The table burst into applause and laughter at this sally†, â€Å"She laughed herself this time good-humouredly†, etc represent the light-hearted elements in the narrative. Light as brightness can be seen in