“The Dead” is the last story in the Dubliners’ collection of short stories written by James Joyce. There is a depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century along with an ephiphanic moment experienced by the protagonist Gabriel Conroy towards the end. Joyce’s works reflect the different phases experienced in his life and Gabriel Conroy can be considered as a masque of what James Joyce fears to become. A similar depiction of Joyce’s personal life is reflected in ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’, where Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist undergoes a process of development and experiences a moment of self-revelation just like Gabriel Conroy does in ‘The Dead’. Both Gabriel Conroy and Stephen Dedalus, are similar yet different in many aspects. It is evident from ‘The Dead’, that Gabriel Conroy is highly educated and …show more content…
Their differences in personality at the finer level is what gives them the integrity of their character. It can be noticed that Gabriel Conroy is in a state of constant self-doubt throughout the story. Gabriel is nervous and anxious about his speech and he keeps experiencing bouts of nervousness in the midst of various situations like talking to Miss Ivors or his “trembling fingers” before carving the goose. Contrasting this trait of Gabriel, is Stephen’s character of being confident and holding a firm opinion against the rest. Stephen’s perspective about Byron as a poet is not influenced by the comments/insults by his fellow classmates. He confidently defends Lord Byron and this is a reflection of the fact that Stephen is least affected by public criticism and that he is only interested in self-development and exploration. The same does not apply to Gabriel as he is publicly awkward and he is focused on pleasing the people around him, rather than developing an independent