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Symbols Of Snow In The Dead By James Joyce

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Symbols of Snow in “The Dead” by James Joyce The Dead is a short story written by James Joyce. The work represents a description of a typical Christmas day of Gabriel Conroy, the decent husband and beloved nephew of three aunts. His mother died and her sisters became the man’s closest relatives. All women lived in one mansion that Gabriel visited with his wife on holidays. The story does not show significant events like murders or adulteries. It describes a typical holiday of a decent Irish man and husband. The most crucial moments appeared during Gabriel’s argument with Molly Ivors or his inner turmoil about own marriage. The most part of the story is focused on his thoughts about the holiday and life on the whole. Many of Gabriel inner and …show more content…

Gabriel included the gloomy theme in his holiday speech: “still cherish in our hearts the memory of those dead and gone great ones whose fame the world will not willingly let die” (Joyce 13). Christmas and snow can be treated as opposite symbols of the death. The holiday has a cheerful atmosphere, but with a context that it will finish soon and people will return to more gloomy reality. Gabriel demonstrated it during his thoughts about his aunt Julia: “Poor Aunt Julia! She, too, would soon be a shade with the shade of Patrick Morkan and his horse” (Joyce 22). The woman, who happily participated in the celebration and showed herself as a good singer, had signs of coming death according to her nephew. After Aunt Julia, Gabriel started to think about other relatives in the same way. While the mood was mostly caused by his last conversation with wife, Christmas atmosphere played its role too. A contrast between cheerful holiday and “returning to reality” pushed the man to more depressive thoughts. Gretta, Gabriel’s wife, danced and joked with other guests, while still was stressed by a longlasting grief caused by a death of her first love. The snow’s symbol has opposite conditions; the environment is cold and dead now, but it will “revive” with the end of the winter. This symbol can be Joyce’s positive message to the Irish

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