Gabriel Critical Analysis

Register to read the introduction… 12) One of my group members, Rashmi, seemed to think Gabriel was simply being modest and polite. I however find his statement to be pompous and arrogant. It is quite obvious he thinks rather highly of himself. He knows he is smarter than his audience. He wants them to think that he is so humble when he is actually the opposite. Her perspective makes me contemplate whether Gabriel was ever considerate of others. Did he really care about their feelings? Is that why he made the statement? Some of my group members also had different opinions on Gabriel at the end of the story. Shanusa had said that Gabriel and Gretta would feel further apart and would only keep their relationship going for the sake of their children. On the contrary, I believe Gabriel would make a tremendous effort to salvage their relationship. He would strive to be like Michael and make her happy. He would not give up. Although Shanusa’s suggestion leads me to the conclusion that Gretta will feel farther apart from Gabriel. Now that Gabriel knows about Michael, Gretta doesn’t have to pretend and hide her feelings. And so, my group members’ analysis of Gabriel’s character allowed me to change some of my opinions of his …show more content…
However, as another group member, Joan, pointed out, there are more types of conflict uncovered later. Originally, we would assume the conflict in the story was a person vs. society conflict. We came to this conclusion when hearing this line in Gabriel’s speech: “‘But we are living in a sceptical and, if I may use the phrase, a thought-tormented age: and sometimes I fear that the new generation educated or hyper-educated it is, who lack those qualities of humanity…’” (Joyce pg. 13). Through this line, we come to understand that Gabriel thinks the new era of young people are leaving important values of the past. Apparently they are too focussed on being educated. Joan says that this is the first conflict, person vs. society. He is picking apart the new generation and telling us how wrong they are. On your first read, Joan stated that this may make you think this is the main conflict of the story. However, as you read further into the story, you realize the conflict is more between Gabriel and Gretta and Gabriel and himself. The conflicts are exemplified when the story says: “It hardly pained him now to think how poor a part, he her husband had played in her life…he and she had never lived together as man and wife” (Joyce pg. 21). The main conflicts are actually person vs. person and person vs. self. Joan mentioned that Gabriel’s anger towards Gretta turns into anger towards himself. He wonders why Gretta never told him the truth. Why was he shut out? He comes to realize that maybe because he was never available emotionally. He had never felt the love that Gretta and Michael had because he had never made the effort to connect with