In the short story “The Dead,” James Joyce conveys an epiphany in a character named Gabriel who realizes his relationship is not what he believed. As the Morkan’s annual dance comes to an end, Gabriel’s wife, Gretta begins to act differently as she hears a familiar song sung by Bartell D'Arcy. Gabriel “trembling now with annoyance” as he wonders why she seems “so abstracted.” As the story progresses, Gretta confesses that she is “thinking about that song, The Lass of Aughrim.” This song reminds her of a past love, Michael Furey who died at the age of seventeen from sickness. Gabriel tries to approach the situation and hides his wrath with ironic questions, yet her answers only causes him to feel “humiliated by the failure of his irony and by
