Throughout James Joyce’s short story, “The Dead”, Joyce creates an inconspicuous, concrete symbol for the more abstract concept of death. The author develops the motif of snow with a negative connotation throughout the story. Images of snow and references to it begin as soon as Gabriel walks in the door of his aunt’s house. Draped in snow and bringing with him “a cold, fragrant air from out-of-doors”, Gabriel is described at beginning the story to reference the snow to convey the repetitive nature of snow as a motif (Joyce 2). Joyce also comments, “[Gabriel] stood on the mat, scraping snow from his goloshes” (Joyce 2). Reflecting back on this reference to snow after following the motif for the length of the story shows, Gabriel’s scraping
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Then Joyce’s grim final sentence, “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead,” causes the reader to go back over the story, analyzing every mention of snow (Joyce 36). Previously mentioned, Gretta’s willingness to walk home in the snow might have been seen as a more baptism and cleansing of herself but after the realization of the motif it becomes an allusion to her past tragic romance and the lack of fear she has for death. Also, sickly Aunt Julia’s at first innocent statement becomes a sad one when she states, “I love the look of the snow,” which conveys an ominous warning of her upcoming embracement of death (Joyce 27). The weather report, “snow is general all over Ireland,” is now a grim reminder that each person in turn will be touched by death and forced to give in (Joyce 27). The snow emphasizes the way in which "living" and "dead" are somewhat blurred categories. There are some people who are living, like Gabriel, that, through their paralysis, have never actually "lived," whereas Michael Furey is an example of a "dead" person who has lived far more than Gabriel ever has, in spite of his early
Then Joyce’s grim final sentence, “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead,” causes the reader to go back over the story, analyzing every mention of snow (Joyce 36). Previously mentioned, Gretta’s willingness to walk home in the snow might have been seen as a more baptism and cleansing of herself but after the realization of the motif it becomes an allusion to her past tragic romance and the lack of fear she has for death. Also, sickly Aunt Julia’s at first innocent statement becomes a sad one when she states, “I love the look of the snow,” which conveys an ominous warning of her upcoming embracement of death (Joyce 27). The weather report, “snow is general all over Ireland,” is now a grim reminder that each person in turn will be touched by death and forced to give in (Joyce 27). The snow emphasizes the way in which "living" and "dead" are somewhat blurred categories. There are some people who are living, like Gabriel, that, through their paralysis, have never actually "lived," whereas Michael Furey is an example of a "dead" person who has lived far more than Gabriel ever has, in spite of his early