James Joyces masterpiece The Dead - Essay Example

Woolf’s Interpretation of the Women in Joyce’s “The Dead” Although Woolf’s groundbreaking essay, A Room of One’s Own, is couched in humorous tones, her ideas are truly illustrative of women’s lack of physical public spaces to study and unbiased historical acknowledgement of their contributions to English society and advancement. It is most interesting to consider Woolf’s perspective on the female and male characters inhabiting the dinner party of James Joyce’s masterpiece The Dead. Within this short story, the main male character Gabriel suffers a series of meeting, confrontations, and revelatory conversations with three very different female characters. Gabriel presents a man who is equally self-conscious of the impression he makes upon others as he is quick to deride the opinions and perspectives expressed by those he doesn’t understand or disagrees with. Yet, while the Gabriel at the story’s start and end may appear to be the same man, they are in fact completely different psychically. Throughout Gabriel’s encounters with Lily, Molly, and Gretta, Gabriel comes to realize the depth with which women can live within the private and public spaces in their intellectual and emotional spheres. Lily, the housekeeper and caretaker’s daughter, represents the servant class and a woman whom Gabriel cannot understand. Lily, who knows the only thing her three mistresses “would not stand was back answers,” rushes about the house Name 2 preparing for the dinner party (Joyce 127). Right as Gabriel enters the dinner party, he finds himself attempting to be genial but needing to hide his confusion. He condescendingly remembers Lily as a child “nursing a rag doll” as she helps him out of his overcoat and galoshes (Joyce 127). He asks after he schooling only to discover that she finished a year earlier. Readers don’t know if she graduated or simply left off studying for work. Gabriel’s next sentence truly demonstrates the thinking of the day as he asks when she’ll be marrying, showing how women were automatically expected to settle down. Lily, a bit of a spitfire, retorts, “The men that is now is only all the palaver and what they can get out of you” meaning that men only seek to chat girls up and possibly get some type of sexual enjoyment from them (Joyce 129). Gabriel, taken aback by her bitter, world-wise comment, cannot accept her statement and “coloured, as if he felt he had made a mistake” (Joyce 129). He then proceeds to cover this awkward encounter by patronizingly giving her a Christmas coin devoid of any genuine holiday spirit. What would Woolf think of Lily as well as her encounter with Gabriel? While Woolf would champion Lily’s access to rudimentary education, she would most likely question why Lily could not go further in her studies. Also, Woolf sought to break down class as well as gender barriers that inhibited people’s attaining their true potential. Most importantly, Lily’s sudden, yet obvious bitterness toward her treatment by men become laden with deeper implication when coupled with the lyrical meaning of song The Lass of Aughrim. The lass of this tale stands in the rain outside her wealthy lover’s home asking him to acknowledge her, Name 3 their relationship, and their child. The image of a woman being locked out of a space reminds readers of Woolf’s imaginary Mary Breton being instructed to walk on the gravel, not the grass, and being refused admittance to the library since she has no male, academic escort. Before dinner, Gabriel is confronted by the highly opinionated Miss Molly Ivers, his childhood friend and co-teacher, who represents a new type of woman in Ireland. Gabriel, who is worried that some lines of Robert Browning’s poetry in his speech “would be over the heads of his hearers,” becomes backed into a corner by the dominant Molly (Joyce 129). She has a “crow to pluck” with Gabriel and criticizes his editorial published in a newspaper supporting the British occupation of Ireland (Joyce 135). Molly, who proudly wears her Irish brooch, calls him the pejorative nickname “West Briton.” She again vehemently disagrees with Gabriel’s preference for touring Belgium and France and practicing French instead of touring the Irish countryside and practicing Gaelic. While Gabriel can only blink, smile, and defer to the actual presence of Molly, he mentally usurps her power by imagining using his speech to chastise her brazenness. Gabriel plots to state that the older generation “had certain qualities of hospitality, of humour, of humanity, which the new and very serious and hyper-educated generation that is growing up around me seems to me to lack” thereby indirectly criticizing Molly’s outspokenness (Joyce 139). What would Woolf think of Miss Molly Ivers? It’s a bit humorous reading Gabriel’s thoughts as he imagines: “It unnerved him to think that she would be at Name 4 the supper-table, looking up at him while he spoke with her critical quizzing eyes.” (Joyce 139). While personal or intellectual embarrassment at a dinner party is relatively small, Woolf would probably look closer at the competition of ideas. Here a woman, who is not afraid to be ridiculed for her perspective, challenges a man to his. This adopts specific urgency when one considers Woolf’s perusal of the academic research housed in libraries related to women. As Woolf takes her imaginary stroll through the various libraries she finds tomes spreading ideas on women’s “small size of brain” and “weaker muscles” (Woolf 2106). She finds a quote from Alexander Pope commenting, “Most women have no character at all” (Woolf 2106). Yet, Molly speaks her mind and expresses her disagreement shaking up Gabriel’s sense that the public is his arena to unconditionally express himself. Woolf would probably think of Charlotte Bronte’s bold statement “Anybody may blame me who likes” when thinking of Molly (Joyce 2127). As the dinner party comes to a close, Gabriel unexpectedly encounters an entirely new level of understanding of his wife, Gretta. As the partygoers prepare to leave, Gabriel catches sight of Gretta completely lost in listening to an Irish song. He idealizes and romanticizes her imagining her as a two-dimensional person in a painting. As he couple leaves, Gabriel is aroused by his wife’s display of muted passion. “The blood went bounding along his veins; and the thoughts went rioting through his brain, proud, joyful, tender, valorous” (Joyce 153). Yet, Gretta is distracted; they sit next to each other but remain emotionally miles away from each other. When they arrive home, Gabriel is still so caught up in his own feelings that Name 5 “he longed to cry to her from his soul, to crush her body against his, to overmaster her” (Joyce 156). When preparing for sleep, Gretta breaks down and tells Gabriel of a young man who risked his ill health to stand under her window in the rain on an evening long ago. The now-deceased man, Michael Furey, used to sing The Lass of Aughrim to her and the evening’s song has brought the memories overwhelmingly flowing back to her. What would Woolf think of Gretta’s characterization and Gabriel’s epiphany? This segment of the text marks such a profound moment in Gabriel’s life. He realizes that he has never known the depth of his wife’s true self, the place where she has locked away this life experience of love and loss. He questions himself as a man and devoted husband. He ultimately realizes that he cannot be the Michael Furey in his own imaginary, sacrificing his life to demonstrate his love. Some scholars have interpreted Gabriel to be like the passive messenger Gabriel while Michael represents the active warrior archangel. Gabriel comes to realize a deeper equalizing aspect of all human existence, the inevitability of death. Throughout the course of the evening’s events and his interactions with Lily, Molly, and Gretta, Gabriel has arrived at the startling revelation that he has passively lived just like his grandfather’s mill house walking in circles living a figuratively “dead” life. As Gabriel sees the snow blanketing the city, he imagines how every human being alive and dead is being touched by this snow that is connecting everyone and equalizing man, woman, and child. In conclusion, both Woolf and Joyce’s works seem to be relatively short Name 6 pieces of literature, yet they mark fundamental alterations in the Western psyche. Woolf’s landmark essay forged a path for future feminist argument as well as combined multiple issues of gender, class, and cultural equality. Joyce’s work provides an ongoing platform for discussion on the male attitude towards the female life. In Gabriel’s experiences with Lily, Molly, and Gretta, he comes to learn so much about the value, depth, and individuality of the female experience—all traits the Woolf would champion. Ultimately, these characters teach Gabriel so much about himself, about the façade he has been living, and, most importantly, how to live his life as an actively alive human being. Works Cited: "A Room of One’s Own: Introduction." Nonfiction Classics for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 7 May 2011. . Joyce, James. Dubliners. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, 2001. Print. "The Dead: Introduction." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 7 May 2011. . Name 7 Woolf, Virginia. “A Room of One’s Own.” The Norton Anthology English Literature Vol. II. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 8th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. 2092-2152. Print. Read More