The Dead

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1914

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Character Analysis

Gabriel Conroy

Gabriel Conroy is a teacher and sometime literary critic. He is the protagonist of “The Dead” and embodies the themes and ideas explored in the short story. Different characters think of Gabriel in different ways. His aunts view him as a dedicated, upstanding family-orientated man who is trusted to sit at the head of their table and carve the celebratory goose, playing the role of the family’s masculine figure. They trust him with dealing with the drunken Freddy, and they cannot wait for him to arrive. To other people, however, Gabriel is something of a mystery. In two early encounters, Gabriel reveals his awkwardness as female characters try to understand him better. Lily and Miss Ivors interact with Gabriel but leave him feeling anxious and awkward. Gabriel cannot forge a relationship with these women as they expect more from him than his aunts, who simply want him to play a role at their party. To these characters, Gabriel seems unknowable.

This concern about unknowability eventually becomes an obsession for Gabriel. After his awkward encounters, he begins to think of Gretta in a different way. He sees her in a new light and realizes how little he actually knows his wife. Gabriel is very insular, focused only on himself and his own feelings. As such, his first instinct when realizing the unknowability of his wife is to think about how this affects him and his romantic intentions toward her. At first, he feels amorous. Then, Gretta reveals the true tragedy of her past and Gabriel is upset. He feels ashamed and inadequate, annoyed at himself for not understanding his wife’s past while also worrying that he will never be able to affect her life to the same degree as Michael Furey has done. He is upset because his wife’s unknowability reminds him of how little control he has over the wider world, forcing him to reckon with the reality that there is far more to existence than just his insular self.

After Gretta falls asleep, Gabriel is left alone. The protagonist who lived an insular life is, at last, physically and emotionally by himself. In this moment, however, Gabriel’s thoughts reach out. He begins to understand the interconnectedness of the world, the ways in which someone like Michael Furey could shape Gretta’s life without anyone else ever knowing. The entire world is like this, he realizes, developing empathy for a complex world which now fascinates him. He watches the snow fall, ruminating on the connections between the living and the dead in a way that the Gabriel Conroy of old may never have done.

Gretta Conroy

Gretta is Gabriel’s wife. At the beginning of the party, she seems happy and content. She is polite, jovial, and pleased to be invited to the annual party with her husband’s family. Much like Gabriel performing the role of the man at the head of the dinner table, however, Gretta’s happiness is a performance. Unbeknown to the other guests, she is hiding a dark tragedy in her past. Throughout the evening, she becomes increasingly melancholic after hearing a song that was once sung to her by a boy named Michael Furey. Michael died and Gretta has been carrying his memory with her ever since. The performative qualities of her happy character are dictated by this tragedy: She must convince others that she is happy so that she does not need to think about her guilt and shame regarding Michael. Gretta has forged herself a personality which tricks the world, ensuring that her thoughts, her feelings, and her entire character have been shaped by Michael and his absence from her life.

Gretta is from Galway, rather than Dublin. Her origins make her something of an outsider in the small party. Gabriel is from Dublin and, as he confesses to Miss Ivors, he is sick of Ireland. The people of Dublin debate the topic of Irishness and independence while, to an outsider like Gretta, the question is less consequential. No one seeks her opinion on Irishness because she is not a Dubliner like the others. Even though she is just as Irish as the Dubliners, her identity is almost a performance in itself. Miss Ivors and her friends go to Galway to indulge their Irish identity, using Gretta’s past to make themselves feel more authentically Irish. The complexities of nationality and regionalism are illustrated in the ways that Gretta is perceived as Irish, but not Irish in the same way as the others.

Gretta eventually tells Gabriel about her past. In doing so, she becomes emotional. She cries, telling her husband about the pain and the guilt she still bears to this day. Gabriel is shocked into silence, and he does not tell his wife about his anger. Instead, he allows her to pour out her emotions. Gretta eventually falls asleep, her sadness spent and her body exhausted. The effort of performing happiness for so many years has taken a toll on her and, finally, she can speak the truth to her closest friend. Gretta appreciates that Gabriel listens, but his failure to speak honestly to her suggests that she has not truly penetrated her husband’s personality. She, like Gabriel, may one day be forced to reckon with the emotions which have been kept hidden for so long.

Michael Furey

Michael Furey dies long before the events of “The Dead” take place, but he has a big influence on the story, nonetheless. Michael is a young man from Galway who falls in love with a young Gretta. When she is set to leave Galway for her education, Michael goes to visit her one last time. Unfortunately, he has already contracted a sickness and the cold weather has an effect on him. Michael sings to Gretta and, in doing so, his illness worsens and, after she leaves, he dies. The death of Michael Furey is one of the most important events in Gretta’s life. She feels responsible for his death, and she hides this guilt by creating a performance of happiness that she shows to the world. Michael stays with her throughout her life. He becomes a figure in her memory, a nostalgic persona that is as real and as relevant as the old opera singers discussed at the dinner table. In Dublin, no one knows about Michael Furey, but he is with Gretta at all times. Michael is the embodiment of the shame and pain Gretta feels for her past, even long after his death.