It didn't strike me that Gabriel acted with a particular superiority, but I agree that his thinking as revealed in his interior monologues shows an antagonism toward those less educated and well-off than he is. His superiority is a pretty flimsy facade, though. A wayward remark of a maid at the start of the story throws him for a loop. The fact that he did care about striking the wrong note with a person of her class might be a point in his favor. Otherwise, wouldn't he just not care? No doubt, he is aware of the class differences between himself and some of the others at the party; it seems to be a mixed social group. He does have an attitude of some disdain toward the lower-class sorts and the faction that Miss Ivors represents, which comes through in his thoughts though only once in his actions. The role he is to play at the party is after all thrust upon him by his aunts, and he is anything but comfortable in it. Nervous, insecure, and insincere sums him up for me. He feels pressured to project a bonhomie that he really does not feel.

The speech is interesting in terms of the scene with Miss Ivors that preceded it. Gabriel decides that Miss Ivors stands for a regrettable modern movement that lacks the grace and refinement of ages past--"spaciousness," he calls it in his speech. He is trying to answer Miss Ivors' insults even though she has left the party. He extols the great figures of the past, against which the present age doesn't stack up: a classic conservative attitude.

"...in gatherings such as this we shall still speak of them with pride and affection, still cherish in our hearts the memory of those dead and gone great ones whose fame the world will not willingly let die."

This is ceremonial boilerplate, as is most of his speech, though he shows that he can rise to an occasion and has been well trained in oratory. He lifts his aunts and niece up to the sky, labeling them the three muses of Dublin, but we know he really looks down on his aunts. Before long he will gain a real, deep appreciation of the forgotten dead and for those headed to death, and one of them will be an insignificant gasworks employee.

That's a good point. He doesn't glory in superiority by rubbing it in people's faces. He wants to connect. He's worried his speech won't be well received because people can't relate to it - he doesn't pride himself on making his speech unreachable by the common lot. He's a pretty complicated character... He isn't like a caricature that we get a lot of times when writers want to depict a very specific character flaw such as avarice or vanity. Good on Joyce for managing such a complicated and real person without losing control.

geo wrote:
Like DWill, this story packed a wallop for me. We all face the abyss every now and then, and it's comforting to have such an experience so well articulated as Joyce does in this story. It's always moving to connect with someone from another era. That's why reading something like THE ILIAD can be such a powerful experience. You're connecting with human experiences from thousands of years ago.

It just occurred to me that this story perhaps has many parallels with THE GREAT GATSBY.

Well said, Geo. I also really like Gabriel; he is so human. Joyce does a brilliant job of letting us see his interior and the progression of his thought/emotion process. I'm not sure I can really add anything useful to this discussion. The one little project I'd want to take on before we left this work is to line up all the stories and try to identify what is missing or absent, the paralysis and also the epiphanies. Anyone interested? And while I'm asking, anyone interested in The Portrait of The Artist As A Young Man? I just bought it. DW might even lead us through it. How about it DWill?

Does anyone have an interest in watching the film made from this story, starring Angelica Huston and directed by John Huston? Supposedly a pretty decent job, as you'd expect from this director, anyway. It's available from Netflix streaming.

DWill wrote:Does anyone have an interest in watching the film made from this story, starring Angelica Huston and directed by John Huston? Supposedly a pretty decent job, as you'd expect from this director, anyway. It's available from Netflix streaming.

I saw it years ago and didn't really get it at the time. I'd already been planning to watch this weekend - so, I'm in.

Saffron wrote:

geo wrote:
Like DWill, this story packed a wallop for me. We all face the abyss every now and then, and it's comforting to have such an experience so well articulated as Joyce does in this story. It's always moving to connect with someone from another era. That's why reading something like THE ILIAD can be such a powerful experience. You're connecting with human experiences from thousands of years ago.

It just occurred to me that this story perhaps has many parallels with THE GREAT GATSBY.

Well said, Geo. I also really like Gabriel; he is so human. Joyce does a brilliant job of letting us see his interior and the progression of his thought/emotion process. I'm not sure I can really add anything useful to this discussion. The one little project I'd want to take on before we left this work is to line up all the stories and try to identify what is missing or absent, the paralysis and also the epiphanies. Anyone interested? And while I'm asking, anyone interested in The Portrait of The Artist As A Young Man? I just bought it. DW might even lead us through it. How about it DWill?

I will watch the movie, probably this weekend. My wife will definitely watch it with me. She's addicted to all period pieces and loves this time period.

I was thinking "Portrait of an Artist" would be the logical next step. I would participate in a discussion in my usual random and haphazard way.

I do want to thank DWill for leading a great discussion. And thanks everyone for their comments. This has been a rewarding intro to the world of Joyce for me.

This Joyce might have a future, no? I enjoyed the discussion, too, and agree that Portrait would the next one to go to. If there is interest, I wonder if it could work just to read the book and convene on a certain date, in a month or so, and begin discussion. That might be workable with a book of under 200 pp., just to change things up.

I did watch the film. I'd wondered what everyone surely wondered, how the interior thoughts could be conveyed, how much subtext could get through. Is "The Dead" a particularly good choice for conversion to film? I'll tell you I did enjoy watching it, but without knowing the story middling well, I doubt that I would have picked up much of significance in the film. I thought that especially at the end, without Joyce's narration the impact would be missing. The writer and director had a partial solution to that.

DWill wrote:This Joyce might have a future, no? I enjoyed the discussion, too, and agree that Portrait would the next one to go to. If there is interest, I wonder if it could work just to read the book and convene on a certain date, in a month or so, and begin discussion. That might be workable with a book of under 200 pp., just to change things up.

Great idea! I hope others will agree.

Yes, I'll read Portrait of the Artist and check back in about a month!

I've been thinking about the discussion of Portrait of an Artist and I think we should set a day and time so that it is somewhat of a live discussion. I think this will be more satisfying than waiting for hours or days for a reply. Of course the discussion can go on past whatever day and time we select, but at least we will have a little bit of live action.