Reader Response to James Joyces The Dead Essay -- Joyce Dead Essays

Reader Response to Joyce's The Dead       James Joyce's story "The Dead" has a tremendous impact on the readers, especially those who are familiar with the political situation in Ireland at the time about which the Joyce wrote the final story in Dubliners.   In exploring the meaning of James Joyce's long short-story, "The Dead", there are many critical approaches to take.   Each approach gives readers a lens, a set of guidelines through which to examine and express ideas of the meaning of "The Dead."   Joyce himself said that the idea of paralysis was the intended theme of all the stories in The Dubliners of which "The Dead" is the final story.    Of all critical approaches, reader response works best for me.   This approach examines the images, symbols, point-of-view, characterization and setting of "The Dead" in such a way as to reveal the theme of paralysis that Joyce intended.   The two characters that appeal to me are, Gabriel and his wife Gretta who are invited every year to a family gathering by Gabriels two aunts on New Years eve.   Gabriel, who is a university professor, does not want to be identified with Ireland. He wants to be identifies as a citizen of the world. His arrogance is revealed in his interaction with others.   A primary example would be the way he treats his wife Gretta as an object.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As Peter J. Rabinowitz informs one that in reader response criticism the "...activity of reading always alters the text at hand.   Unless we are limiting ourselves to reading in the sense of uninflected recitation, reading is never a passive activity to which the reader contributes nothing.   In the reader res... ... Gabriel is paralyzed emotionally, as he does not know what is going to happen next.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In conclusion the narrators attitude towards the events is perhaps how he wants the reader to interpret the events.   The narrator perhaps wants to tell the reader despite all the tension at that time, the people in Dublin still want to forget the problem and enjoy at least on New Years Day where it can be with their loved ones to relax.    Work Cited    The Dead.   Dir.   John Houston.   Perf.   Anjelica Houston, Donal McCann. Bestron Pictures, 1987    Joyce, James.   The Dead.   Ed.   Daniel R. Scwarz.   Cornell University, 1994    Rabinowitz, Peter J.   "A Symbol of Something": Interpretive Vertigo in "The Dead."   Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1987    Scwarz, Daniel R., ed.   The Dead.   Cornell University, 1994