Research Reports of National Institute of Technology, Ichinoseki College, No. 51, pp. 7-19, 2016

“The Dead” in Dubliners: What the Ghosts Light
Rie SHIMOKAWA(Received October 31, 2016)
2. Joyce’s Encounter with ‘O Ye Dead!’

1. Introduction
This paper examines the influence of Thomas

Joyce wrote “The Dead” while living in Rome in

Moore’s song “O Ye Dead!” on ‘The Dead’ in Dubliners

1906 and working as a bank clerk. Although he foundwritten by James Joyce.

In 1906, Joyce and his wife,

this existence somewhat purposeless, some experiences

Nora, travelled to their home country, Ireland, where

during this time began to form a basis for the story. For

they visited Galway, his wife’s hometown. It was

example, he became rather suspicious of Nora as he was

Joyce’s first visit to the west of Ireland, and it enabled

jealous of her ex-boyfriends and other men rumoured tohim to understand the atmosphere of a more primitive

be in her life. He even questioned her reading theand traditional Ireland. During the trip, Nora confessedpaternity of their child as follows in ‘[i]s Georgie myto Joyce that she once had a passionate love affair withson?’ (SL 158):

Michael (Sonny) Bodkin, who had died for her, when
she was a young girl. They then visited Bodkin’s grave

I have been a fool. I thought that all the timein Oughterard. He realised that even though Michael had

you gave yourself only to me and you weredied, he was still very much alive in Nora’s memory.

Itdividing your body between me and another. In

seems to Joyce that the dead Michael was haunting the

Dublin here the rumor is circulated that I haveliving including Joyce and Nora, like a ghost. This trip

taken the leavings of others.

and the events that transpired during its course led him

laugh when they see me parading ‘my’ son in

to write ‘The Dead.’ He saw himself as Gabriel Conroy,

the streets.

Perhaps they

(SL 159)

the protagonist, who was struggling with the same typeof love triangle.

O Nora!

Nora!

Nora!

I am speaking now

The trip impacted Joyce’s thoughts towards Norato the girl I loved, who had red-brown hair andas his partner as well as towards the west if Ireland as

sauntered over to me and took me so easily into

his native land. Numerous papers have been written on

her arms and made me a man.

(SL 159)‘The Dead,’ but only few papers have explored its
relation with Moore’s “O Ye Dead!.”This paper

Although Joyce thought of himself as an artist, he also

introduces a new approach better understand “Theconsidered himself to be ‘not a very domestic animal’Dead,” one of Joyce’s most significant short stories.

(Ellmann 214); nonetheless, he longed to be the only
man in Nora’s life. He wrote to his aunt, Josephine;― 7 ―Shimokawa－“The Dead” in Dubliners: What the Ghosts Light‘Nora does not seem to make much difference between

realised his wife’s past; he is forced to reconsider hisme and the rest of the men she has known and I canrole as a husband when faced with his wife’s confession

hardly believe that she is justified in this’ (Ellmann 214).

of a love affair in her youth. The nature of the twoThis thought is also reflected in Exiles (1918), in which

couples are different; Exiles the liberty of each person is

Richard, the protagonist, tries to maintain psychologicalconfirmed by their trust on each other, whereas “Theliberty in his marriage.

However, as Joyce had written

Dead” shows the tragedy of a husband’s small

to his aunt, although he was not a domestic person,

misunderstanding but also his unilateral passion for his

Richard like Joyce requires chastity from his wife.

wife.
Joyce did not enjoy living in Rome for theRichard. [Controlling himself.] You forget that I

additional reason that it was a Catholic city; he foundliberty ― and allowthat the city was similar to Dublin, which he had

have allowed you complete
you it still.

abandoned. He remarked that ‘[h]is head was filled with

Bertha. [Scornfully.] Liberty!

a sense of the too successful encroachment of the deadRichard. Yes, complete. But he (Robert) mustupon the living city; there was a disrupting parallel inknow that I know. [More calmly.]

I will speak to

the way that Dublin, buried behind him, was haunting

Bertha, believe me,

his thoughts’ (Ellmann 244). While he lived in Rome, hedear! It is not jealously. You have complete liberty

considered Rome to be similar to Dublin, a place where

to do as you wish ― you and he. But not in thispeople lived in a rotten and paralysed atmosphere.

way. He will not despise you. You don’t wish to

Although he lived in Rome for only one year (1906 –deceive me or pretend to deceive me ― with him,07), he changed his attitude towards both his city and his

do you?

country as a result of resemblances between the two

him quietly. [Appearing.](Exiles 30; supplement mine)cities.
Richard’s obsession with Bertha is strange rather thanAnother experience that significantly impacted

unique. He wishes to keep his liberty as well as his wife;

Joyce and motivated him to write was his time spent

he tries to remain a person whose marital life comprises

living in Trieste in 1905. During this time, he received acomplete trust between him and his partner. In contrast,

letter from his brother, Stanislaus, who had attended a

Bertha cannot understand the idea of liberty beyond

performance of Harry Plunket Greene, the Irish baritone,

their marital bond. It seems that Bertha is similar toin which he sang “O Ye Dead!” from Thomas Moore’s

Gabriel, the protagonist of “The Dead,” however her

Irish Melodies.

attitude is slightly different because Gretta choose not tohide her unforgettable love affairs; she cannot containthe feelings aroused by her memory. Gabriel had not― 8 ―Research Reports of National Institute of Technology, Ichinoseki College, No. 51

In the stanza, the living say, ‘Oh, ye Dead! Oh, ye

Oh, ye Dead! Oh, ye Dead! whom we know by the

Dead! Whom we know by the light you give’ (Moore

light you give
From your cold gleaming eyes,

161; italics mine) While the dead wander, they meet theTho' you move like men who live,

living; thus, in this world, the dead are ghosts who

Why leave you thus your graves,cohabited with the living.
The following is also stated in Moore’s notes forin far off seas and waves,
Where the worm and the seabird only know your“O Ye Dead!”:bed.
To haunt this spot, where all

Paul Zealand mentions that there is a mountain in

Those eyes that wept your fall,some part of Ireland, where the ghosts of persons

And the hearts that wailed you like your own, lie

who have died in foreign lands walk about thedead!

converse with those they meet, like living people.
If asked why they do not return to their homes,

It is true, It is true, We are shadows cold and wan;they say they are obliged to go to Mount Hecla,

And the fair, and the brave whom we loved on

and disappear immediately.

(Moore 267)

earth are gone,
But still thus ev'n in death,

In the second stanza, a ghost that has parted fromSo sweet the living breath

the body wanders to Mount Hecla in Iceland, which is

Of the fields and the flow'rs in our youth we

said to be a symbol of the inferno. However, in “TheDead”, the ghosts visit and ‘light up’ truths, revealing

wander'd o'er,
That ere, condemn'd, we go,them to the living.

To freeze 'mid Hecla's snow,
We would taste it awhile, and think we live once

3. Gaslight and the Dead

more.

Gaslight has special connotations in this story.

Itsymbolizes(
the eyes of the dead and particularly Gretta’s
Moore 161-62; italics mine)lover Michael; as it is mentioned above, the dead(Michael) illuminates the way for the living.

LightThe lyric takes the form of a conversation between thesuggests how Gabriel gains his new realisation of his

living and the dead. As Joyce considered Rome andand Gretta’s relationship as well as how he encounters

Dublin to be cities where the living cohabited with thethe dead.

dead, it is likely that he imagined the situation describedin the song as quite possible.

Gordon mentions that gaslight, which is also
known as ‘fire gas’, was common among residents of― 9 ―Shimokawa－“The Dead” in Dubliners: What the Ghosts Light

Dublin when the song appeared in 1906 as gas pipes had

suggested the story’s title, the dead are known

recently been laid underground throughout the city.1“by the light you give.

(Gordon 20)

Electric light was a state-of-the-art technology, and thus
had much more limited use. Gaslight was called old

Since gas, ghost and ghastly have the samelight while electric light was called new light.

etymological root and these words contain the meaning

Gaslight was widely used in Dublin in the earlyspirit, gaslight is naturally associated with ghost which

20th century 2 . Gordon focuses on the spiritual

has only spirit and no physical existence. Gaslightconnection of ‘gas’ as follows:

illuminates our path in the dark. It is indeed the same as‘the light you give’ (Moore 161), which is sung by the“Gas,” “ghost,” and “ghastly” are all — or haveliving in the lyrics of “O Ye Dead!.” Gaslight isbeen thought to be etymologically akin, deriving

predominantly featured in many significant scenes in thefrom the Dutch geest for spirit. In Thomas

story, including the scene in which Gabriel encounters

Moore’s ‘O Ye Dead,’ the song which probably

Lilly in the little pantry, in the moment he recognizes thebeauty of Gretta on the Morkans’ stairs and in the final

Gordon 19. While the use of electric
light in London started in the 1870s, it did
not appear in Dublin until the 1880s. The
Gresham Hotel was considered to be oneof the most fashionable hotels in Dublin,so it already had electric lighting.
However, Gordon also mentions that thelower middle class in Dublin still usedcandlelight, which preceded gaslight. For
example, in “The Sisters” a boy, uponlooking up at Farther Flynn’s room, sees acandle lit on the windowsill to mourn thedead.
2 Gaslight was a familiar item for
Dubliners. Aunt Kate and Mary Janetreat Mr Browne, one of the main guests
at the party, they would as gaslight.

astonishing scene at the Gresham Hotel.

― Browne is everywhere, said AuntKate, lowering her voice.
Mary Jane laughed at her tone.
― Really, she said archly, he is very
attentive.
— He has been laid on here like thegas, said Aunt Kate in the same tone,
all during the Christmas. (D 206)

suggesting Michel’s pale face with a tint of death in the1

Gaslight first appears in the scene in the pantry
where Gabriel and Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, have ashort conversation. The light illuminates the girl’s figure.
She is described as ‘a slim growing girl, pale incomplexion and with hay-coloured hair. The gas in thepantry made her look still paler’ (D 177). She hadfinished school more than a year ago; her age is almost
the same as that of Michael when he died for Gretta.
AlthoughsheisclearlynotMichael’s

preciseembodiment, nevertheless her lit face is ‘still paler’,rain. Also, the pallor of her face is an effective contrast
with that of Gabriel, who has a healthy, reddish look
similar to that of living people: ‘[h]e was a stout tallish
young man. The high colour of his cheeks pushed
upwards even to his forehead where it scattered itself in

Gaslight as used here indicates a warm
and attentive character.

a few formless patches of pale red’ (D 178). The ghostly― 10 ―

Research Reports of National Institute of Technology, Ichinoseki College, No. 51

pallor and lively red colour are both lit up by gaslight.

scene suggests that both Gretta and Gabriel are called byAnother important episode featuring gaslight

Michael from another world.

occurs when Gretta is faintly illuminated near the top of

Michael controls the story by summoning

Morkans’ stairs after the party. She is listening to thecharacters old memories and showing them hidden

song “The Lass of Aughrim”, sung by Bartell D’Acy.

truths; he acts as if he is God. The changing of their

When Gabriel sees her, her pose strikes him as follows:

minds is also watched by Michael. Also, he shows
Gabriel and Gretta what he wishes them to find in the

He stood still in the gloom of the hall, trying tostory: the song, an embodiment of Michael, is expressedcatch the air that the voice was singing andas ‘[t]he voice made plaintive by the distance and by thegazing up at his wife.

There was grace andsinger’s hoarseness faintly illuminated the cadence of

mystery in her attitude as if she were a symbol of

the air with words expressing grief’ (D 210, italics

something of something.

He asked himselfmine). He lets the characters indicate what he intends towhat is a woman standing on the stairs in theby illuminating. Illuminating leads characters to findshadow, listening to distant music, a symbol of.

something important; the scene of Distant Music

If he were a painter he would paint her in thatpredicts Gabriel’s ghostly encounter with Michael.

attitude.

Her blue felt hat would show off theMichael, in the form of gaslight illuminatesbronze her hair against the darkness and the dark

Gretta’s grief for him in the Gresham Hotel. In the hotel,

panel skirt would show off the light ones.

Gabriel tells an elderly porter not to put either electricDistant Music he would call the picture if helight or candlelight in his bedroom:

were a painter. (D 210)
The porter pointed to the tap of theThis is the moment when “The Lass of Aughrim” 3electric-light and began a muttered apology but

makes her remember her time with Michael. Gabriel

Gabriel cut him short.

describes her atmosphere as Distant Music. The title― We don’t want any light. We have light

may come from the faint music and her fragile look, but

enough from the street. And I say, he added,

simultaneously it represents that Gabriel has gradually

pointing to the candle, you might remove thatbeen recognizing that the dead can approach him from ahandsome article, like a good man.
…

world he has considered to be far from his own because
the song is exactly the symbol of Michael, the dead. The

A ghostly light from the street lamp lay ina long shaft from one window to the door.

This song, which is a key tounderstanding Michael, will be mentioned
in a later part.
3― 11 ―

216; italics mine)(DShimokawa－“The Dead” in Dubliners: What the Ghosts Light

The high-class hotel in “The Dead” uses electric light,“O Ye dead!” describes the dead giving light towhich does not work properly; this is symbolic,the living; it suggests the importance of the past and that

implying the slight misunderstanding that occurs

the living reside in a world that has been built by the

between Gabriel and Gretta. Furthermore, the fact that

dead. Through our memories, the dead can show us

Gabriel prefers gas street lights to candlelight hints thattruths that we had never before realised. In the story,

he feels haunted by the ghost.

light associated with memory shows Gabriel a truth that

Michael is haunting Gabriel; he looks into thehe had not realised. In the hotel room, he finally

hotel room from a window: ‘[a] ghostly light from theunderstands the marital gap that exists between him andstreet lamp lay in a long shaft from a one window to thehis wife. Gabriel stares back at his own astonished facedoor’ (D 216). The light from the window to the door

in the mirror when he hears Gretta’s confession about

symbolizes Michael’s eyes, which quietly see the lustfulMichael; in short, Gabriel realises that Michael’s ghost

Gabriel, and Gretta with her painful memories, comestill stands between them.

into the room from the door.

He highlights the great

gap of feeling between the two.

So she had had that romance in her life: a man

In the room, Gretta stands in front of the mirror,

had died for her sake. It hardly pained him nowthen ‘walks along the shaft of the light toward Gabriel’to think how poor a part he, her husband, had(D 216) as if being led by the light, dead Michael. But,

played in her life. He watched her while she slept

her mind has no interest in Gabriel, and she goes to theas though he and she had never lived together aswindow to see outside. She may be calming her feeling,a man and wife. (D 223; italics mine)but simultaneously, she may long for her dead lover,whom she has remembered by hearing “The Lass of

The light from gaslight illuminates his own face in the

Aughtrim” sung by Bartell D’Acy, the tenor, at themirror while also showing his wife’s true face, whichMorkans’ party.

Gabriel has never seen before. In Moore’s poem, theAlso, there is a strong link between gaslight anddead are defined as those ‘whom we know by the light

Michael; he had worked at the gasworks in Galway. In

you give’ (Moore 161). This implies that the deadother words, Michael provided light to indirectly reveal

provide truth and indicate the direction in which thepeople’s lives. Furthermore, people working at gasworks

living must journey.

endured terrible condition of dust pollution. Therefore,

When Gabriel realises that he mirrors himself inmany suffered from lung disease like Michael. Michael

his own behaviour, he feels ashamed and avoids the

had been producing gas (light) before his death to light

gaslight:

up people’s lives and warm them, thus providing proof
that gaslight represents Michael.

He saw himself as a ludicrous figure, acting as a

― 12 ―

Research Reports of National Institute of Technology, Ichinoseki College, No. 51

Pennyboy for his aunts, a nervous well-meaning

now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you’sentimentalist,and(D 178) when he says to her, ‘I suppose we’ll be goingidealizing his own clownish lusts, the pitiable

to your wedding one of these fine days with your young

fatuous fellow he had caught a glimpse of in theman ― eh?’ (D 178). He is astonished by the girl’s

mirror. Instinctively he turned his back more togrown-up demeanour. Then, at the dance hall, when he

the light lest she might see the shame that burned

dances lancers with Miss Ivors, he is told that he isupon his forehead. (D 220; italics mine)‘West Briton’ (D 190) because he travels the continentoratingtovulgarians

and writes articles in the Daily Express, whose editorial
He turns his back to avoid seeing his real self and topolicy is ‘the development of industrial resources and aprevent Gretta from seeing his humiliation.

reconciliation of the rights and impulses of Irish

Clearly, Gabriel regards the dead as a ‘ghostly’ or

nationality with the demands and obligations of imperial‘ghastly’ existence in both works, “The Dead” and “O

dominations’ (Gifford 116). Miss Ivors criticises him

Ye Dead!” However, based on the conversation between

because his attitude toward his mother country is in

the living and the dead in the song and the quotation

stark opposition to her fanatical nationalism. After afrom “The Dead,” ‘A ghostly light from the street lamp

dance, he escapes to the window and looks outside.

lay in a long shaft from one window to the door’ (D 216;
italics mine), the dead do not frighten the living. The

Gabriel’s warm trembling fingers tapped the colddead appear as a gaslight not only to provide evidence

pane of the window. How cool it must beof their existence, but also to show Gabriel the truth

outside! How pleasant it would be to walk out

regarding Gretta’s past.

alone, first along by the river and then throughthe park! The snow would be lying on the

4. The Dead Haunt Gabriel

branches of the trees and forming a bright cap on

Michael Furey, Gretta’s dead boyfriend, emerges

the top of the Wellington monument. How muchas a character during her confession. However, hemore pleasant it would be there than at theactually appears throughout almost the entire story,

supper table. (D 192; italics mine)even at the Morkans’ lively party. He haunts Gabrielfrom the time he enters the Morkans’ house. MoreThe quotation above implies a clear contrast between

interestingly, Gabriel is unconsciously fascinated by

the warm and lively interior and the cold and silence

the presence of the dead and unseen Michael.

outside. He longs to go out and walk to Phoenix Park in

During the party, Gabriel feels uncomfortable.

the snow.

While the party symbolizes the world of theFirst in the pantry, where he removes his coat, he is told

living, outside is an extraordinary and mysterious world,by Lilly, the Morkans’ housemaid, that ‘[t]he men that is

because snowfall in Dublin is extremely rare. He wants― 13 ―

Shimokawa－“The Dead” in Dubliners: What the Ghosts Lightto run away from those who torture him and seek athere is a man looking up at the window, similar to thestrange new atmosphere that he has not experienced.

way in which Michael looked up at the window in theWithin the confines of the window is the real world,

rain to bid Gretta farewell when she was preparing towhile outside is a hyperreality that has a strange

depart for Dublin. The people outside may have come toatmosphere; in this atmosphere, there is something thathaunt and see Gabriel and Gretta from outside.

eases Gabriel’s tension, and represents the ideal spacefor which he longs.

Pearson states as follows: ‘… ‘The Dead’ ishaunted by allusions to dead, but potentially speaking,Soon after, when he is at the table, Gabriel still

voices from Ireland’s past’ (Pearson 161). Here, hethinks of the outside and imagines people looking up atsuggests that the dead are possibly the founders of

the window of the Morkans’ house.

Ireland; in other words, that we live on the foundation of
the dead, who show us what they experienced in order to

The piano was playing a waltz tune and he could

protect the country from aggressors.

hear the skirts sweeping against the drawing
room door. People perhaps were standing in the

5. What the Dead Light Upsnow on the quay outside, gazing up at theGabriel believed that Gretta loves him, but her

lighted windows and listening to the waltz music.

confession shakes his belief. Hearing her confession

The air was pure there. In the distance lay theregarding the affair with Michael in her youth, Gabrielpark where the trees were weighted with snow.

must admit the fact that Michael died for her. Michael’s

The Wellington Monument wore a gleaming cap

death implies that she was his only woman and that evenof snow that flashed westward over the whiteafter his death, he haunts her for his eternal passion forfield of Fifteen Acres. (D 202; italics mine)

her as if he were her guardian angel. In the last scene,
Gabriel again watches the snow fall and listens toNameless people look up at the window and listen to thesnowflakes tapping upon the pane; however, hemusic. It is curious that people are outside, where it isdescribes the snowflakes as ‘[a] few lights taps upon thecold and dark. Furthermore, chronologically consideringpane made him turn to the window’ (D 223); in thisthat Gabriel arrived at the Morkans’ at around 10

context, it is implied that these lights come from theo’clock, after which there were several piano tunes anddead. The snow tapping upon the window is associateddances, it must be nearly midnight when guests at thewith the scene in which Michael visited Gretta:

party had dinner. It is quite unnatural that people would
stand outside in the cold late at night. We can therefore

Then the night before I left was in myguess that they are the dead. It is even quite possible that

grandmother’s house in Nun’s Island, packing up,

one of the men is Michael himself, because in the scene,

and I heard gravel thrown up against the window.

― 14 ―

in Dubliners:
WhatIchinoseki
the GhostsCollege,
Light No. 51
ResearchShimokawa－“TheReports of NationalDead”
Instituteof Technology,

The window was so wet I couldn’t see so I ran

O don’t you remember

downstairs as I was and slipped out the back into

That night on yon lean hill

the garden shivering. … I implored of him to go

When we both met together

home at once and told him he would get his

Which I am sorry now to tell.

death in the rain. But he said he did not want tolive. (D 221; italics mine)

The rain falls on my yellow locks
And the dew it wets my skin;

Michael’s soul visits Gabriel in the same way that he bid

My babe lies cold within my arms:

farewell to Gretta. Michael appears in front of Gabriel

Lord Gregory let me in. (Gifford 124)and shows him the story of his experience with Gretta.
Gabriel’s feelings are described as follows:

The song describes how the maiden of Aughrim asks to
see Lord Gregory because she bore his baby; however,Generous tears filled Gabriel’s eyes. He had

she is rejected. While she is waiting, her baby, which

never felt like that himself toward any woman,

she was holding in her arms, dies due to the cold rain.

but he knew that such a feeling must be love.

She is thus associated with Michael who also waited for

The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes andGretta in the rain.

in the partial darkness he imagined he saw theThis is the moment that Michael conquers

form of a young man standing under a dripping

Gabriel: ‘his own identity was fading out into a greytree. Other forms were near. (D 223)

impalpable world; the solid world itself which thesedead had one time reared and lived in was dissolving

He discovered that Michael’s love for Gretta was boldand dwindling’ (D 223). The grey impalpable world isand passionate. In other words, while Gabriel’s love isthe place where the living and the dead cohabited; he isrealistic and substantial, Michael’s passion is ideologicaloverwhelmed by the fact that his identity disappeared

and spiritual. In addition, Michael standing outside infor his experience with Gretta as his finest lover. He

despair is associated with the maiden of “The Lass ofenters a world that he had never even realised, but that

Aughrim,” the song Michael sang for Gretta.

in which Gretta has lived in and to which her soulbelongs. Furthermore, although Michael has been deadIf you’ll be the lass of Aughrim

for years, his spirit lives on in Gretta’s memory.4

As I am taking you mean to be
Tell me the first token
That passed between you and me.

The idea that the dead can live foreverin the memories of the living is also
appeared in “A Painful Case” in Dubliners.
When the protagonist, Mr. Duffy is facedwith the death of Mrs. Sinico, he feels4― 15 ―

Shimokawa－“TheDead”
in Dubliners:
Dubliners:
WhatIchinoseki
the Ghosts
GhostsCollege,
Light No. 51
in
What
the
Light
ResearchShimokawa－“TheReports of NationalDead”
Instituteof Technology,

Gretta lives with the dead while Michael’s ghost haunts

whited-out, removing all differences between the two

Gabriel. It seems that the world is not entirely separate

worlds.6

but that the border between this world and the other isFurthermore, the narrator’s view progresses fromvague; in short, the living and the dead coexist with one

the east to the west of Ireland. This may be due toanother. At the end of the story, snow falls all over

Joyce’s experiences travelling from Dublin to Galway in

Ireland, on the living as well as the dead.

1906. He states that ‘[t]he time had come for him(Gabriel) to set out on his journey westward’ (D 223;

Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was

supplement mine). Gabriel decides to journey westward,

general all over Ireland. It was falling on every

and, as Ellman shows, there is a clear implication thatpart of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills,

westward is towards death.7 The west implies anotherfalling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther

world where Michael comes from.

westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous

Furthermore, in the first stanza of ‘Oh, Ye Dead!”,Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every

the lyrics say ‘we know by the light you give from yourpart of the lonely churchyard on the hill wherecold gleaming eye,’ (Moore 161; italics mine). Thus, theMichael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted

light comes from eyes of the dead. Considering thaton the crooked crosses and headstones, on thetruth is indicated by the light, in the speech scene,

spears of little gate, on the barren thorns. (D 223)

Gabriel imagines that ‘the Wellington Monument wore agleaming cap of snow that flashed westward over the

The entire Ireland becomes whited out. Snow covers

white field of Fifteen Acre’ (D 202; italics mine). The

everything as it falls through the universe,5 into whichsnow cap illuminates the west, predicting that Gabriel

Ireland appears to gradually melt away. In other words,

would realise that the time has come for him ‘to set on

snow symbolizes a much larger purpose, as if God

his journey westward’ (D 223).

blanks everything and evenly purified both worlds; thedead and the living, and the border between them arelonely, as he realises that he will
disappear unless someone remembers
him: ‘his life would be lonely too until he,too, died, ceased to exist, became amemory ― if anyone remembered him.’(D 116; italics mine)‘His (Gabriel’s) soul swooned slowly as
he heard the snow falling faintly throughthe universe and faintly falling, like thedescent of their last end, upon all theliving and the dead.’ (D 224; supplementmine)
5

6. What Gretta Symbolizes‘I think he died for me’ (D 220) is the richest but
the most striking statement in Gretta’s confession and is

Gordon explains snow falling all overIreland as a victory for Michael as anarchangel (See Gordon 29). However, I
think snow symbolizes a bigger existence,
like God, who dominates not only theliving and the dead, but also the good andthe evil in the world.
7 See Ellmann 249.
6

―
― 16
15 ―
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Research Reports of National Institute of Technology, Ichinoseki College, No. 51

often described as a parody of Yeats’s “Cathleen ni‘… but there were others that died for love

Gabriel has been totally defeated by Michael; heof me a long time ago’ (Yeats 82). The old woman inadmires his instinctive passion, and cries generous tears,

Yeats’s play is a symbol of Ireland; to protect her, many

which suggests both his forgiveness and his jealousy

men fight against invaders (‘many strangers’ ; Yeats 81)

towards Gretta and Michael, respectively.

Houlihan”:

and die. She also sings:

Although Gabriel has not experienced the west of
Ireland, he finds that the country is composed of

They shall be remained for ever,numerous layers of the dead by facing his wife’s secret

They shall be alive for ever,memory. It is the moment for him to become interested

They shall be speaking for ever,in the west of Ireland, which is more traditional and

The people shall hear them for ever. (Yeats 82)

primitive. Thus he decides to ‘journey westward’ (D223).

This also implies that, even after death, spirits can exist

Shovlin considers Joyce to be a Celtic revivalist.

forever in the memories of the living. In other words,

He explains that Connacht, which maintains a typicalthe country is built upon the dead, who should be

Irish atmosphere, was considered to be utopia by Celtic

remembered. Michael Furey in “The Dead” can exist

revivalists in the late 19th century.8 He also notes that

forever in the memory of Gretta, who echoes the Old

facing the dead induces Gabriel’s decision to travel

Woman of “Cathleen ni Houlihan” as a symbol ofwestward. Through his defeat, his anglicised Dublin

Ireland.

spirit dies, and he enters into the primitive lands in the

Clearly, the west of Ireland, where Gretta andMichael reside, is a symbol of Ireland. In comparison, itwest of Ireland. In the end, he disappears in the snow
falling over the whole of Ireland:

is a far more passionate area than Dublin. Gabriel, aDubliner, is astonished by Gretta’s tears for theHis (Gabriel’s) soul swooned slowly as he heard

boyfriend who died for her.

the snow falling faintly through the universe andfaintly falling, like the descent of their last end,

Better pass boldly into that other world, in theupon all the living and the dead. (D 224;

full glory of some passion, than fade and wither

supplement mine)

dismally with age. He thought of how she wholay beside him and had locked in her heart for so

Snow falls from the universe as if it is a gift from God.

many years that image of her lovers eyes when

It means that the living and the dead coexist within thehe had told her that he did not wish to live. (DGod’s domain. Michael’s light indicates the truth to

223)

8

See Shovlin 1-11.

― 17 ―

Shimokawa－“The Dead” in Dubliners: What the Ghosts Light

Gabriel in his realisation that the dead stand by him andwhited out. He finally acquires a new relationship not

are the foundation of Ireland; in other words, he finds

only with Gretta but also with Ireland, and realises that

himself to be more of a part of his nation, even if he

it is time to ‘set out on his journey westward’ (D 223),

avoids accepting this fact. Michael, the dead, and Gretta,

which is associated with Ireland’s layers of history anda symbol of Ireland, allow Gabriel to admit his own

the world where the living and the dead co-exist. As in

nationalistic background.

“O Ye Dead!”, the dead (Michael) calls the living(Gabriel) through light, illuminating for Gabriel the new

7. Conclusion

direction in which he must journey to renew his

In this paper, with reference to Thomas Moore’s“O Ye Dead!”, I have examined the impact of the deadthoughts towards not only himself and his family but
also his native land.

(Michael Furey) on Gabriel’s revelation. Moore’s songis composed of a conversation between the living andBibliography

the dead. Particularly, the living tells the dead, ‘we1) Ellmann, R. James Joyce: New and Revised Edition,know the light you give’ (Moore 161), which implies
that the dead show hidden truths to the living. This
conversation

inspired

Joyce

to

describethepsychological love triangle with his wife and Michael

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959.
2) Gifford, D. Joyce Annotated: Notes for Dubliners andA Portrait of the artist as a Young Man, Berkley:
University of California Press, 1982.

(Sonny) Bodkin. Even though Michael died many years

3) Gordon, John ‘Gaslight, Ghostlight, Golliwog,

ago, he still lives in Nora’s memory. Joyce was haunted

Gaslight’, James Joyce Quarterly vol. 46, No. 1,

by the dead (Michael), who showed him the truth of his

Talsa: Ohio University Press, 2008.

relationship with Nora. Thus, it is demonstrated how‘gaslight’symbolizes

thehaunting

ghostswho

illuminates the reality of the living.

4) Joyce, J. Dubliners: Text, Criticism, and Notes.
Edited by Robert Scholes and A. Walton Litz, New
York: Viking Press., 2006).

In addition, the hometowns of the wife and her

5) —,— Selected Letters of James Joyce. Edited bydead boyfriend in the west of Ireland completely

Richard Ellmann, London: Faber and Faber, 1975.

different from the husband’s hometown of Dublin. The

6) Pearson, N. ‘Death Sentences: Silence, Colonial

west of Ireland contains the calamitous remnants of a

Memory and the Voice of the Dead in Dubliners,’

storied history. Gabriel stood on the anglicised side, but

141-170. Edited by C. Jaurretche, European Joyce

through Michael, he admits the aspects of Irish

Studies 16: Beckett, Joyce and the Art of the Negative,

colonization. Also, it is seen that both Michael andAmsterdam: Rodopi B.V, 2011.

Gretta represent an image of typical Ireland. In realising

7) Shovlin, F. Journey Westward: Joyce, Dubliners andhis own nationality, the identity Gabriel had is slowly

the Literary Revival. Liverpool: Liverpool University― 18 ―

Research Reports of National Institute of Technology, Ichinoseki College, No. 51

Press, 2012.
8) Yeats, W. B. The Collected Plays of W. B. Yeats.
London:Macmillan

London

Ltd.,

1934.

― 19 ―