James Joyce's "The Dead" employs the stream-of-consciousness technique to give readers insight into the innermost thoughts and feelings of the protagonist, Gabriel Conroy. For example, as Gabriel gazes out of a window at the falling snow, Joyce writes: "His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead." Later, during a conversation with his wife, Gabriel's thoughts shift rapidly from feelings of superiority to insecurity, as Joyce writes: "He watched her while she slept, as though he and she had never lived together as man and wife. His curious eyes rested long upon her face and on her hair: and, as he thought of what she must have been then, in that time of her first girlish beauty, a strange, friendly pity for her entered his soul."
As the story progresses and Gabriel learns about his wife's past love affair, his thoughts become increasingly fragmented and confused, reflecting his internal turmoil. The stream-of-consciousness technique allows readers to experience Gabriel's thoughts and emotions in a vivid and immediate way, conveying the complexity and uncertainty of modern life.