GABRIEL’S EPIPHANY
The following text is at the end of The Dead, the last story of the collection Dubliners, written
by James Joyce. The protagonists of the story are Gabriel Conroy and Gretta, his wife. The
story opens with their going to the annual Christmas party given by Gabriel's aunts. At the
party Gretta hears a song, which reminds her of a young man, Michael Furey, who died for his
love to her when she was 17 years old. After the party Gabriel and his wife come back to their
hotel room. Gretta falls asleep thinking about the song, which reminded her of Micheal, while
Gabriel watches her sleeping and comes to terms with what she has just told him about
Micheal. !
The text can be divided into two parts: the first section goes from line 1 to line 33 and the
second section goes from line 34 to the end. !
At the beginning of the first part of the text Gabriel experiences a moment of awareness,
known as “Epiphany”, which is a technique employed by the author. By “Epiphany” he meant
the sudden revelation caused by something concrete, such as an insignificant gesture, a
common object or an ordinary situation, which brings the characters to reveal their own inner
truths. In this case, Gabriel by looking at his wife, he realizes that Michael is more important
than him in Gretta’s heart. !
The scene seems to lose a precise temporal connotation because Gabriel wanders from past
to present and to future. The words and sentences highlighted in blue are Gabriel’s thoughts
expressed in past simple and past continuous tenses, which represent the present of the
narration. Those highlighted in green are Gabriel’s thoughts expressed in the past perfect,
which is considered the past of the narration. Gabriel’s thoughts highlighted in yellow and
expressed in the conditional, are the future of the narration. Everything happens in Gabriel’s
mind, but there are few words referring to realistic and external objects, for example at lines
2-3 and then at lines 11-12. The only word which gives information about the setting of the text
is “room” at line 22.!
Gabriel reflects on men's mortality and he thinks about how it is best to die in the full glory of
some passion instead of fading with age, as Michael did. He feels empathetic sadness and
generosity towards Gretta and her feelings and realizes that Michael truly loved her, and he has
never felt like that towards anyone. Gretta’s recalling Michael caused Gabriel to realize that
even if Michael is dead, he is more alive in Gretta’s heart that him. In Gabriel’s thoughts can be
found the conflicts between life and death, and present, past and future.!
At the end of the first section of the text, Gabriel reflects on the relationship between the living
and the dead and he realizes the true measure of himself and his relative importance in the
greater picture. !
The second section of the text is different in content and style from the previous one. In this
part Gabriel is watching the snow falling outside his window. Snow may be a symbol of death,
since it covers the living and the dead without any difference. It is a symbol of hopeless
solitude and incommunicability or of the isolation and alienation of the author in Dublin and
Ireland, but at the same time it can also be considered as a symbol of purification and life,
since it clears the world of all the negative images. Therefore the image of the falling snow
reconciles life and death. !
Gabriel perceives himself as becoming part of all beings, the living and the dead, and he feels
no longer alone, despite the dramatic fading out of his personality and his awareness of lacking
