The Dead begins with a silent night filled with turmoil. But while it's covered in snow outside, there's a party going on inside. Although this festival is an annual event, it has its own routine to follow. However, the only things that have changed in this particular time are the main characters, Gabriel and his wife Gretta, and the events that take place at the party play an important role in the interactions between this married couple. The party involves a lot of drinking and dancing, some old friends meet up and chat. all the events of the party lead to the explosive finale, where Gretta tearfully reveals in their hotel that she has been thinking about an ex-lover ever since she heard a familiar song at the party, leaving Gabriel stunned because he did not notice his wife's words. emotional state, followed by other mixes of emotions. Gabriel hadn't realized that his wife had been enchanted by the memory of a former lover ever since she heard that song in the party room. Gabriel is too narcissistic to realize that his wife is in a state of emotional distress. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay There are many reasons to argue that Gabriel is in a state of narcissism. The first shows his interaction with the maid Lilly. Upon arrival, she takes his coat and they have a chat. Everything seems fine until Gabriel asks if Lilly is old enough to marry, and Lilly retorts that men only want "what they can get from you" (Joyce, p. 2) Instead of trying to make amends for the situation by talking to Lilly, Gabriel awkwardly gives her some vacation advice, hoping this will smooth things over. It doesn't quite work, but he walks out of the conversation anyway and enters the party to start dancing. After meeting Lilly, he thinks a little about their conversation, and how "his whole speech was a mistake from first to last, a complete failure" (Joyce, p.2). In this scene, Gabriel has an internal monologue in which he acknowledges that the conversation didn't go well, or at least there was some sort of misunderstanding on some level. There's the fact that he hoped that monetary compensation would help smooth out his obvious awkwardness in conversation. The skill he is able to perform so easily and readily shows a display of class and wealth, which shows his ego, a trait of narcissism. However, instead of returning to Lilly to make amends, he carries on with the party as usual. But that's not to say that Gabriel is too caught up in his inner thoughts or that he's throwing his wealth around. He is aware of what is happening around him. For example, after the interaction with Lilly and his thoughts about how horribly the conversation had gone, he continued to converse with his wife. This conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Freddy Malins, a party guest who always seems to arrive drunk. Gabriel made sure Freddy was sober enough to participate in the evening's festivities. This includes taking him to a separate room in the house so he doesn't make a scene where everyone is dancing together. This action is not typical of someone who is self-centered or obsessed with appearances. This is an act of kindness, and while some may want nothing to do with someone who is always drunk, Gabriel goes out of his way to make sure the party goes smoothly. And while it may be true that Gabriel made sure that Freddy was not a hindrance to any of the partygoers, he did not stay with him the entire time, but instead enlisted the help of Mr. Browne, another partygoer , and left Freddy with him. After leaving Freddy with Mr. Browne, Gabriel returned to the party andhe did not return to Mr. Browne or Freddy. While an external act of kindness is exempt from Gabriel's coherent internal monologue, other things are not. For example, at the end of the party, Gretta and Gabriel decide to take a taxi rather than walk to their hotel. Before this, however, Gretta is apparently hypnotized by a song being sung in the living room. Even after the song ends, she is still distracted. During the entire taxi ride to Dublin, she remains silent and thoughtful, lost in the memory of her former lover and how he died waiting for her in the cold. Gabriel notices that his wife is worried, perhaps even emotionally distressed, but he does not attempt to talk to her. This is because, like his wife, he is also lost in his own world. Similar to his, there are themes of love, but with undertones of longing for his wife. Gabriel's thoughts are shown explicitly in a written quote when they arrive at the hotel, where Gabriel feels that they "escaped their lives and their duties, fled from home and friends, and fled together with wild and radiant hearts to a new adventure" (Joyce 18). George L. Lucente analyzes this quote in his article Encounters and Subtexts in 'The Dead': A Note on Joyce's Narrative Technique. Lucente admits that Gabriel wants an escape and also points out that Gabriel notices Gretta's strange mood and the events that unfold afterward. But Lucente says that instead of thinking about his wife and how this memory must affect her, Gabriel's thoughts align with the prospect of "losing." In this perspective, Gabriel shows no concern for Gretta who has just told a sordid story about her past boyfriend and cried herself to sleep, but is absorbed in his thoughts about how to win and lose control over her. Also, there is a bedroom scene. of the hotel, where Gretta tells Gabriel the story of her ex-lover. Brian Cosgrove described and analyzed Gabriel's reaction in his article Male Sexuality and Female Rejection: Lingering Irony in Joyce's "The Dead". When Gabriel first realizes that Gretta is in trouble, he asks her what's wrong, and she bursts into tears, saying that the song reminded her of someone important, a lover from the past. This discovery that Gretta has had a lover in the past shocks Gabriel, but also makes him feel uncomfortable. Then Gretta begins to tell the story of how Michael Furey died for her. Cosgrove says so. He also states that there is a way Gabriel can break out of this state of interiority. But that opportunity quickly disappears when Gretta goes into more detail about Michael and the history they have. And even listening to Gretta tell her story, a key part of her past and who she is, Cosgrove describes how Gabriel sees himself in the mirror and observes himself as a ridiculous person (p.7). And maybe that's what led to the self-consciousness during Gabriel's speech at the party. After the conversation with Lilly, and after helping Freddy Malins, Gabriel finds himself dancing with Miss Ivors, one of his colleagues. While dancing, she urges him to go on a trip, but he refuses, saying he already has a bike trip planned. During this conversation, she discovered his pseudonym as a writer for a newspaper and accused him of hating his country because he did not want to make the trip and had instead planned a cycling trip. After his dance with Miss Ivors, a song is sung by Julia, one of the three hostesses, the other two being Gabriel's aunts. Everyone eats and Gabriel gives a speech that garners applause and a toast from three hostesses. Before the speech, Gabriel already had an encounter with Lily that would make him more embarrassed than he already is. In addition to that, Miss Ivors, a friend and colleague, has also just discovered that he is oneghost writer and pressed him on what he saw as lack of interest in his country. But this speech, an external action, could also free itself from the solitary monologue from which Gabriel does not seem to separate, giving him confidence, involving himself with the party participants who listen to his speech. Just as Cosgrove mentioned what it would be like to be with his wife to distract Gabriel from his self-consciousness. And from the outside, it seemed that Gabriel might be a little less self-involved, as he proclaimed that he would not dwell on the past but would move forward ( Joyce 13). The content of the speech concerns future generations, with an appreciation for events that occurred in the past. He doesn't seem like someone who is self-conscious or narcissistic, yet Gabriel returns to thinking singularly in the following scenes. The following scene at the hotel, where Gretta tells Gabriel what was on her mind, shows Gabriel's narcissism the most. During the telling of the story, Gabriel becomes angry when he realizes that he is not actually Gretta's first love, and that she had loved before him. Instead of trying to comfort his wife, Gabriel experiences feelings of anger, then begins to compare himself to Micheal Furey and belittles his own self-image (Joyce 20). And to give Gabriel credit, he noticed that his wife was in a different emotional state, from the moment she heard the song at the party until they returned to the hotel. But he only used it to his advantage, to fuel his imagination. In his imagination, he created a place where both he and his wife could escape. Although Gabriel uses his thoughts for processing, in this case he also uses them as an escape from reality. In this escape, Gabriel controls everything as these are all thoughts in his mind. It's a fantasy world, and the escape, over which he has total control and the contribution of anyone or anything else doesn't matter. In the last scene where Gretta is sleeping and Gabriel is still awake, he is thinking about Michael Furey and how it is that he is lying under the snow buried in a grave. But then his thoughts return to himself again and he begins to analyze his love with Gretta. Here he is not comparing himself to Michael, but comparing the feeling of love he had before for his wife, to the feeling of love that Gretta must have felt for her former lover (Joyce 22). Gabriel still shows signs of self-consciousness and narcissism, right up until the last page, the only difference is that it's on a deeper level. Gabriel almost seems to have selective attention when it comes to what's happening around him. An example is when he and his wife are traveling to the hotel from the party in their taxi. He noticed that his wife's behavior had changed. However, he didn't notice anything beyond that. He didn't realize that she was in difficulty because he too was gripped by desire for his wife. Not only that, but he has created an escape from the real world, an escape from reality, an escape from which he and his wife can escape. And although the escape he created includes his wife, he didn't ask for her input. He also based his imaginative escape on what appeared to be superficial characteristics from a glance of his wife. When Gabriel first saw that she was so lost in thought, he was fascinated by his wife's change of mood, then thought back to their love when they first met. Then he continued from there with his internal monologue. When Gretta begins to show signs of annoyance, and it appears to Gabriel that Gretta is not following through with what she has planned, one of Gabriel's first emotions is anger. He is angry, because at that moment he realizes that he has lost control of the situation and that he is taking a completely different path than he would have liked. And this made Gabriel angry. The fact that Gabriel has.