Moore Jr. 1
Eddie Moore Jr. III
Dr. Sutton
ENL 4303
27 February 2014
Dublin’s Hero Departed: The Dead Analyzed As James Joyce’s Critique of Dublin
No good story goes without a little diversity or danger thrown in, amidst adversity
is when heroes, or heroines, rise to display their courage and defend the greater good of
their community. James Joyce’s Dubliners focuses on the city of Dublin in central
Ireland. The community of Dublin is depicted as a place without masculine heroes. In
Dubliners, there is a short story called the Dead, and when the main character is faced
with hazard he crumbles and realizes there is no greater good worth defending, or that
when he digs deep the realization strikes; there is no courage to display. A hero,
according to The Oldest Irish Tradition: A Window on the Iron Age by Kenneth
Hurlstone Jackson, takes his surroundings and forms it into an environment that would
devour people like Gabriel Conroy of James Joyce’s The Dead. It takes certain
characteristics to survive in a heroic society such as strength, and determination, but
Gabriel has no characteristics of this caliber. Ancient Legends Mystic Charms &
Superstitions of Ireland by Lady Wilde offers stories with actual heroes to compare and
contrast with Gabriel while showing how Irish folklore has remained unchanged for
many generations. Mr. Conroy goes against Wilde’s definition of an Irish hero, but still
retains the role, as the protagonist of James Joyce’s The Dead in order to represent the
lack of masculine heroes Joyce believes to be residing in the Dublin he left behind.
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Hero is a term used internationally, but in different languages. Webster defines a
hero/heroine as “a man of distinguished valor or enterprise in danger, or fortitude in
suffering; a prominent person in any remarkable event; hence a great person”1 a person
does not have to be in danger to be a hero, although it does help. A hero can be present in
any action. The focus of this paper will lie on a not so great person, Gabriel Conroy, of
Dubliners, and his lack of heroic qualities while he maintains a protagonist role in The
Dead. Lady Wilde has collected ancient stories in the book Ancient Legends Mystic
Charms & Superstitions of Ireland, to be used for reference here in the essay to contrast
Mr. Conroy’s attitude. Gabriel’s actions required a separate source; Kenneth Jackson’s
The Oldest Irish Tradition will be used to provide alternative, ideal realities for Gabriel’s
awkward encounters.
Heroes are always at home, even in the earliest of traceable Irish tales heroes have
been adapting to their environment and always surrounding themselves in a “heroic
society” (Jackson 8) a heroic society is defined as “a warrior aristocracy in the sense that
it is organized for the warfare which is its business.” (Jackson 8) Any business conducted
by a hero is taken seriously and is handled with the upmost care. Warfare is to never
being taken lightly and is enjoyed by some heroes; this is when they thrive at displaying
moral character and defending the greater good. Gabriel finds himself in an un-friendly
environment at verbal warfare with different opponents at a family dinner party.
1
http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/hero
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Generosity is evident through heroic tales, but is not usually displayed by male
heroes. Gabriel demonstrates the Christmas Spirit by giving the young girl a large tip but
he does not gain any claim to being called a hero. In “The Legend of Bally Towtas
Castle” (Wilde pg15) a woman givers her everything to, who appears to be the main
character, but he dies immediately after. Neither the giver nor the receiver was a winner
in that situation, leaving no hero to take center stage. Having supernatural powers, to a
certain point, could be equal to having wealth, a confusing concept brought to light by
Jackson “Economically speaking it is chiefly a cattle-rearing community in Ireland, and
cattle are the staple form of wealth and the aim of much of the raiding and fighting. We
learn more about the structure of the earliest traceable Irish society from the Law tracts”
(Jackson 9) the hierarchy for their law tacts started with the king up top and below people
fell in line in relation of their value to the king. Having wealth would be helpful to an
individual, would help the king because of taxes, but a king has money, a king has
everything in the land he desires. But magic is controlled only by the person with
supernatural powers, and cannot be given away with generosity. Being a hero is
supernatural in the fact you cannot give it away or receive it from someone, and therefore
being a hero could have earned you a spot in a kings hierarchy higher than money could.
The story, The Dead, by James Joyce takes place at a popular dance attended
annually by anyone who knows the hosting family; a typical main character would thrive
at transforming this party into a perfect heroic society. Gabriel runs into constant trouble
attempting to take control of situations at the party, simple conversations evade him in
ways that are awkward to read, and he shows disrespect towards women. Instead of
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arriving fashionably late like a cool hero should, Gabriel is the second to last to arrive at
the party, and shows up in galoshes. This character is too out of style, and too late, to be
fashionably late. Had his unpunctuality not ruined being fashionably late, Mr. Conroy’s
fashion certainly would have. Gabriel immediately blames his wife for their tardiness
“Miss Kate and Miss Julia thought you were never coming. Goodnight, Mrs. Conroy’ ‘ill
engage they did,’ said Gabriel, ‘but they forget that my wife here takes three mortal hours
to dress herself” (Joyce 120) Gabriel whines about his wife’s tardiness yet as she goes to
join the party before him, he remains downstairs removing snow from his galoshes and
chatting up an extremely young coat girl. This long and weird conversation with the coat
girl is accompanied by Gabriel removing snow from his removable galoshes. Gabe could
have simply removed his galoshes, and gone upstairs to join his wife, and avoid so much
criticism, and suspicion from critics, but instead he chose to linger.
“The Horned Women” from Lady Wilde’s Ancient Legends Mystic Charms &
Superstitions of Ireland is one of Irelands oldest mythical stories, dating back to at least
one thousand years. Witches plague the female hero until a mythical well offers her a
solution; the tale shows Irelands aged respect for the feminine. A respect for women
Gabriel needs to learn.
With the ladies a hero is smooth, respectful, and confident, but Gabriel on the
other hand is awkward and arrogant. Gabriel reveals his self-importance while coping
with a disturbed feeling left by the conversation with the coat girl “It had cast a gloom
over which he tried to dispel by arranging his cuffs and the bows of his tie. He then took
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from his waistcoat pocket a little paper and glanced at the headings he had made for his
speech. He was undecided about the lines from Robert Browning, for he feared they
would be above the heads of his hearers.” (121) A hero would not let a coat girl interfere
with his mood for the night, and a true hero or heroine knows their place and respects
their peers. Since there is this disturbance the conversation with the coat girl did not go as
planned for Gabriel, but the disrespect to his future audience’s intelligence was uncalled
for. Gabriel fails to display modesty as a true hero would, and he indefinitely lacks
humility at his core. The confidence could add to his list of characteristics one thing of
heroic value, but the Dubliner protagonist takes it too far. His confidence has clouded his
mind at this moment and consumed all signs of humbleness. But here is where Gabriel
finally displays one heroic trait.
A true Irish hero respects women for their inner as well as their outer beauty,
especially if that woman is the mother of his children. Moms are some of the most
compassionate creatures no matter what species, and do not deserve to be ridiculed by
fathers like Gabriel. Here Gabriel examines his wife, and after he gets jealous describes
Mrs. Conroy “and, as he thought what she must have been, in that time of her first girlish
beauty, a strange, friendly pity for her entered his soul. He did not like to say even to
himself that her face was no longer beautiful, but he knew that it was no longer the face
for which Michael Furey had braved death” (151) Gabriel feels sorry for how his wife
looks, he can see her beauty, but it is in the intangible past. Michael Furey was a sixteen-
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year-old romanticist Mrs. Conroy use to know, and the reason for Gabriel’s jealousy. In
the story Gabriel has a right to be upset with his wife, but this is not an outburst, Mr.
Conroy is calmly sitting next to his wife contemplating. The sleeping Mrs. Conroy has no
idea about the criticism and ridicule being rained down from her gazing husband, who
ironically is unable to be aware that he is a suspected rapist.
There are some good stories without heroes, and most of them are from ancient
Ireland, still being deciphered from their Celtic origins. According to the tales collected
by Wilde there was a heavy lack of masculine heroes compared to common day society,
where a new hero makes a movie every month. Joyce was able create an enticing book of
short stories without heroes in tribute to ancient Ireland. Joyce demonstrates his writing
talent by transcribing interesting stories without strong masculine heroes like his Celtic
forefathers had done. The deficiency of heroes, in Dubliners, mirrors James Joyce’s
averting of Dublin, he never returned as the. Once the literary hero left Dublin there was
no one to follow, no one but people like Gabriel. If Gabriel is the best available for
Dublin since Joyce has departed, the one lingering question, why did Gabriel just not
remove his galoshes? Is sidekick to where are the heroes?
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Works cited
Jackson, Kenneth Hurlstone. The Oldest Irish Tradition; a Window on the Iron Age.
Cambridge: U, 1964. Google Books. Cambridge. Web.
<http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=pkTUotRW8_AC&oi=fnd&pg=
PA1&dq=irish+heroes&ots=OwVIDZ9rt2&sig=r1kHggoc34VxCtooBwankxnXx
Fo#v=onepage&q=irish%20heroes&f=false>.
Joyce, James. Dubliners. New York: Dover Publications, 1991. Print
Wilde. Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland: With Sketches of the
Irish past. London: Ward and Downey, 1888. Google Books. Cambridge. Web.
<http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=R3GSX_IkdIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=irish+legends&ots=4TUEDcAgi1&sig=h3VRquoT
RKWaHOy4RtznY_qZ0DU#v=onepage&q=irish%20legends&f=false>.