The Dead.

1. read the text carefully and write down all the new words
2. make a list of the main characters
3. summarize the plot
4. answer the following questions:
a. How many parts can the story be divided? What are they?
b. How is the story narrated and from whose point of view?
c. Where does "epiphany" take place in the story?
d. How does the story end? How can we interpret the image of the snow?

2. The main character is Gabriel Conroy, a middle-aged man. He is a teacher and a writer. He is married
with a woman, Gretta, but in the end of the story he realised that she wasn’t actually in love with him, in fact
she was still thinking about her previous love, who died. He is very nostalgic in fact he always thinks about
the past. Gabriel has two aunts that praise him very often. He doesn’t like Dublin life.

Gretta Conroy is Gabriel’s wife, differently from Gabriel, she likes Dublin life, but like him, she always
thinks about the past. In fact she is still in love with another man from her past who died and she thinks that
happened because of her. After the party she cried for this reason.

Kate Morkan and Julia Morkan are Gabriel’s aunties. Kate is a pianist and gives lessons at home. She is
very religious in fact she thinks the pope is infallible even though he decided to not allow women at the
circhi choir. She is kind and she always tries not to argue with anyone. Julia has gray hair and seems to be
older than she actually is, she is a soprano. Her death is imagined by Gabriel.

Lily is the caretaker’s daughter and knows the family since she was a child, in fact Gabriel remembers of
her playing with a doll.

Mary Jane is Kate and Julia's niece and she grew up with them since her father died when she was young.
She plays the organ.

3. We are in 1904 during Christmas time and Kate, Julia and their niece Mary Jane hosted friends and
relatives for a traditional party. Since Gabriel is the aunt's favourite nephew, he is commissioned to do
many tasks including pronouncing the official speech, after which he was applauded. At the party Gabriel
meets many people among which Miss Ivor’s, who accuses him to be a “West Briton'' since she is a
nationalst, and after this accuse Gabriel mood changes. When the party finished and the guests were going
home, Gabriel noticed that Gretta was listening to Bartell D’arcy, a tenor, who was singing an Irish song that
made her cry. On the way to the hotel, while Gabriel was thinking about having sex one arrived, Gretta told
him that she was crying because the song she listened to was the one that her love Michael furey used to
sing to her, than she also told how he died. After this she fell asleep and outside it was snowing.

a. The story can be divided in two parts, the first part takes place during the party at the aunties’ house, in
a moment in which Gabriel feels self satisfied, while the second part takes place in the hotel, when Gretta
confessed her love for another man who’s dead, while outside it is snowing, and Gabriel started thinks
about how meaningless his life had been so far. These two parts are two different moments of the same
day.

b. The story is narrated in third person and from Gabriel’s point of view.

c. Epiphany takes place in the end of the story when Gabriel realised that for Gretta Michael is more alive
than him, so he realised that his love story with her had been meaningless.
d. At the end of the story Gretta confessed her love for another man who’s dead, while outside is snowing.
To me the image of the snow, since it’s cold, has to be interpreted as a symbol of death. In the end of the
text, snow falls both on dead and living things. I think that this represents the fact that everything is dead,
including some living people, because they’re physically alive, but spiritually dead. But the fact that the
snow falls on both living and dead things could also symbolize that livin and dieting are not different since
you can be alive, but not living, and you can be dead, but still alive for someone, like Michael for Gretta
which is figuratively more alive than Gabriel