To me, I think Joyce is trying to get across in the story that without passion and love, you are "dead." There is no meaning or hope in your life that you get up for in the morning. Because Michael died for his first love Greta, he is actually more alive than anyone else in the story. The others just go through life without really finding something worth dying for. Then you are truly living.
1. There are many references to the dead.
Page 1946- Kate and Julia's brother Pat
Page 1971- Michael Furey
Page 1973- Aunt Julia
1948- Gabriel's mom Ellen
1961- Monks who sleep in a coffin
1963- Gabriel's speech
1966- Sad Irish song that Michael sang about a drowning mother and her child
2. The names Michael and Gabriel are also archangels. In the story, Michael was Greta's(Gabriel's wife) very first love. He died visiting her in the rain right before she left and she was broken hearted. Gabriel just now found out about him when Greta got upset after hearing a song he used to sing. In the bible, Michael is the head archangel and Gabriel is subservient to him. This kinda shows that Greta will never feel the same way about Gabriel as she did Michael, because she never really got over him.
when reading this story it seems as if everyone else was "dead", but then michael was kept alive through Greta's memories, so i agree with you. i also thought that it was amazing that michael still had a huge impact on Greta's life even after he had died. its amazing how one can impact someone else. Gabriel never had a chance...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you said that without love everyone goes through life as dead. In the story when Gabriel realized that his wife was still in love with Michael it made him feel like he had never really been alive because he didn't love her the way he thought he did. I think that this can be related to real life also in that sometimes people are more alive after they are dead than when they were living. We sometimes talk about the dead more or remember them in a better light than we saw them when they were alive. While this is very sad, its sometimes true. At times even when a certain person is no longer in our life we can't help but still think about them and sometimes it's impossible to get over them.
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