Gabriel: An Awakening To Mortality In “The Dead“

21 Pages 5176 Words

s to the snow. Although he describes the snow in many different forms, Joyce is trying to show his readers the true magnification of the paralysis that seems to control Gabriel’s life. “He stood on the mat, scraping the snow from his galoshes, […]” (Joyce 175) The snow on Gabriel’s galoshes is symbolic of the shield that he has placed around himself in order to protect his true feelings of inferiority. Gabriel tries to suppress his feelings of inadequacy by escaping to the window to be at one with the snow.
Gabriel’s warm, trembling fingers tapped the cold pane of the
window. How cool it must be outside! How pleasant it would
be to walk out alone, first along by the river and then through
the park! The snow would by lying on the branches of the trees
and forming a bright cap on the top of the Wellington Monument.
How much more pleasant it would be there than at the supper
table! (Joyce 186)
Gabriel has convinced himself that if he can be outside in the snow, he will be free of the dead existence that h...