James Joyces The Dead - Failure to Create Wholeness from Gnomon :: Joyce Dead Essays

The Failure to Create haleness from Gnomon in The Dead T here is junior-grade doubt in anyones mind that Gabriels dialect in The Dead is a failure. It is harder to understand what exactly he was trying to accomplish. The almost archaic style contradicts the tripping content, and what we are left with is a rambling oration which seems to produce nonhing. course session through the speech, one can not help but be taken with(p) by its wondrously odd and seemingly antiquated phraseology Let us calm cherish in our hearts the memory of those dead. . .whose fame the world will not willingly let die. To go on bravely with our work among the living. We are met here as friends. . . (202-203) Those dead, work among the living, we are met here as friends - not exactly the bankers bill which one would expect from an informal after-dinner speech in the midst of a party. The question is, Where would one expect to hear this kind of speech? The answer is childlike at a funeral, of course. Not just any sort of funeral, however. mavin in particular comes to mind We are met on a great playing area of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as a concluding resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. . . The world will little not nor long remember what we say her, but it can never embarrass what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work. . . (261) In its sentiments and even in its diction it is astonishing how alike Gabriels speech is to Licolns Gettysburg Address. Now before you drift down this paper in disgust let me make it clear that I will not be suggesting that Joyce tried to transcribe The Gettysburg Address into Dubliners. I do think, however, that both speeches come from a certain tradition of speaking, the funeral oration or epitaphioi and understanding how Gabriels speech follows or strays from the tradition which it is emulating helps in grasping the re asons keister and consequences of its failure. Lincolns funeral oration is the only English example of a specifically Athenian phenomenon. In classical Athens, it was customary for an elected official to give a speech at the funeral for those soldiers who lost their lives during the previous year.James Joyces The Dead - Failure to Create Wholeness from Gnomon Joyce Dead EssaysThe Failure to Create Wholeness from Gnomon in The Dead There is little doubt in anyones mind that Gabriels speech in The Dead is a failure. It is harder to understand what exactly he was trying to accomplish. The almost archaic style contradicts the lighthearted content, and what we are left with is a rambling oration which seems to produce nothing. Reading through the speech, one can not help but be struck by its wondrously odd and seemingly antiquated phraseology Let us still cherish in our hearts the memory of those dead. . .whose fame the world will not willingly let die. To go on bravely with our work among the living. We are met here as friends. . . (202-203) Those dead, work among the living, we are met here as friends - not exactly the tone which one would expect from an informal after-dinner speech in the midst of a party. The question is, Where would one expect to hear this kind of speech? The answer is simple at a funeral, of course. Not just any sort of funeral, however. One in particular comes to mind We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. . . The world will little not nor long remember what we say her, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work. . . (261) In its sentiments and even in its diction it is astonishing how alike Gabriels speech is to Licolns Gettysburg Address. Now before you throw down this paper in disgust let me make it clear that I will not be suggesting that Joyce tried to transcribe The Gettysburg Address into Dubliners. I do think, however, that both speeches come from a certain tradition of speaking, the funeral oration or epitaphioi and understanding how Gabriels speech follows or strays from the tradition which it is emulating helps in grasping the reasons behind and consequences of its failure. Lincolns funeral oration is the only English example of a specifically Athenian phenomenon. In classical Athens, it was customary for an elected official to give a speech at the funeral for those soldiers who lost their lives during the previous year.