HL1003N Reading Twentieth Century Fiction - Essay Example

During the course of the evening, Gretta is reminded of a man named Michael Furey, a man who is not her husband, but whom she once loved many years ago. In the first occasion she is reminded of the town of Galway, where she had her relationship with Furey. Second, she listens to a song by Mr. DArcy which is the same song Furey sang on their long walks through the countryside. This too takes her away to different time and place. Gabriel for his part does not pay much attention to his wife. He did not really want to go to the dance and feels alienated from the people there.

He doesn’t know how to talk to them and doesn’t really seem to want to talk to them. When he leaves to go back to the hotel with Gretta he thinks, “they had escaped from their lives and duties” (169). He doesn’t like it there. Only then does he see that Gretta is in a different kind of mood. Not only was she not paying attention to much of the party, but she was lost in the past—thinking mostly of a dead man who had influenced her life so much. She finally tells Gabriel about how Furey had died as a young man after catching cold while standing outside of her window in the rain shouting up to Gretta that he did not want to live without her.

After his wife has gone to bed, Gabriel thinks about his own life and about his wife; he feels like he leads a passionless existence. At first he was angry at Furey, but finally he begins to see that the passion that motivated Furey focused and encouraged a good life. He looks at his sleeping wife: “He thought of how she who lay beside him had locked in her heart for so many years that image of her lover’s eyes when he had told her that he did not wish to live” (176).             The dead are everywhere in this story.

They are, for example, the subject of Gabriels speech at the dinner after the