"The Dead" was published in The Dubliners in 1914, earlier in the year in which World War I broke out,  two years before the Easter Rebellion, and five years before the official beginning of the Irish War of Independence. However Joyce had written it in 1907 and had been unsuccessful in publishing it until 1914. Are there any themes or incidents in the story which would reflect some of the issues of the time?

How old would Joyce have been at the time of writing? (25) Are some of its themes unexpected for such a young man? Alternately, may his distanced view of an older man and his wife be in part the result of differences in age?

What is the effect of publishing this as the last in a collection of stories entitled The Dubliners? Had it been published at some other time or set elsewhere, would its effect have been different?

What role or roles does the narrator assume? (omniscient, free indirect discourse) Do  these change as the story progresses?

Is the story subdivided into sections? Can you say that there is suspense, and if so, of what does this consist?

In addition to Irish independence and its uneasy relationship with England, what other social issues of the time may be discerned behind the plot? (metropole / rural Ireland division; women's movement; different levels of education)

Why do you think a party and a stay in a hotel room were chosen as the settings for this story? Are there parallels between this party and that held by Mrs. Dalloway?

Why do you think Gabriel was chosen as the protagonist? What does he represent? To what extent are we expected to empathize or identify with him, and to what extent are we invited to criticize? Does he change or develop over the course of the story?

Does the narrator's relationship to him change over the course of the story? Is the reader's attitude toward him uncertain or mixed--and if so, what effect does this have on the story and its ending?

May aspects of his description be autobiographical? (described as writer and teacher, loves books, writes reviews)

Do some parts of the story progress more slowly than others, and if so, what effect does this have? (section after departure of Miss Ivors and before the dinner) What do you think the story includes so much detail about the arrival and departure of the guests?

What is the importance of minor characters such as Mr. Browne and Freddy Malins? Are these stereotyped characters? May they also have represented real-life counterpoints? Do we see them in different relationships to the other characters?

Critics (generally college professors) have often interpreted this story as a critique of mediocrity and failure in the context of the insularity of Ireland's small cultural elite. Is there evidence for this interpretation in the story? Would a more sympathetic reading of the story be possible? Is the reader expected to accept Gabriel's self-criticisms or view them as signs of anxiety?

What level of detail is provided throughout the story? Why do you think so many descriptions of common aspects of the milieu are included?

Three women challenge or confront Gabriel at various points in the story--Lily, Miss Ivors, or more indirectly, Gretta. Are their statements or views seen to be threats, and on what level? Does it undercut their messages that both Lily and Molly Ivors are less than courteous? Does Gabriel respond well to either of them?

Would Joyce have sympathized with Gabriel's views on these issues? Are Molly Ivors' views undercut by the bluntness of their presentation? And if so, what is Gabriel presented as so disconcerted?

What are features of Gabriel's speech at the dinner? Does the narrator undercut aspects of it? (florid, conventional) Of what does its content consist? (old ways have virtues, the new generations should remember and honor them)

This story has been interpreted by feminist critics as alternately misogynist and feminist. What evidence do you find for either of these views?

What role is assigned to the male singer? (he evokes Gretta's deepest emotions through memory) May there be autobiographical resonances in this? (Joyce himself a singer who had won prizes for his performances)

What seems to be Gabriel's relationship to his wife and his view of their marriage? (many fine moments and some more mundane ones) What purpose is served by presenting his erotic thoughts as he contemplates sex with his wife? (feels alternately protective and wants to grab her)

Why does Gretta weep on hearing the song? (weeps for her youth and the pathos of the young lover's early death) To what degree is Gabriel unsympathetic or sympathetic? How does she interpret Michael Flurey's death? (had died for her) Does this seem likely? (died of the sickness which caused him to be placed in the hospital)

What self-criticisms does Gabriel express to himself before going to bed? Does the narrator apparently affirm them, or are we expected to see these as only reflections of a passing mood?

Is he correct in assuming that a young man had died for love of the young Gretta? (no, but story seems to accept this romanticized view) What reflections does this thought bring forth about his own marriage? (had never and could never love with such intensity--yet we see that he is in fact attached to his wife; contrasts his own life with one of greater passion)

What symbolism seems to be attached to western Ireland within the story? Granted Joyce's resistance to an overly nostalgic view of Irish folk culture (such as embodied in the Irish Renaissance), what may Gabriel's view that he must go westward represent?

What is the meaning of the last scene? How do you interpret the meaning of the snow falling all over Ireland? Has Gabriel found a way to accept the relationship of the past to the present, or alternately, is his view one of hopelessness and stasis? (critics have argued both)

In general are the descriptions of the weather meaningful or merely conventional?

What emotions is the reader expected to feel at the end of the story? (sadness? empathy? detachment? judgment?)

Is the indeterminacy or ambiguity of the ending a flaw or a merit? Can you think of other modernist short stories with a similar indeterminacy? How would "The Dead" have been altered if Joyce's narrator had added an interpretive final paragraph?