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Usually we believe that knowing others will bring us closer to them. If someone you know is sad or angry or happy, would not understanding how this person feels would bring you closer, would help construct a bridge to that person? (on J. Joyce's The Dead)
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Yet in J. Joyce's story "The Dead", as we follow Gabriel through his evening, with every additional instance of coming to know someone better, he slips further away from the very people with whom he wants to make links.
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It makes one anxious to feel with Joyce's character in these instances, trying to connect through knowing, but each time becoming more isolated. It makes us anxious because of what it implies about trying to connect.
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The self-improver in all of us would like to believe that if we reach out to others, learning about them will achieve closeness. Experiences of the kind Joyce's character (Gabriel) has - which we recognise and feel in ourselves- imply this may not be so.
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from "The Inwardness of James Joyce's Story, 'The Dead'", by Keith Oatley (Univ. of Toronto)
