The Dead (short story) The Dead (short story) "The Dead" is the final story in the 1914 collection "Dubliners" by James Joyce. The other stories in the collection are shorter, whereas at 15,952 words, "The Dead" is long enough to be described as a novella. The story deals with themes of love and loss as well as raising questions about the nature of the Irish identity. Gabriel Conroy, Gretta Conroy, Kate and Julia Morkan, and Bartell d'Arcy are all alluded to in James Joyce's later work, "Ulysses", though no character from "The Dead" makes a direct appearance in the novel. The story centres on
Boarding house relatives brought social anxieties and complaints that the residents of boarding houses were not respectable. Boarding out gave people the opportunity to meet other residents, so they promoted some social mixing. This had advantages, such as learning new ideas and new people's stories, and also disadvantages, such as occasionally meeting disreputable or dangerous people. Most boarders were men, but women found that they had limited options: a co-ed boarding house might mean meeting objectionable men, but an all-female boarding house might be – or at least be suspected of being – a brothel. Boarding houses attracted criticism: in "1916, Walter