Joyce, James - Gabriel’s epiphany

Joyce, James - Gabriel’s epiphany

This short story was added at the end and was published in 1914. What does epiphany mean? A sudden understanding of a situation, of a moment, an awareness. It has a religious meaning (and this because Joyce studied by Jesuit) but apart from that, there is a deeper meaning and refers to the understanding. It is a moment of comprehension, of awareness out of the darkness, caused by a trivial event. What is it about?
This is the most important short story written by Joyce. It is not yet used the stream of consciousness, but the style and the language used is considered more complex. This is the last short story he added. The main characters are Gabriel and his wife Gretta, who seems to be Joyce himself and his wife Nora. They
lived in London and worked there, and they abandoned Dublin in the same way Joyce and his wife did. This is because there is a kind of identification between Joyce and Gabriel, Nora and Gretta. They seem to be the same person because Gabriel teaches, writes for a newspaper, but he abandoned Dublin as Joyce did.

Gabriel is the main character together with his wife Gretta. They decided to go back to Dublin to spend Christmas evening with the original Irish family. In particular they are going to spend Christmas Eve night with the three
spinsters aunts, who live in Dublin. Every year they have this meeting, they spend time together on Christmas Eve. On this occasion all the family and friends meet at the aunt's house, and it is common that Gabriel delivered his
annual speech at the dinner. Gabriel is in fact considered as the intellectual man within the family. He was very busy and concentrated on what to say in this speech, he was also considering if it was the case to mention some important poets and philosophers. So he delivered his fantastic speech, he was very proud of himself considering how good his speech had been. Then after the dinner the family listened to some music. During one of this music his wife Nora was totally astonished, totally involved within the listening to the piano, that was playing a particular song. Gabriel was surprised watching his wife listening to that song with so much interest. At this point the evening finished, and on the way back to the hotel, where they are going to spend their night there Gabriel who was really in love with his wife, was wondering of spending a passionate love night with her. But it happens that he saw his wife a little bit distant, she was not so involved. When they arrived at the hotel they started to undress and Gabriel asked his wife the reason why she was so distant, so she revealed something unexpectedly terrible for Gabriel. She revealed that the song she was listening to the dinner party, reminded her of a boy whose name was Michael Furey, who was playing that song under her window in the snow, and after playing that song in the snow, he died. So this means that this boy died for her.
What was the reaction of Gabriel after this revelation? After revealing this terrible truth, something changed in Gabriel. It is important to remember that the two names are symbolic: Gabriel is the name of the archangel Gabriel and Michael is the name of the archangel Michael. So there is a religious reference. After revealing this, she was fast asleep but for Gabriel begins a terrible moment: Gabriel's mind is totally overwhelmed by all kinds of thoughts. His perception of the world was disappearing under the snow that can have positive connotations. In this moment begins his epiphany: He feels useless, he thinks he had a minor role in his wife's life, since Gretta had had a great love that even died for her. He started watching her as he and she had ever lived together as man and wife. He sees her as a different person. Now the technique starts to be cinematographic: he started to imagine her when she was young. "His eyes moved to the chair over which she had thrown her clothes". The confusion of the clothes on the floor and on the chair, represent the same exact kind of confusion that Gabriel has in his mind. At this point generous tears started to fill Gabriel's eyes because he had never felt something like that towards a woman in his life. He heard a noise at the window, it was snowing. The snowflakes are silver and dark, not white (epiphany), it's a symbolic colour, it means distance, no communication, isolation. The snow was falling everywhere and also above the cemetery where Michael Furey was resting. The snow was covering all the living and all the dead, making all of them similar. In fact the main theme is the little border that is between the living and the dead. At the same time the distance between the living and the dead is very short, if not upside-down. It seems a paradox and there is a kind of upwards situation. Michael Furey, who is dead, is alive in Gretta's heart and differently Gabriel, who is alive, he seems to be dead in Gretta's heart. At this very moment Gabriel understands that he is still in love with her. In this moment begins his epiphany: He feels useless, he thinks he had a minor role in his wife's life, since Gretta had had a great love that even died for her. He started watching her as he and she had ever lived together as man and wife. He sees her as a different person. Now the technique starts to be cinematographic: he started to imagine her when she was young. "His eyes moved to the chair over which she had thrown her clothes". The confusion of the clothes on the floor and on the chair, represent the same exact kind of confusion that Gabriel has in his mind. At this point generous tears started to fill Gabriel's eyes because he had never felt something like that towards a woman in his life. He heard a noise at the window, it was snowing. The snowflakes are silver and dark, not white (epiphany), it's a symbolic colour, it means distance, no communication, isolation. The snow was falling everywhere and also above the cemetery where Michael Furey was resting. The snow was covering all the living and all the dead, making all of them similar. In fact the main theme is the little border that is between the living and the dead. At the same time the distance between the living and the dead is very short, if not upside-down. It seems a paradox and there is a kind of upwards situation. Michael Furey, who is dead, is alive in Gretta's heart and differently Gabriel, who is alive, he seems to be dead in Gretta's heart. At this very moment Gabriel understands that he is still in love with her. Why is the snow considered as an optimistic symbol?

Because it is a symbol of purity, rebirth. From the snow we have the water, and the water is for Joyce positive because it refers to life and rebirth. And also because below the snow there is still life that goes on anyway. There is a kind of similarity between the living and the dead, but a paradox as well. A paradox because it seems that Michael Fury, who is physically dead, is still alive in Gretta's heart and seems more alive than Gabriel. The dead
people are alive, until they are in someone's heart. Another theme is the theme of the lust because on the way to the hotel, Gabriel wonders about having a beautiful night with his wife. But then, after the revelation, he discovered that he simply loved his wife. Another contrast is that Gabriel is very proud of himself, he considered himself superior to others. But after this revelation he understood that he knew nothing about his wife, even if they had spent a lot of years together.