Abstract

Dubliners, one of James Joyce’ s most famous works, vividly details the middle class Catholic life in Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The Dead is the final short story in his collection Dubliners. It is also the longest story in the collection. This story draws a perfect end to the whole collection. This thesis analyzes the use of symbolism in the story The Dead from three aspects including the names, the events and the circumstances in the story. What is more, the thesis further specifies the functions of the use of the symbolism. Finally, by analyzing the functions that symbolism makes to the narration of the whole story, this thesis practices a new method to analyze James Joyce’ s work and also the works by other writers who have been influenced by him greatly.

Keywords: James Joyce;  The Dead;  Symbolism; Dubliners

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 James Joyce the author-1

1.2 Dubliners, a collection of short stories-1

1.3 “The Dead”, the short story-1

2. Literature Review-2

2.1 Symbols and Symbolism-2

2.2 Previous Studies of “The Dead”-2

3. A Symbolic Analysis of “The Dead”-3

3.1 The symbolic meaning of names-3

3.2.1 The maid’ s name “Lily”-3

3.1.2The hero’ s name “Gabriel”-4

3.1.3The famous singer’ s name “Parkinson”-4

3.2 The symbolic meaning of events-5

3.2.1 Christmas dinner in Mrs. Morkan’ s-5

3.2.2 The speech that Gabriel makes during the dinner-5

3.2.3 The hotel conversation-6

3.3The symbolic meaning of circumstances-6

3.3.1 The lights-6

3.3.2 The snow-6

4. The Functions of Symbolism in the Story-telling-7

5. Conclusion-8

References-10