In the story, "The Dead", by James Joyce we read about a character "Gabriel" that is attending his Aunt Kate's and Aunt Julia's annual Christmas dance along with his wife Gretta. There were many other attendees at this annual dance, other members of the family, old friends of family and along with additional acquaintances. Music of years past entertained the guests, "The Lass of Aughrim" was the key turning point of the story as Gretta listens and relives memories of the past. The night was filled of dancing, eating and visiting before the guests headed home on a snowy night.
             Gabriel is a well educated man and sees himself somewhat above the guests that are in attendance with him. We see this when the James Joyce says, "He would only makes himself ridiculous by quoting poetry to them which they could not understand". He is a displaced man who has less self confidence in himself than he leads others to believe. Gabriel is a dynamic character and gains insight and recognizes his emotional limits. He is brought to ultimate self-awareness and the realization that a true life is self-sacrifice. This insight comes after his wife tells him about her first love and how the song at the party reminded her of him. Gretta tells him a story of how her first love was so sick but came to her window and asked her not to go to convent. She tells Gabriel that her first love died for her. James Joyce shows this self-awareness when he writes, "he saw himself as a ludicrous figure, acting as a penny boy for his aunts, a nervous well-meaning sentimentalist, orating to vulgarians and idealizing his own clownish lusts, the pitiable fatuous fellow he had caught a glimpse of." This self-awareness and self-sacrifice makes Gabriel reach towards true communion with his wife Gretta but lacks the emotion to reach out and comfort her.
             Gabriel has an internal conflict with himself an...