In this essay I shall attempt to show to what extent Joyce’s The Dead can be regarded as an example of modernist fiction, and shall discuss this with reference to its form/structure and thematic concerns.

When Joyce began writing The Dead in 1906 and 1907, planning its storyline in Rome where he was then staying, he intended it to be the last in a succession of short stories he had compiled (15 in all) entitled Dubliners. However, the difference there was to be between this and the preceding stories was that, whereas the others tended to underline only the negative aspects of his homeland, Ireland, this would include some positive aspects as well.

By the time Joyce had begun to write The Dead, his attitude towards Dublin, the central city in Ireland, had softened slightly in that he had begun to realize that, in fact, it was unique in its ability to extend warmth and hospitality to those who chose to visit. This quality, he felt, could be found nowhere else in the other modern nations of Europe. These sentiments did not, however, distract him from the central theme r

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