Throughout the story he is constantly battling whether or not he should become more personal to the people around, yet any time he attempts to, he ends up being misunderstood or hurt. James Joyce uses snow to reflect his shield or detachment from the people around him. At the beg

At this moment he realizes that he does not want to become personally, emotionally, attached to anyone because it has only caused him pain. Snow silences things, and for Gabriel snow silenced the truth, and its presence muted whatever he did not want to hear.

inning of the story, “A light fringe of snow lay like a cape on the shoulders of his overcoat and like toecaps on the toes of his galoshes”, but he was trying to “scrape the snow [off]”(185). Later he tries to become warm to Lily and has a conversation with her, but when their discussion results in a misunderstanding the story begins to be told in an omnisciently in Gabriel’s point of view. It is like he is separated from the rest of the people.

After he mistakenly offended Lily, he worries whether or not he will offend other people with the speech he had written. “They would think that he was airing his superior education. He would fail with them as he failed with the girl in the pantry…His whole speech was…an utter failure”(187). Gabriel is thinking that if he tells his speech truthfully, he will make the people around him mad. As he distances himself from the activity of the party, he begins to long to be outside with the snow. “How cool it must be outside! How pleasant it would be to walk out alone”(201). He feels he is least vulnerable in the snow, where no one can hear anything and no one can get hurt. Even though Gabriel must hide from the rest of the world, he feels that he can always trust his faithful wife, Gretta.

Gabriel thought that Gretta was the only woman that was incapable of hurting him. He cherished the “colour on her cheeks and that her eyes were shining,” that made “A sudden joy went leaping out of his heart”(223) When Gabriel walked with his wo

Some topics in this essay:
James Joyce, Michael Furey, Gabriel Gretta, Dubliners Throughout, , James Joyce’s, james joyce, cause pain, told truth, truth cause pain, feels vulnerable snow, truth cause, finally realized, truth gabriel, throughout story, love love, feels vulnerable, michael furey,