Many may be astonished when someone speaks of a short story entitled The Dead. But, as most people know an author isn't going to call a piece of his work something for no reason. James Joyce titled The Dead as such to help get the meaning of the story across better, that the characters are dead; they show no real emotion, they say nothing of substance and pretend certain things happen , did not. By this …showed first 75 words of 602 total…

…showed last 75 words of 602 total…culture, and basically nothing else. This is important in their culture, and it's all pretend. The fake hospitality goes on at the end of the speech, when even though no one understands that Gabriel was talking about, they applaud heavenly. Joyce succeeded in masterfully painting a portrait of what he thinks of Irish culture. As on can plainly see in The Dead, Joyce believes the culture to be lacking as compared to other European ways.