James Joyce's Short Story "The Reaction Paper

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"Poor Aunt Julia! She, too, would soon be a shade with the shade of Patrick Morkan and his horse," realizes Gabriel. He also realizes that his wife and he are not getting any younger -- he observes her face is not the face Michael Furey died to see.

Rather than regain his belief in the value of romance, Gabriel has a deeper revelation: he comes to recognize how little he knows about the human character and the fact that he does not love his wife as deeply as Michael Furey: "Perhaps she had not told him all the story. He thought of how she who lay beside him had locked in her heart for so many years that image of her lover's eyes when he had told her that he did not wish to live. Generous tears filled Gabriel's eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman, but he knew that such a feeling must be love."

The story's purpose seems twofold -- first to deflate the egos of characters like Gabriel, who believe that they know the human heart, and have a sense of superiority over their fellow human beings.

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At the beginning of the story, Gabriel believes his intellect is all-powerful and can vanquish everything. Soon he learns that his mind cannot grasp his wife's feelings, and it cannot overcome the power of death. His accomplishments and ideas are superficial, not lasting, just like the lives and ideals of all of the characters in the story. The second and higher purpose of the tale is to counsel all readers to put aside their own sense of specialness, and to try to connect with others, given that all of us become in the end, like Michael Furey, one of "The Dead.".....

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