James Joyce's "The Dead"

"The Dead" is a story that emphasizes on the idea of love and relationships and what they really mean. The main character, Gabriel, is a man who is successful and thought of highly in his social circle. The story begins at Christmas time and he is attending an annual party thrown by his ederly aunts. While at the party, he has some unfortunate encounters with some of the people in attendance. He offended the young cleaning girl, he upset one of the ladies he was dancing with, he was involved in an awkward moment with his wife and aunts, he wasn't confident about his speech, and he ended the night by making his wife cry. The subject of death was mentioned quite often. For example, Gabriel thought about how things would be if one of his aunts died and how he would be forced to console the other. And in a surprising twist we learn that his wife that his wife used to be in love with a boy named Michael in her younger years and he never knew. This is where the theme of love and relationships can be tied in, because here is this man that married a woman that in actuality he didn't really know. Before they met she was in love with a boy who risked his life for her and he had done nothing that could even compete with that. Their relationship was not as strong as thought it was and he began to question if his wife even loved him at all. He forced to re-live that sad time in her life and then could not comfort her while she cried. And rather than take the blame for bringing back those memories, he just began to think about how he was affected and how his life could change. Relationships are founded on love and with Gabriel it was pretty clear that he was lacking.