"He constructed his tale almost as if it were a musical piece: the notes, the melodies, the pauses (spaces) and rhythms evolving from his words coming from description, dialogue, the intellectual connections to the reader, the fine details of character, object and occurrence."(Roman, Irish Echo, 12/26/87)

I hope to show you how from the beginning to end, music exists, not just in the background, but as a basis for character development throughout the f

ot enough credit goes towards the emotions and feelings that music conveys in our lives. In most ways, it speaks louder than words could ever say. Music is a universal language that has been branded to our very souls unbound by time or place. It even defies death because it can link the living to those who have passed. For me, I know my link with my father will always be music, and in that way Joyce and Huston made an important connection. The theme of music, in the film The Dead is just as important as any other external factor of cinematography. Existing in the minds and hearts of the characters, it brought out the special meaning associated with love, and in this story, it showed the power of what love can do, not just to the living, but to the Dead.

Throughout the dinner scene, there are lengthy discussions about opera and singers, either dealing with their performance or the content of the music itself. Like crossfire, characters at the table exchange back and forth about different items of musical content, which in turn starts to bring out qualities connected with their character in the film. Particular interactions that take place are mixed between the Morkan Sisters, Mr. Grace, Mr. brown, Freddy and the local operatic Tenor Bartell D'Archy, who ironically was played by my late father Frank Patterson, an authentic Irish Tenor himself. During the dinner we see that there is some tension between Mr. Grace and Mr. D'Archy with regards to who knows more about particular music tastes and singers. In the same way, Mr. Brown and Mr. D'Archy reveal tension about whether the great singers of the past fair against the present, when Mr. D'Archy mentions Caruso, who at that time period was the new "hot-shot" Italian !

n picks up into the dinning room for their Christmas Eve feast, where music once again dominates almost the entire dinner, along with some politics and of course, religion.

"The tears come into my eyes and my voice trembles with emotion when I sing that lovely air." (Jackson & McGinley, Dubliners: with Annotations, pg. 187)

After dinner, we start to see all the guests filling out, saying their "good-byes" and "thank-you's", but as this is going on, there is a scene up stairs involving Bartell D'Archy and one of the female guests. In this scene, they are talking about birds and how beautiful they sing, which also captures a love interest between these two characters. His statement in this scene with regards to"...being a singer, I find myself partial to creatures that sing." Also brings in the connection of love with the music. Just as this connection was clear with Aunt Kate and Parkinson, we will see that love holds strong with music during the climatic buildup of this film. We see that as Gabriel is getting ready to leave the party downstairs, the voice of Bartell D'Archy breaks into the scene. He is singing the song, "The Lass of Aughrim". This song meant a great deal to James Joyce, and we see why it's the focal point of the connection between the past secret of Gretta's and the p!

Some common words found in the essay are:
Gabriel Gretta, Arrayed Bridal, Joyce Huston, Dead Joyce, Kate Morkan's, Broken Vows, James Joyce, Christmas Eve, Bartell D'Archy, Prof Roman, throughout film, connection past, bartell d'archy, aunt kate, singing song, living dead, contemporary irish cinema, gretta gabriel, confession gabriel, james joyce, west ireland, gretta's dark secret,
Approximate Word count = 2063
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)