Repetition and Reflexivism in "The Dead"
James Joyce's "The Dead" experiments with properties that associate with musical counterpoint, where "one melody is accompanied by one or more other melodies all woven into a harmonious whole" ("counterpoint"). In music, two separate notes in a chord form a harmony, while in "The Dead," Joyce uses two separate topics that are in the same music, life, but not part of the same note. Joyce uses repetition to emphasize the importance of certain aspects or reoccurring themes in the story to further tie the bonds between the otherwise separate notes. David Mosley analyzes "The Dead" and argues that the entire point of the story is that life is a perpetual cycle. Gabriel is merely a single note in a composition that constantly repeated itself. The pattern is the continual cycle of birth, life, and death. While everything during life is autonomous, eventually the song for that individual ends, only to have another song begin. The repetition in the story leads to varying interpretations of the concepts, actions, and thoughts of the characters. Through deconstruction of "The Dead," John Paul Riquelme explains how the story is and is not realistic. Riquelme feels that there are multiple meanings to the text and whether the story is r
last end, upon all the living and the dead. (59) John Paul Riquelme and Dave Mosley stressed the idea that the reoccurring themes throughout "The Dead" elicit multiple interpretations because of the "story's ambiguous status as a piece of realistic writing" (221). The universe (just like the literal meaning of a story) has always been there. It is what we add to it that allows the object to expand, become more important, or more beautiful. Focusing on the exterior too much can detract from the essence or the literal meaning. Art, whether music or stories, must be the object of itself where the beauty lies within simplicity. Music and writing can do this through its form and how it is structured. The words are only images until someone gives them meaning. Therefore, meaning is never lost, it is gained and literal meaning is never lost either, its form has just expanded. Aspects of scenes, imagery, actions, and thoughts work together to reveal the story's implications and find any easy formulation of them. Language and music are the same as far as what we write on paper because they are given meaning. The words swoonly, slowly, and snow all have more than just a basic meaning, but this meaning cannot be spoken outside of what these words symbolize, because all words create images in our minds. Mosley says "self-reflexive characteristics are always overshadowed by the semiotic relation of linguistic expressions to an external reality" (Mosley). Semiotic means to interpret signs and their functions, and although these words sug
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Approximate Word count = 1044
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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