"The Dead"?

Question

Is the final short story in the 1914 by James Joyce. It was made into a movie in 1987, directed by John Huston
The one who has appreciated this story or the movie, his commentary (about) will be welcomed.
Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

I can comment on the film only.

There are, perhaps, a number of themes all related to the society of the times; it's 1906, an evening dinner with family and friends in Dublin. Modernity is upon them, all the past is soon to be swept aside by the Great War and the 20th century.

The central theme, however, is love and how so few ever come close to experiencing it to its fullest. Those who do are fully alive; those who don't, or who can't, or won't are dead, and will always be so until they love again.

Probably one of the greatest short stories ever written, I'm told. It's certainly one the ten best films ever made.

Answer 2

Joyce symbolically presents his critical view of Dublin society. The theme of the story is that of a spiritual paralysis which has seized a lifeless or "dead" society and of the vital effect in paradoxical contrast that the dead may have upon the living in urging them to a fuller self-awareness. In this juxtaposition of the symbolically living and the symbolically dead, the author works with the contrasting images of darkness and light, blindness and perception, cold and warmth, society at large and the individual experience.