Gabriel’s ego is bruised and his cultured self-image of superiority undercut when he learns that Michael Furey was employed by the “gasworks,” forcing on him the realization that there is no necessary connection between a man’s employment and his sensitivity. The man of learning may not in all respects be superior to the man of feeling.

The major themes of the story, then, are jealousy and intellectual pride, both major sins in Roman Catholic theology, and both of these sins attach to the character of Gabriel, who is as callow and unfeeling, as insecure and insensitive in his own way as Stephen Dedalus seems to be in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The theme of escape is understated in the story but insinuates itself into the basic fabric of Gabriel’s character. Gabriel’s frustration is shaped and exacerbated by his career decision to remain in Dublin and work there. His interests obviously tend elsewhere—toward England and the Continent. However, the story suggests that he can still learn important lessons through the intelligent exploration of native Irish culture and that he has been out of touch with the natural virtue and goodness that Michael Furey represents to his wife and with the instinctual understanding that makes his wife superior to him. Gabriel learns an existential moral lesson through his revelation and humiliation.

As a young man, Joyce scorned the provincial limitations of Dublin and the enthusiasm of the Irish nationalists for native culture and folkways. As an older and more mature writer, Joyce continued to draw on those elements, dominant in his memory and imagination, for the rest of his creative life. Joyce never really lost touch with the fact that he was Irish and Catholic by birth and background. Although the stories of Dubliners all document the spiritual impoverishment of Irish life, and “The Dead” is no exception in that regard, Gabriel is stunted in his human potential mainly because of his arrogant rejection of the culture in which he has chosen to live. His character shaped by frustration, rancor, and disappointment, this teacher still has much to learn about his country, his family, and himself.

Paralysis When describing his intentions in writing Dubliners, Joyce said that the city of Dublin seemed to him the center of paralysis. By paralysis Joyce meant the inability to act, move, or grow beyond where one is spiritually and emotionally—the inability to live fully. In ‘‘The Dead,’’ Gabriel is paralyzed by his self-consciousness. He is self-conscious about Lily's bitter remarks on marriage and about what he should say in his after-dinner speech. When Miss Ivors accuses him of being loyal to the British, he tries to avoid confrontation. He doesn't want to risk a ‘‘grandiose phrase’’ toward her in a room full of people. He fantasizes about using his speech to criticize Miss Ivors, but by the time he gives it she is gone, and he gives a speech that only serves to please his audience. The story Gabriel tells about Patrick Morkan's horse walking in circles around the statue of King William III suggests Ireland's spiritual paralysis, and Gabriel shows his own paralysis by walking in a circle himself while telling it. Finally, as he and Gretta are walking down the street to find a cab, he imagines himself making various romantic overtures to her, but he actually makes none of them.

Provincial Culture vs. European Culture The setting of ‘‘The Dead’’ coincides with a period of revival of Irish culture. People wanted to revive Irish music, art, and language. The representative of this in "The Dead'' is Molly Ivors. She wears an Irish brooch and advocates learning the Irish language. The guests discuss the talents of tenors past and present, but they also note whether they are Irish or European. Gabriel values traveling to Europe and learning the European languages. Joyce himself favored absorbing European culture and rejected the purely provincial beliefs of many of his contemporaries. Gabriel says to Molly that Irish is not after all his language—many people of that time indeed did not know or speak Irish fluently, but rather used English.

British Rule vs. Irish Nationalism For much of its history, Ireland has been dominated by British rule, and the debate between independence and allegiance to Britain appears in "The Dead.’’ For instance, Molly Ivors confronts Gabriel about writing reviews for the Daily Express, a newspaper that supports British rule. Generally, those who supported Irish independence were Catholic, while those who allied themselves with the British were Protestant. Gabriel's family is Catholic. Some critics conclude that Mr. Browne, a Protestant, symbolizes British rule because most people dislike him and his nature is overbearing. Aunt Kate says of him, ‘‘Browne is everywhere,’’ just as the oppressive rule of England is everywhere in Ireland.

Death and the Dead Dead people play an important role in ‘‘The Dead.’’ Gabriel honors them in his after-dinner speech, and several dead characters are mentioned during the story: Ellen (Gabriel's mother), Pat Morkan (his uncle), Patrick Morkan (his grandfather), and Michael Furey. Michael Furey particularly inspires Gabriel to a fuller self-awareness. Gabriel realizes after Gretta tells him of Michael's love for her that inevitably he and everyone he knows is going to die. Hence it is better to live life fully rather than passively. Another reminder of death comes in the dinnertime discussion of a monastery whose monks sleep in coffins. The "dead'' of the title are both those who are literally deceased and those who are merely going through the motions of living but who are spiritually dead.

Self-Realization Through most of ‘‘The Dead,’’ Gabriel is a self-absorbed person who mostly cares about how he comes across to others. He doesn't care about the feelings of others so much as he cares about how he looks. For instance, when Lily angrily tells him that all young men are "palaver and what they can get out of you,’’ Gabriel feels that he made a mistake with her. Instead of apologizing, however, he condescendingly and impersonally gives her money—calling it a Christmas present. Later in the story, after Gretta tells him about Michael Furey, Gabriel is able to suddenly step back and look at himself and his relationship to his wife and others.