James Joyce’s The Dead

James Joyce’s The Dead is a hauntingly tender and emotionally complex story of an annual gathering of old friends and family. On the 30th anniversary of the Morkan’s holiday festivities, two aging sisters — Aunt Kate and Aunt Julia — and their niece Mary Jane host an evening filled with food, stories, memories and music. Among the guests are the Morkan’s nephew Gabriel Conroy and his wife, Gretta. Gabriel doubles as the story’s narrator and shares a deeply personal epiphany at the story’s end, as he realizes what it means to accept the pain of being “alone,” and yet together, with his wife, Gretta.