In the short story “The Dead”, James Joyce shows his character Gabriel as pretentious and misogynistic by emphasizing his wealth, education and supposed superiority over the women in his society. Gabriel, who needs constant reassurance from women to feel recognized, uses his intellect and money to remain superior to various female characters. Joyce juxtaposes Gabriel's character with many women to emphasize his superiority complex by using dominant female characters who continually humiliate him, causing Gabriel to overuse his arrogant tendencies. Therefore, Joyce criticizes the way men traditionally dominate women in society by defamiliarizing submissive women and replacing them with these dominant, outspoken women that Gabriel must interact with. Joyce also created this character to force his readers to anticipate the inevitability of tragedy as foreshadowed by references to Shakespeare and Gabriel's wife, Gretta, for the final revenge; the death of love. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Throughout the story, there are many moments where Gabriel humiliates women. This is an obvious way in which Joyce chose to reinforce his critique of the typical way men treated women in the early 20th century. Joyce familiarizes the typical submissive women and replaces them with outspoken and independent female characters who manage to continually embarrass Gabriel, which is easily noticeable. One of the best examples of this is when Gabriel enters the party and is assisted by a young girl, Lily, in the pantry; he asks her if she will get married soon and she replies, “The men they are now are just talk and what they can get from you” (2284). Lily made it clear right away that she had no intention of getting married and had not been educated about it as a typical woman should have been. Gabriel's discomfort confirms his need to control the situation. “Gabriel blushed as if he felt he had made a mistake and, without looking at her, took off his galoshes” (2284) Joyce cleverly added, “without looking at her” (2284) because it demonstrates his inability to cope with dominant responses from females. If Gabriel had instead chuckled and agreed with her, it would have completely transformed the text. Joyce also created Gabriel as a misogynist to highlight the astonishing Irish male population of his time who were just like him, and the growing feminist population who fought for equal rights. (Catherine Phil MacCarthy, 2015). After Gabriel's embarrassment, he attempted to take control of the situation by giving Lily "Christmas Money", which shows how he uses wealth to control women. After giving her the money, he immediately left to escape the situation, but the effects of his honesty lingered. We see how Gabriel's character is shaken even after leaving her presence, “He was still disconcerted by the girl's sudden bitter reply” (2285). Gabriel's response makes it clear how abnormal it is for women of her time to be so blunt in her speech. Joyce's criticism of this situation is clear if we analyze the context; she wants Gabriel's sexist views improved and corrected. Joyce immediately exposes Gabriel's fragile superiority complex to allow the reader an introduction to the type of misogyny present in the story and how it will be addressed throughout the text. Gabriel's upbringing is also a justification, in his mind, for his superiority, and Joyce juxtaposes her character with a woman who has experienced the same upbringing asGabriel to further debunk his opinions. Gabriel had simplified his speech because he believed that his “Higher Education” (2285) would make him look ridiculous because no one could be as smart as him. Immediately regretting her “clever” speech, Joyce parodies Gabriel's reaction by pointing out that it would have been a failure. Gabriel's character assumes that everyone around him is less intelligent and, worse yet, he is too intelligent. Joyce included this to highlight the arrogant personality that Gabriel possessed in order to create a situation to diffuse it. It was extremely important to preface this reflection on “higher intelligence” for his conversation with Mrs. Ivors. Mrs. Ivors has a similar education and career to Gabriel, therefore making a woman Gabriel's equal; how uncomfortable it is. Mrs. Ivors, another bold female character like Lily, immediately embarrasses Gabriel by stating, "Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" (2290) because he is a writer for the Daily Express, a newspaper in western Britain, at a time when Ireland was becoming independent from Britain. Gabriel obviously upset and offended replies: “Why should I be ashamed of myself? Gabriel asked, blinking trying to smile. (2290) it is clear that by blinking and trying to smile he is hiding his discomfort at being in the presence of another straight-talking woman. This enhances how Gabriel fails to deal with the comparison of women, a statement created by Joyce to highlight the changes that needed to be made in society. Joyce wants to contrast this fragile but sexist man by juxtaposing him with these women, thus criticizing the way men cannot cooperate with women. Through Gabriel's perspective, we are given a personal look at misogynistic thought processes, so any man reading this article could relate to such a character would be forced to see how ignorant their attitude is. We later see that Gabriel's ego can only be reconciled through disinterest in Mrs. Ivors' power. Immediately after explaining herself, "Gabriel felt more at ease" (2290), which further justifies Joyce's goal of redefining women's place in society by emphasizing Gabriel's constant need for control. Gabriel is unable to deal with assertive women, which we see through his awkward nature while talking to women, which reminds us how fragile a sexist man's ego actually is. Joyce created this fragile character to emphasize the ridiculous attributes of the "modern Irish man" in order to reinforce his goal of redefining patriarchal society, as well as valorize dominant women to portray that it is valid for women to be in control. You can see that Gabriel loves his wife very much and expresses his emotions after the party. However, he idealizes Gretta because of her pleasing feminine aesthetic and her inferior education, not because of her as a person but rather as an ideal asset to him. This can be seen in the text after leaving the party, “she walked before him so lightly and upright” (2305) and “she seemed so frail to him that he longed to defend her” (2305). Joyce's diction for Gabriel's thoughts highlights the typical feminine beauty that is so attractive: light, well-postured and fragile. As Gabriel's character is seen having an epiphany of love and affection for his wife, it is clear that the reason he loves her is that she is inferior. Joyce here criticizes how men only see women as objects and how beauty cannot define a woman's purpose in the world. You can also see the affection shown. 2016.