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James Joyce's short story, The Dead, reveals an extraordinary amount of meaning and symbolic themes communicated by carefully chosen imagery. One of those themes is honesty and dishonesty. Despite the overtly social nature of much of the story's setting, few of the characters seem to be truly honest with each other, setting higher stock in politeness than in honest communication. It is the conflict caused by honesty in the relationship between Gretta and Gabriel that showcases the central thematic imagery of light and dark that result, eventually, in revelation for Gabriel.
The relationship between Gretta and Gabriel is just one of several conflicts caused by honesty in the story. Indeed, most of the character conflict in the story stems from characters committing the faux pas of speaking truthfully; this social mis-step of characters ignoring what is politic occurs a few times during the story. In the coat room Lily is frank with Gabriel about her opinion of men's intentions and later Mr. D'Arcy is curtly honest with the aunts in regard to his piano playing. In both cases the individuals involved that are dealt with honestly are unsettled by the incident. And none are so unsettled as Gabriel, by Miss Ivor's honest disapproval of the paper he works for and her open questioning of his politics. But it is Gretta's relationship with Gabriel that is given the closest attention, that is explored both literally and symbolically with the most fullness. In this case the friction is caused by Gretta's honesty (light) colliding with Gabriel's blindness to the truth (dark).
Light imagery first reveals Gabriel's blindness as ignorance of Gretta's true nature. As the Conroy's annual festivities wind to a close and the Malins and Mr. Browne are being shuttled away in their cab, Gabriel spots the figure of a woman on the stairs: Gretta. "He could not see her face but he could see the terracotta and salmonpink panels of her skirt which the shadows made appear black and white" (48). This scene is weighted with profound imagery, not only of light but of distance and silence as well. Her face is obscured by the shadows, invisible to him, just as the music she is listening to is inaudible to him. And though she is dressed in a brightly colored dress Gabriel cannot see those colors, instead he sees her as being only in black and white.
The black and white versus color imagery communicates both the emotional distance between them and Gabriel's basic incomprehension of Gretta as a person. Gabriel points out the distance himself, though he is not aware of it: " Distant Music he would call the picture if he was a painter" (43). Gretta is standing in the dark, unilluminated to the reality-blind Gabriel. The "colors" of her personality, what makes her the romantic that she is, are as invisible to Gabriel as the colors of her dress. The fact that her face--which for humans is as important a means of communication as our oral language--remains hidden from his view is telling, as is his failure to see her true colors.
The music, and Gabriel's inability to hear it, are also very important. The song is that which Michael Furey sang for Gretta in her youth and is a symbol of the true and romantic love that Gretta knew with Furey. Gabriel's inability to hear the music symbolizes the fact that he cannot understand that kind of love; he has never felt it and most likely never will.
In the penultimate scene of the story, set in Gabriel and Gretta's darkened hotel room, we find that Gretta still feels this love for Furey. Gabriel is upset not only by the fact that his wife is in love with another (long dead) man, but also by the fact that she doesn't return the physical lust that he feels for her. Dutifully courteous, Gabriel goes through the motions of asking Gretta the appropriate questions about Michael Furey, while doing his best to communicate that he was not "interested in this delicate boy" (55).
Gretta, however, takes his concern at face value and recollects for him her relationship with Furey and how it affected her. In telling the story of her past love, Gretta reveals to the reader that she is a very different person from her husband. While she prefers the lofty type of romantic love that she had with Michael, Gabriel is concerned almost entirely with baser physical love or lust. While readers might feel some grudging respect for Gabriel's restraint not forcing himself on her, they are still very clearly left with the impression that Gretta's higher concerns make her the purer of the two.
That purity, defined by her need for a strong emotional bond and honest view of her love and relationships, is emphasized by the light and dark imagery evokes in this scene. Tellingly, Gabriel requests that the room remain darkened. "We don't want any light," he says, instructing the bell boy to remove the candlestick altogether (53). He chooses to remain in the dark, as if in doing so he chooses not to see the reality of his relationship with Gretta. The imagery continues as he lingers in the shadows while Gretta chooses to stand near the window, the only source of light in the room. Gabriel, craving physical contact, does not go into the light with Gretta. He calls her name, making her leave the light, the symbol of her honesty, to come to him. However, she doesn't leave the light entirely. Instead, Gretta approaches him slowly and walks "along the shaft of light" (54) and accordingly never leaves her honesty entirely behind. So when Gabriel asks her what she is thinking about she admits--without guilt--that she was thinking of Michael Furey. And even though she has now left the light of the window to join Gabriel, she looks "along the shaft of light towards the window in silence" as she thinks of Furey. Gabriel, on the other hand, "instinctively" turns his back to the light in shame and embarrassement (56).
But there is hope for Gabriel, because in his shame, he begins to see his relationship in the light of honesty. He seems to come to a realization of what is missing from his love for Gretta. Though he may never feel the deep romantic love she is capable of, at least he is being honest with himself. In this moment of introspection, he begins to see things that he hasn't before. In the "partial darkness" with Gretta asleep at his side, he sees "the form of a young man under a dripping tree" (59). This figure is without any doubt Michael Furey. Now, while musing on his own mortality and that of his family, Gabriel is able to see Furey, his wife's symbol of romantic love, whereas before he was unable to hear even the music (symbolic of Furey) which his wife listened too so intently on the stairs.
At this time Gabriel sees how all lies and truths, in the end, touch everyone. The snow and "both silver and dark," symbolizing both light truth and dark lies, "lay thickly" (59) over everything and everyone. He finally sees that all, both living and dead, are touched by, covered by, the lies or truths they choose to tell.
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