A story in which not much happens.

The third essay on the AP test allows you to select a book and connect it to a theme. This is one of the short stories that are allowed to be mentioned. The other is Bartleby.

It’s a seminal work of the 20th century. It changed the way that fiction was written. His stories lacked closure to mirror life. Some readers want an escape from life and a nice ending, and others appreciate that the author is only suggesting something.

At dinner, they talk about nothing but the past, the dead. There’s a line about monks in coffins.

It starts with free-indirect discourse. She is first introduced as the caretaker’s daughter because that’s all she is and has no further identity.

It sounds like it was in the present but it’s in the past tense.

Mary Jane is a prop of the family according to the aunts, like a breadwinner.

Gabriel is condescending towards his wife throughout the text. He says it takes her three mortal hours to dress herself. He scraped the snow from his galoshes, and it’s brought up three times in a short amount of time. It shows he’s very civilized and very conscious of how other people can see him.

The aunts said that Gabriel’s wife must be “perished alive.”

Gabriel asks about school and asks about relationships as small talk. She replies bitterly, not at him, but at the guys that aren’t worth marrying. She sees all of her options as worthless.

The whole night Gabriel is distant from everyone else. It’s hard for him to keep still. The word restless is repeated when his glasses are being described.

He reconsidered quoting Browning because he thought that it might be above them. It sounds like a backhanded criticism. He comes off as snobbish here and that he’s more educated than the people that he is going to read off to. He assumes that he is going to fail.

• Would’ve, should’ve, could’ve - the holy trinity of regret.

Gabriel adjusts his clothes when he’s nervous or embarrassed.

Gabriel doesn’t like Ireland. He vacations at other spots in Europe.

When he checked on Freddy, he wanted his presence to be known. He wanted him to know that someone was coming.

The people at the party begged Mary Jane to play music but then didn’t enjoy her music. The loudest applause came from the four men who weren’t in the room.

The painting of Romeo and Juliet and the painting of the two princes. It could indicate an admiration for British culture. All of the women are single in the house. It could indicate that they are yearning for that relationship. It could be an idealization of love. There are scenes later where a man is looking upstairs or up a balcony at a woman.

When Mary Jane is done playing, she escapes the room. This indicates that she realized that it wasn’t a pleasing piece. It could show that she doesn’t know how to take a compliment.

Gabriel talks to Mrs. Ivors- and she represents Gabriel’s lack of love for Ireland. He wrote an article in a pro-British newspaper. The newspaper opposed Irish independence. She calls him a West Briton, which is someone who believes Ireland should be a part of Britain.

She invites him to go to Western Ireland with her to learn about his own land. He says that Irish isn’t his language. He notices other people are listening and begins to blush against his will. He thinks that she tried to humiliate him in public.

An enthusiast is someone for Irish independence

Julia goes up and sings “Arrayed for the Bridal” which is ironic because she has never been married. It seemed inappropriate.

Gabriel saw the snow out the window and wanted to be outside in the snow because there was no stress out there. He also sees his aunts as two ignorant old women.

Mr. Browne is protestant and that’s why it says he’s of the other persuasion.

Mrs. Ivors leaves before dinner and Gabriel blames himself and thinks it’s his fault. But he notes she seems to be smiling.

In the description, the dining table is described to be like a conflict. It’s almost like a battle scene. There are many military-based words such as rivals and minerals. Gabriel feels like it is a place of battle because he has to speak there.

Mention of the monks sleeping in their coffins. Another nod to death. Mary Jane says that it’s to remind them of their last end. The same phrase is mentioned again in the last few paragraphs of the story. This is similar to how Michael metaphorically crawls out of his coffin at the end of the story.

Gabriel’s speech states that he loves Ireland because of its hospitality. He’s a hypocritical douchebag who doesn’t even like Ireland. He says they’re living in a thought-tormented age. He’s the one who’s tormented with thoughts the whole time.

Gabriel sees his wife up the stairs. This is similar to Romeo and Juliet, but they aren’t speaking and she doesn’t know she is looking at him. She was listening to the song that Michael used to perform for her. He wonders if this is a symbol of something, almost as a distancing mechanism spacing himself away from his own life.

Mary Jane notes that the snow is all over Ireland. This is also at the end of the story.

Gabriel looks at his wife and suddenly feels happy to be with her. He expects her to feel the same way and want to have some sexy time.

There’s a ghostly light that is described and it could be interpreted as Michael arising for Gretta.

He wants to master her. Weird.

He asks her what she’s thinking about and she tells him about Michael. He gets angry. He wants to have sex with his wife so bad. Michael’s very delicate and died young.

He accuses her of wanting to go see him before she says he died. He felt humiliated. He thinks that she’s replacing him in her mind with Michael. He calls his marriage a failure.

There’s no proof that Michael died for her. He probably just happened to die anyway.

The names Gabriel and Michael are the names of angels. Michael is the warrior angel. Gabriel is the messenger who goes to see Mary and tells her she is pregnant.

Gabriel assumes that she loves Michael and not him.

Consumption is tuberculosis. You would die of it like you would of cancer. You withered away.

Gabriel is extremely self-conscious and thinks that everything is his fault.

Gretta was leaving for three months and Michael came to visit her although he was sick. It mirrors the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. There is a repetition of the word garden. It emphasizes that there is a garden there. It could be the Garden of Eden or a past paradise that Gretta lost.

Death hovers over the entire story. He said that he didn’t want to live. Many people who die of diseases like that don’t have a quality of life before they die.

She breaks down in sobs. She says he died a week after that night and falls asleep.

Gabriel looks at her. His feelings go from Lust to Anger to Hopelessness to Compassion for Michael. He says that he died for her but there’s no proof. He thinks he (he as in Gabriel) is not an important part of her life. He thinks this ruins their marriage.

He starts talking about how his Aunt Julia was going to die soon. He says that he would look for words to say and he’ll only find lame and useless ones. A self-fulfilling prophecy. They would be at the same house but the curtains would be closed.

He starts crying generously. His view of the world changes.

Michael decides it’s his time to go westward. It could mean death. It could mean the roots of Ireland. It doesn’t have to be death. There was snow all over Ireland and it was falling all over it. “Chiasmos” is when you repeat the same words but reverse them. Slowly falling, falling slowly. Might have something to do with resolutions.

He talks about how the snow falls on the water. Could signify death falling on life. He says it falls on the churchyard where Michael is buried. Lost of Christ imagery, could signify that he should be “saving” Michael to love his wife for him. They used spears to poke Jesus to make sure he wasn’t gonna bleed. If he didn’t bleed it meant he was dead.

He encapsulates all of Ireland and has compassion for Michael who’s in the west. He’s saying no to his past self. The story reads like a puzzle.