James Joyce wrote an assembly of fifteen short stories,
published in 1914 under the collective title Dubliners. These stories depicted
the average life of middle class Irishmen during the early 1900’s and their
hardships, especially the struggle of human acceptance of death. In the final
story, The Dead, Joyce explores this universal theme of mortality. One of the
most important supporting symbols is the setting: the story takes place in the
middle of a winter snowstorm in Ireland at the old home of Morkans on the night
of the Feast of Epiphany, ending the next morning in a dark hotel room.
