Abstract

In giving the name “Browne” to a fictional character so eager to take advantage of monastic hospitality in Ireland, Joyce, in “The Dead,” alludes to George Browne, the Archbishop of Dublin appointed by Henry VIII to suppress Irish monasteries. The allusion achieves bitter literary-historical irony that considerably sharpens the political edge of the story, and, together with Mr. Browne’s proprietary attitude and behavior, it contributes unifying significance to many of its images and motifs: Richard III and the murder of the princes, Miss Ivors leaving without eating, the story of Johnny the horse, the list of nonIrish tenors, the affinity of Gabriel Conroy with Robert Browning, the theme of hospitality in Gabriel’s speech, and Freddy Malins’s plan to dry out in the Mount Melleray Monastery

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