The Dead
Crescendo Analysis: James Joyce's "The Dead" from Dubliners
The last two paragraphs of "The Dead" are among the most famous paragraphs in all of literature.
But what makes them so effective?
In the sequence below (link to image), I have compiled a series of images from the last two paragraphs, exemplifying Joyce's use of Crescendo Analysis to end the story.
Under the images you'll find the first sentence of the second-to-last paragraph ("Generous tears filled Gabriel's eyes), followed by the entire last paragraph of the story.
Notice how Joyce moves fluently from Gabriel's eyes to the window to the snow that covers Dublin to the snow that covers all of Ireland, finishing with the vastness of the universe.
