Joyce's "The Dead" James Joyce's story "The Dead" has a tremendous impact on the readers, especially those who are familiar with the political situation in Ireland at the time about which the Joyce wrote the final story in Dubliners. In exploring the meaning of James Joyce's long short-story, "The Dead", there are many critical approaches to take. Each approach gives readers a lens, a set of guidelines through which to examine and express ideas of the meaning of "The Dead." Joyce himself said that the idea of paralysis was his intended them of all the stories in The Dubliners of which "The Dead" is the final story.Of all critical approaches, reader response works best