The Dead: A Necessary Introduction James Joyce’s The Dead opens with an annual get together of family and friends. Some readers question the necessity of this opening sequence. Most of the characters have little or no significance to the final result of the story. However, through their interaction and communication, the reader is introduced to the characters and the setting. The long introductory scene is a necessary piece of the story, in that it allows the reader to embrace, positively or negatively, the main character, Gabriel, and experience the various emotions that he feels as