The use of foil characters in "The Dead"

The use of a foil character in pieces of literature is a very popular technique that greatly accentuates and helps us better understand the main character. It has been used by many authors ranging from William Shakespeare, in his play Romeo and Juliet, to Mark Twain, in his novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Another example can be seen in the short story "The Dead," by James Joyce. The author uses the long dead character, Michael …

…Perhaps Joyce is saying something about the type of people that rich, educated men really are. He could be saying that with an extensive education, people start to have less and less emotion. Therefore, we see that Joyce's reason for contracting the two character, Michael and Gabriel, is to show the reader more about Gabriel, and reveal to the reader what type of person he really is, even though it is not a positive view.