Gabriel Rhetorical Analysis

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From the brief physical description of Gabriel, as a tall plump man, and his reminiscing introduced later in the story, it may be assumed that his younger days have long passed. Now, all of his dreams and lusts and desires and love have been put onto his wife, which in turn crumble before his eyes, when he learns of his wife’s past love and her still very real attachment to the man. Gabriel is a victim of his age, and mundane day to day activities of his life, and without even the pleasant memories of his past life, he’s left with nothing more to do than sulk in his misery as he waits for his days to end. The impression that Gabriel isn’t interested, or rather, tired of the norm of his life first comes from his confrontation with Miss Ivors, when she pressures him to accompany her and friends up North. Gabriel refuses repeatedly, insisting that he’d prefer to go to France and Belgium “partly for a change (154)”, and when asked why, responds sharply that he is “sick of his own country. (154)” His later mention of how he’d rather be outside (156), where the “air is pure” (164), and the very tone of writing help validate the reader’s feelings that Gabriel is tired of the sameness in his life.…show more content…
It intensifies so much that Gabriel admits he’s restraining himself from his urge to “crush her body against his, [and] overmaster her. (177)” As he reminisces on his earlier wild, passionate, secret love life with his wife (173-7), it becomes apparent that those memories and the possibility of rekindling such intensity are anchors to Gabriel’s sense of fulfillment and freedom. When his wife tells him of her past love, and how she may still love him (178), Gabriel’s anchors are shattered. The realization that he is not to his wife, what she is to him, crushes him, invalidating all previous memories of what he thought was the greatest time of both of their
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