Metaphor in The Dead

The metaphor from James Joyce's The Dead that I chose describes the happiness Gabriel feels while looking towards his wife. "A wave of yet more tender joy escaped from his heart and went coursing in warm flood along his arteries." The tenor in this metaphor is Gabriel's joy, and the vehicle, though not explicitly stated, is his blood. Joyce, in creating this metaphor, is obviously not saying that the two things are the same, just that they have similar actions. To Gabriel, it feels as though joy is filling his entire body, and is giving him energy, bringing newfound life. All these actions are ones that are achieved by the blood in everyone's arteries, which is why the comparison is an excellent one to make. The significance of the metaphor is the way it describes Gabriel's joy so completely. It, at this moment, is as essential to him as the blood in his veins. This encompassing joy sets up for the dramatic shift in tone when his wife describes Michael Furey and the way he died.