The Dead Response

I think The Dead was interesting but I'm not sure my interest in it and my interpretation is the intended one. I have preconceived notions about the story because I'm fairly certain that the passage about the feast was mentioned in How to Read Literature like a Professor. As a result, I've interpreted the entire story as a critique of the excesses of the rich. Of their triviality and their complete ignorance of the suffering of the little. I think Gretta's lost love might act as evidence for this critique because he, having worked in the gasworks, was probably poor. Despite Gabriel's fear of his speech, which alluded to esoteric poetry, insulting the less educated at the party, he even admits to have never felt the kind of love the poor boy from Galway ever felt, thus implying that the wealthy and the educated, for all their talk of being better, their pretentions to superiority, are emotionally stunted.