Gabriel is unemotional in his conversation with Miss Ivors. He takes her insults very passively, not showing any discomfort in being insulted. Also, he seems very unconcerned about Gretta in the film. He does not demand to know if she loved Michael Fury, as was the case in the original story. He just seemed to take in the all the information about Michael Fury and the fact that his wife, who was his Juliet did not truly love him. He thought all along that he was her Romeo, and when he found out that this was not the truth he just shrugged it of, like it did not matter. In Joyce's story, Gabriel acted very coldly in the bedroom scene when he was interrogating his wife about her previous love, and this aspect of Gabriel's original character was not portrayed in the film version. .
In Joyce's story Gabriel is extremely preoccupied about the speech that he is going to recite over dinner. Gabriel is doubtful of what to say because he does not want to upset all the guests, because he feels that they all belong to the old ignorant generation. The whole night he is torn about what he shall say because he does not want to offend anyone and he does not want to exclude himself from the other guests. This constant contemplation in Gabriel mind can be seen very clearly in Joyce's story with Gabriel's remarks to Miss" Ivors insults that were quite snappy. This shows that he was still very undecided whether he will be pro new generation (a generation that includes Miss Ivors, who he feels is extremely rude) or pro old generation (a generation which includes all the other guests). He is constantly contemplating to find a middle way. In Huston's version, Gabriel only seems to be preoccupied with the actual dictation of his speech to a large audience. The actor in the movie does not show the right emotion. Huston's interpretation of Gabriel character is not true to the spirit of Joyce's original work.
