Analysis of Appointment in Samarra Essay

In the fable Appointment in Samarra by W. Somerset Maugham, Death (the narrator) tells a sardonic story about a merchants servant who tries to avoid his appointment to meet Death by fleeing to Samarra. Instead of fleeing from his grim meeting with Death he runs straight to Samarra where Death scheduled their meeting. A fable is a brief story that sets forth some pointed statement of truth. (Fable, Parable, and Tale 4) This fable presents the statement of truth that Deaths appointments are inevitable. To reach this truth the reader must first analyze the narrator (Death); of which the writer represents Death as a human and a woman. ("Appointment in Samarra" 4)

At the very beginning of the passage the author states Death Speaks. ("Appointment in Samarra" 4) In these two words the author is showing the reader that Death is not just a force of nature but a human. This is a form of personification, or a figure of speech where an animal, thing, or an abstract term is endowed with human characteristics. ("Personification" G22) Death is portrayed as human to help create a tangible connection between mankind and the force of Death. Maugham suggests Death is human by placing her in a setting of the market place. In the market place the author sketches a setting where only the servant is being jostled by Death. The story even states that Death was standing in the crowd at the marketplace; this suggests that Death blends in with the other humans to the extent that no one else noticed she was there (as well as the servant) until she jostled him. Correspondingly, this fable states that Death can be approached, sought out, and conversable. For example when the merchant seeks out Death to ask her why she gave a threatening gesture towards his servant and Death answers him. This shows that Death is willing to have a conversation and act like an average human. ("Appointment in Samarra" 4)

Long before the 1930s women have been viewed as the weaker sex. They have been known to be less intellectual and inferior to men. These views have been expressed for centuries through many different cultures. One example is in Greek mythology, where Pandora (a woman) opened the forbidden box and unleashed plagues and unhappiness onto mankind. ("Women's History in America") The author of Appointment in Samarra showed these ideas by making Death (the antagonist) a woman. An antagonist is a significant character that opposes the protagonist in a narrative or drama. Death is the antagonist because she is threatening and opposes the servants idea to escape his appointment with her.

In addition to women being viewed as the source of unhappiness in mankind women were also seen as lower in society to men. An example of this is how women were viewed in Roman law, in which they were described as children and forever inferior to men. ("Women's History in America") In Appointment in Samarra the servant (who was a man) thought he could ride away from the city and avoid [his] fate because he thought she could not find him there. ("Appointment in Samarra" 4) This suggests that because he is a man he thought he was more intelligent than Death and could escape her appointment.

In the final analysis, W. Somerset Maugham expressed Death as a human and a woman to help make a tangible connection between men and their insurmountable appointment with Death. In this analysis the reader discovers that Death is created as a human so that she blends in with the living until she chooses to make herself known. Death is also a woman through Maughams eyes. As the passage comes to an end two different views of women are discovered. These two views are that women have the ability to outwit men and that women create unhappiness for mankind. All in all, the moral of this fable is that death is inevitable.