Appointment in Samarra

“The Appointment in Samarra” by W. Somerset Maugham
This is a very meaningful short story because it explains an important fact in our lives. It talks about Death by appointment through the servants personality who fled from death to Samarra, but really he had gone to the death by himself. The story gives a message of the reality of death. In this tale Death is personified as a woman who is very matter of fact about her work, which more specifically, involves keeping an appointment with a certain servant. In the first sentence we read the servant was terrified as a result of being “jostled” by death. Maughham shows that fear of death, that is a natural part of our life, by saying that the servant was, “white and trembling” because of this encounter. In an attempt to take destiny into his own hands, the servant borrows a horse from his master in order to get away, “as fast as the horse could gallop to a place called Samarra” there is where the servant believes that “Death will not find me”. To the servant it was evident that death is there for him because he believed she had, “made a threatening gesture towards him”. Instead of fleeing from his grim meeting with death he runs straight to it. This story presents the statement of truth that death’s appointments are inevitable.
Maugham shows that everyone has an involvement with death, however many times you try to avoid it. This is shown in the story where the servant tried to avoid his appointment with death by fleeing to Samarra the city where he is put to meet with death. The fear of death plays a major role throughout the story. Death is personified as a woman in the story, the author uses a person to portray death to show that there is a connection between the nature of death and mankind. For example, the statement, “Master, just now when I was in the market place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me”, shows how death can blend in amongst everyone else...