Did the original teller of the tale intend to make Death female or was it merely a disguise? There are more women in the marketplace than men. This is a tale narrated by Death, depicted as a woman. We know now that the servant will meet his fate in Samarra.Īlthough the story is short and the character descriptions absent, it is not difficult to imagine Death, the servant or the merchant. The tale closes with Death speaking, “I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.” As if tying the loose ends of a noose, Maugham ties the last word of the title, Samarra, with the closing word of the story, Samarra. Is Death here for him? The exact middle of the story is the turning point – “The merchant lent him his horse…” The servant makes his fateful decision and the plot reaches a point of no return. The servant believes Death made a threatening gesture to him, creating a crisis. He chooses urgent words: trembling, jostled, threatening. Sentences run into each other, piling up like blocks that are about to come tumbling down. The very thought of death is dark, foreboding. In the beginning of the tale, the reader can feel darkness. A good suspense story contains a sense of foreshadowing, a crisis, a turning point and, finally, a resolution.
The plot of any story must have a beginning, middle and an end. However, he runs right to the place where Death has an appointment with him that very night. Is the plot woven around the theme of destiny, as commonly interpreted? The servant is trying to escape Death. A civilized city of the time, even Baghdad cannot escape Death. Samarra has long been a city plagued with death, from the time of this ancient tale to Maugham’s retelling and still today. Maybe Death was there to show us that where there is life, there is Death. Why was Death strolling the marketplace? Did she have an earlier appointment? The marketplace is bustling with life. Maugham takes us through the transition of the servant in the marketplace, to his Master and then leaves us with the assumption that the story closes in Samarra, where the servant meets his fate. The setting is Baghdad, an advanced city of the time. In the simplest form, he ties together the basic elements of a story: setting, plot, characters, and theme with amazing perfection. Somerset Maugham was one of the greatest storytellers of all time. In “Appointment in Samarra,” part of his last play Sheppy, Maugham retells an ancient Arabic fable.
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