The Appointment in Samarra SPEPES

The reader knowing the narrator is death affects their perception of the text as they’re
reading it. In the beginning of the short story, death “overhears” a conversation between a
master and his servant. The servant says: “Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I
was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me,”. If
the reader does not know that Death is the speaker, they will think that the conversation is just
heard by a passerby. However, it is known that Death, in her omniscience, “overhears” the
conversation through her supernatural abilities. Later in the text when Death is explaining her
behavior towards the servant, she clarifies that she was not threatening the servant, only
surprised by his presence, saying: “That was not a threatening gesture, it was only a start of
surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in
Samarra,”. If the reader is unaware that death is the speaker for this text, they would assume
that the interaction between the woman and the servant was a coincidental meeting prior to their
appointment in Samarra, rather than the servant unknowingly and unwillingly meeting with
death, i.e. dying. In conclusion, knowing the identity of the speaker in narratives can greatly
affect the reader’s perception of the text.