NANCY N.

ALLEN ENGLISH 4 (Section) Complete Date

REPORT ON THE APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by W. Somerset Maugham

 SUMMARY
Death tells the story of a servant in Bagdad who, upon seeing her in the marketplace, borrowed his
master’s horse and fled to Samarra to “avoid [his] fate”. The merchant-master saw her also in the
same place but he reproached her for threatening his servant. Death explained she was in fact
surprised because her meeting with the servant was yet “tonight in Samarra”.

 DESCRIPTION

This short piece, written by W. Somerset Maugham, was actually used as an epigraph for the novel
Appointment in Samarra by John O’ Hara. Some classify this as a fable because of the
personification of death, an abstract concept characterized as a woman interacting with human
characters in the tale. The text comprises only of ten sentences with only three characters namely,
the merchant, the servant, and the woman Death from whose point of view the story is told.

In this fiction, two characters encounter Death but differed in their attitude towards her. The servant,
upon seeing Death, became so afraid, he panicked and fled to Samarra (with permission from the
master who lent him his horse) to escape his ‘fate’. The merchant, on the other hand, upon seeing
Death, confronted her and asked why she threatened his servant. Death was put on the defensive
because according to her, she also did not expect to meet the servant in Bagdad for their
‘appointment’ was still ‘tonight in Samarra'.

 INTERPRETATION

Overall, the story seems to be saying that death comes at the appointed time and nobody can
escape it, even if one tries. It is inevitable. No one has control over all circumstances. Life has to end
somehow but we cannot know when that will be.

Different people have different attitudes to death. Generally, everyone fears death (like the servant
in the story) and will try to do everything to avoid it –thus, the invention of longevity pills, or the
cosmetic youth serum in order to defy the visible symptoms of death from aging and diseases, etc.
This desperation signifies that life is precious and valuable, especially for those who use their strength
to contribute to mankind’s meaningful progress.

The story also hints of the difference in attitude between the rich (represented by the merchant),
who is not easily daunted because he belongs to the privileged class, and the poor (exemplified by
the servant) who is easily intimidated. In other words, the status of one’s economy also creates a
different projection of response. Yet, whether rich or poor, privileged or underprivileged, death
squares it all. Nobody can stand up to resist the ultimate when it is really life’s end.

Because life is shorter than what we hope it to be, and since we do not know when our end will
come, it is but proper to acknowledge that ‘life’ is a gift and we can only be grateful to opportunities
that are made available to us. It is not wrong to conclude that we have no control over everything
because we are finite. Yet we are made aware that there is something larger than us, there is the
Infinite. This gives us the opportunity to explore other dimensions of experience such as the spiritual
because reality, after all, is not confined to flesh and blood, nor to time and space. In fact, it is best
to start with the search for ‘truth’ and see where it stands with what has already been revealed. As
an explorer, I have not found anything or anyone whose claim is comparable to what Christ has
said: “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. This is
a good starting point for all who are truth seekers of the Infinite. Like Socrates, I believe that an
unexamined life is a waste. We must pursue life to its higher, noble purposes by starting out with God
who is, at the same time, the Author and Judge of life and death.