Fei-Perng Law

Professor Dowd

Writing 39B

15 October 2018

RA Exploratory Draft

“Come Lady Death” - Peter S. Beagle

• Historical/cultural context: living in older times when kingdoms existed. Also means that there isn’t a middle class, there’s a big gap between the rich and poor.  Rich people just want to show off their wealth, end up forming shallow relationships instead of deep, meaningful ones. Highlights the need to be liked by everyone. Critiques society for wanting to be popular and not thoroughly enjoying the gift of life.
• Message: Death is the lack of empathy, lack of relationship. Death shouldn’t be feared
• Techniques Beagle Uses: build up suspense, anti-climatic/surprising reveal, stereotype of death, irony, imagery, exaggeration, setting, appeal to emotion, personification, third person limited point of view

Evidence/Analysis

• Beagle builds up the suspense of Death’s arrival by emphasizing the people’s fear and mood while the grand ball is beginning. The guests’ expectations of death creates high expectations for audience for something scary to happen but when Death arrives, she is the complete opposite of what was thought. Death is usually portrayed as something scary, cold, and dark, but Beagle personifies Death as a sweet, beautiful, young girl which is the opposite of what most people think about death. “Her hair was yellow [and] it fell thickly upon her bare shoulders that gleamed warmly through it” (pg 442)
• Lady Neville is an aristocrat in England. Beagle exaggerates how wealthy she is by saying how “she had so many servants that she could not possibly remember all their names… some she had never even seen. She had more food that she could eat, more gowns that she could ever wear.” (431) Lady Neville only cares about how she projects herself to others, and wants to show off her wealth because she has nothing meaningful in her life. Exaggeration creates illusion that only superficial objects matter in life, and pays little attention to deeper relationships.
• “Come Lady Death” set “in England a long time ago.” (431) This is set in a time where kings and palaces existed, and people were either wealthy or dirt poor. Creates a distinct line between the rich and the poor’s values. The rich don’t care about others/have no empathy (“‘My hairdresser has a sick child. He was telling me about it yesterday, sounding most dull and hopeless.” (435)) while the poor value what they do have: family, love, etc.
• Beagle uses third person limited point of view to give insight of how aristocrats view the world. Find out her intentions with the party when Death doesn’t arrive at midnight and Lady Neville thinks “I am ruined. I wanted to give a ball so grand that those who were not invited would be shamed in front of the whole city.” (441)  Sheds light of how important popularity is in people’s lives and how it serves as validation to remain “cool” in society.