Come Lady Death: Literary Devices

Tijana Obradovic

Ms. Morton

ENG3U1

16 February 2014

Come Lady Death: Literary Devices

        Peter S. Beagle’s use of many literary devices throughout the short story “Come Lady Death,” helped to enhance his tale for readers. The author uses literary devices such as imagery and similes to describe the setting and characters, to set the mood and make his story more interesting to read.

        Death arrived at the ball that Lady Neville threw. In the story, everyone was curious as to how Death would look.

Lady Neville described her as:

She could have been more than nineteen. Her hair was yellow, and she wore it long. It fell thickly upon her bare shoulders that gleamed warmly through it, two limestone islands rising out of a dark golden sea. Her face was wide at the forehead and cheekbones, and narrow at the chin, and her skin was so clear that many of the ladies there–Lady Neville among them–touched their own faces wondering, and instantly drew their hands away as though their own skin had rasped their fingers. Her mouth was pale, where the mouths of other women were red and orange and even purple. Her eyebrows, thicker and straighter than was fashionable, met over dark, calm eyes that were set so deep in her young face and were so black. (Beagle 442)

In this quote, Beagle uses imagery to describe Death. Before, everyone at the ball assumed Death was a man and they were frightened of coming into contact with Death. This description draws the readers into the story to find out what happens next. The readers would like to find out how the people react to Death, and this part is perhaps even a turning point in the story.

        The author also uses many comparisons throughout the short story using like or as. These are known as similes: “sinking and rising in one motion, like a wave, ” (443) “Her accent was as faint and almost as familiar as her perfume, ”  (443) “It pounded against her ears in strokes, like the chiming of the clocks.” (441) All of these quotes are used to make comparisons between two things to help readers understand the story even more and make the story more alluring.