ShmoopTube

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Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Bones. Because without them, skeletons

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just wouldn't be nearly as terrifying.

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Death is primarily characterized as... what?

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And here are the potential answers...

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Okay, time to call out Death on all his shenanigans.

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What got this hooded baddie's goat? What put him in such a bad mood that he has to take

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it out on all us poor, breathing people?

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We've got five possible answers... let's run through 'em and see what makes sense...

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In the poem... is Death mysterious and elusive?

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Mysterious? No.

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If Death was mysterious, we wouldn't know so much about him... and the author comes

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across as quite knowledgeable about his dastardly deeds.

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...which will also rule out E -- mysterious and unexplainable.

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So we're down to B, C or E...

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Is Death powerless and fearful?

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The "fearful" part rules this one out. Death inspires fear, but he doesn't seem to be type

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to lock all his doors and keep a baseball bat at the side of his bed.

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What exactly would Death even be afraid of? Rejection?

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"A powerful master of fate and chance" sounds good...

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...but line 9 starts, "Thou art slave to fate."

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And if you're a slave to something... you can't exactly be its master as well.

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Or else our nation's history of slavery would have been much more confusing.

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But D -- "a powerless slave to circumstance" is right on the money.

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Just because Death gets to be executioner doesn't mean he also gets to be judge and jury.

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So D is our answer.

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As in, "Dead tired."

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