# The Death of Halpin Frayser explained — Can Such Things Be?

> Chapter companion for Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

The chapter opens with a philosophical epigraph on death and the supernatural, suggesting that the dead may return with malevolent intent and that the spirit and body can be separated in unnatural ways.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and the Supernatural

The epigraph directly discusses the return of the dead and the transformation of spirit and body after death.

### The Uncanny and the Grotesque

The concept of a walking corpse (lich) without natural affection or remembrance, filled only with hate, evokes the uncanny and grotesque.

## Character check-ins

### Halpin Frayser

Central figure of the chapter, whose death and potential return are foreshadowed.

## Key lines

> For by death is wrought greater change than hath been shown. Whereas in general the spirit that removed cometh back upon occasion, and is sometimes seen of those in flesh (appearing in the form of the body it bore) yet it hath happened that the veritable body without the spirit hath walked.

Death brings about a more profound transformation than is commonly understood. While the departed spirit may occasionally return and appear to the living in its former bodily form, there are also instances where the actual physical body moves about without its spirit.

_Establishes the supernatural premise of the chapter, distinguishing between ghostly apparitions and animated corpses._

> And it is attested of those encountering who have lived to speak thereon that a lich so raised up hath no natural affection, nor remembrance thereof, but only hate.

Those who have survived an encounter with such a reanimated corpse testify that it feels no love or memory of its former life, only pure hatred.

_Highlights the malevolent nature of the undead being introduced._

> Also, it is known that some spirits which in life were benign become by death evil altogether.

Furthermore, it is understood that even kind-hearted souls can turn entirely evil after death.

_Suggests a moral inversion in the afterlife, setting a tone of dread._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/can_such_things_be_se/chapters/the-death-of-halpin-frayser
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/can_such_things_be_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/can_such_things_be_se/chapters