# III explained — The Book of Jade

> Chapter companion for The Book of Jade by David Park Barnitz.

## What happens

The speaker commands a beloved to adorn their golden body with ashes, embracing a morbid and sacrilegious love that defies death within love's tomb.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and Decay

Ashes, sepulchre, and the mocking of Death dominate the chapter.

### Eroticism and the Femme Fatale

Wanton love in a sepulchre blends eroticism with death.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who addresses the beloved and invokes death.

### Death

Personified figure mocked by the speaker's blasphemous love.

## Key lines

> Put ashes on your golden body bare, Puissant as musk, bitter-sweet as to die

Cover your naked golden body with ashes, which are potent like musk and bittersweet like the experience of dying.

_The speaker commands a ritualistic adornment with ashes, linking sensuality and mortality._

> So we will wanton in love’s sepulchre, And mock the face of Death with blasphemy.

Thus we will indulge in lustful play within the tomb of love, and scorn Death's visage through sacrilege.

_The speaker proposes a defiant, blasphemous union in the face of death._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se/chapters/part-ii-iii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se/chapters