Matheson's The Funeral is Gothic satire, a melding of Poe and Twain. In the beginning, a heaviness is present in the text, oddly similar to The Raven; though any one of Poe's pieces would make a fair comparison. In the satire aspect, Matheson's The Funeral draws parallels with works like The Mysterious Stranger, but only for how the subject matter is handled.
In The Mysterious Stranger, Satan has this indifferent attitude towards life and death, much like Asper. Satan's indifference to human life was polar opposite of Asper's. Asper wanted a proper send off, with his monster friends at the viewing. Which certainly does at another layer to this tale.
Matheson employed several monstrous archetypes: Ygor, and a few vampire's in the group, of which Asper is one. Asper's ability to die may likely have drawn him to the funeral parlor. It is possible to infer that Asper has a fascination with death and the whole spectacle of it. Though it is more of a given than in inference; however, no other information is given that Asper was never given a proper send off, hence why it stands as inference.
Rating: 4/5
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