The phrase that connects these characters is <u>half an arm</u>. The old woman lived in a desolate place with her daughter and had never seen Mr. Shiftlet, seeing him from afar she could say that he was a vagabond and nobody to fear. The left sleeve of his coat was folded up to show that he only had half a arm.
It’s because we as humans find entertainment in other things, or perhaps in other situations we just don’t want to do the work because it’s tiring.
The answer is comic relief.
Answer: A) comic relief
The answer is :
D) It emphazises death and hell
We can observe that although the author could have simply finished the story in a conventional way he opted for adding an epigraph in order to highlight the concept of deaths and hell (and society's -mis-conceptions of both)
Hope this helps!