Is it a ghost or angel, or what? Is it supposed to good or evil?
According to Terry Pratchett, he’s an anthropomorphic personification.
And really, I’m not sure there’s any better answer than that. Most references to the Grim Reaper are not meant to be taken literally: Rather, the skeletal figure in the hood is a visual representation of death, the real-world process. Have you ever seen someone die? If so, you’ve seen Death. It doesn’t mean you’ve seen a guy with a robe and a scythe.
Death is a Demiurge.
ANTHROPOMORPHIC PERSONIFICATION
Seriously though, that’s an accurate answer. It’s meant to be a a personification of an abstract concept, not an entity. It’s the same basic thing as the Bull and the Bearor Justice or Uncle Sam.
And as with all those other personifications, it isn’t inherently good or bad, it depends entirely upon how the user wants to portray the abstraction.Uncle Sam is as often portrayed as a murderer and a thief as he is as a hero, and Justice is portrayed betraying the innocent and taking bribes as often as she is portrayed as a servant or champion. So Death can be portrayed as something to fear or a source of comfort or anything else that the user wants to convey about the abstract concept of death.
It’s an anthropomorphic personification, not an entity with a personality.
He is supposed to be some kind of farmer. In the old days they would swing the scythe and cut down swathes of grain at a time. So too death treats us when it is time to reap our lives.
Grim, no?
Here is a video of this kind of farmer.
WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, lF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?
There is a Reaper, whose name is Death,
And, with his sickle keen,
He reaps the bearded grain at a breath,
And the flowers that grow between.
Wikipedia is your friend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_Reaper
The subsection specifically about the Grim Reaper is three lines long.
He’s one of the little men for the village
argh – from the village.
I blame the salmon mousse.
That’s what happens when you buy canned.
Seasons don’t fear the anthropomorphic personification
Nor do the wind and the sun and the rain
I learned a new word today. The GR is a Psychopomp.
A shinigami.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/64/IchigoAnimeEp113.jpg/230px-IchigoAnimeEp113.jpg
Just don’t try to play chess with Him. He can never remember which way the little horses go.
And he always loses at Battleship.
You haff sunka my battle-sheep! Best 3 of 5!