Epigraphs are like little appetizers to the great entrée of a story. They illuminate important aspects of the story, and they get us headed in the right direction.
And strange it is
That nature must compel us to lament
Our most persisted deeds.
Antony and Cleopatra
What's up with the epigraph?
The one epigraph in The Adventures of Augie March doesn't appear until well into the second half of the novel, at the start of Chapter 16. It's a line from Shakespeare's play, Antony and Cleopatra. The character Agrippa speaks these words when Octavius Caesar, he, and the other opponents of Antony see the bloodied sword of Antony and hear of the man's suicide. They've persisted long and hard to bring an end to Antony, but Caesar is nonetheless touched by the scene. Sometimes we feel bad about the things we were most determined to do. In Augie's case, he's dropped everything to follow Thea to Mexico, but he isn't really fully on board with her plans and this adventure will only result in grief. Thea doesn't kill herself, but when they part in regret, Augie is dead to her, and eventually she is dead to him as well.