Godfather Death Summary and Analysis

Godfather Death

Jakob and William Grimm's, "Godfather Death," is a short story
illustrating how one's greed can overtake anything in life. The doctor, the
protagonist, shows these actions of greed in his own ways. The
spindle-legged Death shows in the story how these main tools are of
significance to the story: symbolism, theme, and the title. A summary
analysis of these three tools will show how "Godfather Death" achieves its
interesting effect.
The first tool, symbolism, and how it goes along with the doctor and
Death, will be discussed. This device gives the reader glimpses of some
symbols and their associations. The father tells what God, the Devil, and
Death represent to him. When he speaks of God, he accuses, "You give to
the rich and let the poor go hungry." The father suggests of the Devil: "You
deceive and mislead mankind." He views Death as the least discriminating,
saying,"Then you're the one for me; you take the rich and poor without
distinction.
Another example of symbolism in this story is the picture of Death
standing at a man's head which signals healing and Death standing at a man's
feet which means he cannot be cured. The positioning of Death allowed the
doctor to tell instantly whether or not the patient could be saved. If he saved
them with his herbs, that symbolized his christening gift, given to him by
Death.
The final example of symbolism is illustrated in the underground cave
where there were thousands of lights jumping back and forth from being lit to
not being lit. These lights represent the life lights of mankind. "The big ones
belong to children, the middle-sized ones to married couples in their best
years, the little ones belong to very old people," states Death. Since these
lights represent life and longevity, the children had bigger lights because they
had more years ahead of them than the adults. The doctor wanted to see the
measure of all of his accomplishments which turned out to be symbolized by
barley lit then knocked over by Death.
The doctor's character is revealed more in the theme of this short
story. He is the son of a wise man let his son face his own challenges in life.
First the doctor had to choose to follow Death into the woods and believe in
him. Death told him he would make him a famous doctor which he became
in the story. He had the ability to know instantly if the patient would live
or die. He became so well-known and famous that people would come from
everywhere to see him and he became wealthy as a result.
Then theme really comes into place when the king becomes very ill
and the doctor comes to see him. The doctor knew instantly that he was going
to die. He decides to trick Death and save the king. In his attempt, the
doctor shows his greed for power and fame. The doctor thought Death
wouldn't be angry since he was his godchild. But Death was angry and
warned the doctor,"You have tricked me. This time I will let you pass
because you are my godchild." Then Death tells the doctor if crosses him
again, he will die. Then the king's daughter becomes ill so the doctor visits.
Once again, he knew she would die, but he decides to save her because he
wants to be rich and marry the princess as promised by her
father, the king. Once again, the doctor's greed shows which seals his own
fate of death. "Thereupon the doctor sank to the ground and had himself
fallen into the hands of death."
The third and final tool is the title. When I first read the title, it
reminded me of the mofia or of a crime leader. After reading the
short story, I now appreciate how important the title is to the story.
"Godfather Death" basically represents the whole story. The title describes
the doctor's godfather, Death. It also explains that death can come at anytime
if someone chooses a sin over doing what is right. The title is also shown
when Death kills the doctor, "Death made as if to grant his wish, reached for
a tall new taper, but because he wanted revenge he purposely fumbled and
the little stub fell over and went out."
Death had already made up his mind to kill the doctor for betraying
him twice and after warning both times. Without this title, it would be
difficult to imagine why people would want to read the story. This story
caught my eye because of its title. I discovered the story was different than I
imagined, but it taught a good lesson after all. Death says early in the story,
"I will make your child rich and famous, because the one who has me for a
friend shall want for nothing."
The doctor's greed for money, power, and love, created his grave. This
shows how people will sometimes choose anything for what they think they
must have in life. This story teaches a valuable lesson to its readers and
shows that greed is a common sin which we should be more careful to avoid.
The story also makes a good point--that people should listen to their peers
when they are warned. The doctor's hatred for not having more money and
power is compared to his fear of death.

In the world of fairy tales it is not uncommon for the protagonist to have an interesting godfather or godmother. The best known of these is the fairy godmother variant, a creature of great power the godmother would provide her godchild with great gifts as they needed it in life. Lesser known but for the purposes of RPG's perhaps more important are the godparents from "The God Father" and " The Godfather Death," for in these two stories the godparents are the devil and death himself (respectively). In both these stories the father resolves to ask the first person he meets on the street to be the child's godfather. "The Godfather Death" is in many ways the more interesting of these two stories, first because it develops the relationship between Death and his godson more then most any other fairy tale, and second because although the father has resolved to ask the first one he sees to be godfather he passes over god and the devil for he believes that both of these discriminate against the poor. Upon meeting death however he is happy for death treats all people equally, taking them as it is their turn to die.

Within role playing games we can take from this the idea that a person could indeed on rare occasions choose a godparent for their child, no matter what the parents normal disadvantages. It would be interesting to play a character with a godparent who provided them with some great gift, but who in return made demands that would be difficult to keep. In the case of the Godfather Death, the person knew how to stop Death from taking someone, but was told never to do this if Death stood at the persons head. However realizing that Death loved him the godson chose to ignore this, for he loved those who where dying. In role playing games this may not be as much of a challenge for the players for although their characters might be attached to someone the player may not be. Unless the player is able to more honestly play their character. And then what is it death might demand in return for the sparing of someone's life.

To take this idea a step further the godfather in an RPG could be an evil god, who waits until long after the character is good to provide him with his gift. Imagine the conflict of being caught between a godfather one has grown to love and the ideology and beliefs that the character holds dear. Again such conflicts require a good role player; however there is real value in such stories, for it is such conflicts that make fantasy so interesting. For within fantasy the conflict is itself invented and so is able to question much more deeply the reality in which we live just as fairy tales are




CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON "GODFATHER DEATH", A FAIRY TALE WRITTEN BY JACOB LUDWIG GRIMM AND WILHELM CARL GRIMM

This story is a German fairy tale translated by Jacob Ludwig Grimm (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Carl Grimm (1786-1859), brothers born in Germany. The story centers on a 13th son born to a poor old man who can not afford to feed his new offspring. In order to provide for him the poor old man must choose a godfather for his son. He first meets God and dismisses him as a godfather because according to the old man, God is not a fair person. Later he comes across the Devil and again the old man dismisses him also because according to the old man the Devil tricks humans into sin. Finally he comes across the one 'person' that he does accept to be the godfather of his son. That person is Death and he was chosen because Death does not play favoritism with no one, rich or poor Death will take them all when their time comes.

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