Symbolism of Godfather Death Essay Example
Symbolism of Godfather Death Essay Example

Symbolism of Godfather Death Essay Example

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  • Pages: 4 (895 words)
  • Published: March 23, 2017
  • Type: Essay
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Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm wrote the short story “Godfather Death” in the early 1800’s. “Godfather Death” is a short story illustrating how one’s greed can overtake anything in life. The story speaks of a poor man that has twelve children and a thirteenth on the way. The poor man finds Death and asks if he will be the godfather of his thirteenth child. Death gladly accepts and takes the child as if he were his own, making him a well-known famous doctor. The doctor tries to cheat death not once, but twice when death finally decides that enough is enough. Symbolism plays a very significant role in “Godfather Death”.

The spindle legged death shows just how significantly symbolism is used in this short story. The first sign of symbolism is that the child is the th

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irteenth born into his family. The number thirteen has been known to be associated with bad luck. The number thirteen being “unlucky” came from superstitions, myths, and folklores back from many centuries ago. Some believe that it comes from the biblical times, thirteen sat down to eat and one arose to betray Christ. Another belief is when people used to hang people for their crimes there was exactly 13 steps to the plat form where the drop off was.

There are many different beliefs in why 13 is unlucky. Many people consider Friday the Thirteenth a day to stay inside and lock the doors, it is called Triskaidekaphobia, and many people get panic attacks and won’t leave their home because of the day. Many office buildings do not have a “13 floor”, if they have more than thirteen floors

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many will not include the number thirteen. There are too many reasons to list why number thirteen is considered to be a very unlucky number, but in a lot of cases like “Godfather Death” it too was considered an unlucky number for the famous young doctor.

Another symbolic instance is that there are four father figures three of them being a higher power, super-natural form; however they are not seen as that. when 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” (Grimm 10). He does not believe that God is fair. The father suggests of the Devil: “you deceive and mislead mankind” (Grimm 10). The poor old man does not like that the devil may lead his son astray.

He views Death as the least discriminating saying, “Then you’re the one for me; you take the rich and poor without distinction” (Grimm 10). The story gives all of the characters a human form be it God, the Devil or Death. We do not see them in this story as supernatural beings but rather as just another person on whom the poor old man just happens to come across as he runs onto the highway. Another example of symbolism in this short story is the positioning of Death at a man’s head which signals healing and Death standing at a mans 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. The Doctor saved the patients with his

herbs, which symbolized his christening gift, given to the Doctor by Death. Although the doctor cheated Death once, Death warned the doctor, “But if you try such a thing again it will be your neck,” (Grimm 10) this is another way of saying that the doctor will lose his life if he attempts to cheat Death again. The doctor did not take heed to what Death had warned him. The final example of symbolism is the candles.

The candles are a symbol of how fragile life is. Candles are illustrated in the underground cave where thousands of lights jumping back and forth from being lit to not being lit. For thousands of years candles have been used for light, but not only light. Candles represent the power of light out of darkness. Candles can also represent life, much like people, a candle starts out burning tall and strong and the longer it burns the shorter the wick will get. The candle grows smaller and weaker the longer it burns until it finally cannot burn anymore.

Much like the candles that death 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 (Grimm 10). Since these lights represent life and longevity, the children had bigger lights because they had more years ahead of them than the adults had. The doctor wanted to see the measure of all of his accomplishments, which symbolized a barely lit candle, which was ultimately knocked over by death.

Some would say the story is trying to

convey the message that everyone must accept the consequences for their actions. Unfortunately greed for money, power, and love created the young Doctor’s fate. Perhaps there was nothing that could be done to change the Doctor’s fate considering he was after all the thirteenth born. Maybe his fate had already been decided. Ultimately, the moral of the short story “Godfather Death” is that no one can escape death and there is no defying death.

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