Godfather Death Christian World View

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The Christian Worldview in “Godfather Death” The fairy tale “Godfather Death” is an anonymous fairy tale that was transmitted orally, probably for centuries, and eventually written down by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Notoriously known as “the Brothers Grimm,” they travelled around the German countryside and had peasants recite their folk tales to them. They then wrote the stories down and published them to preserve them for posterity. If the Grimm Brothers had not taken this initiative, “Godfather Death” would have been lost forever since the oral tradition was fast dying out in modern industrial civilization. The extremes of wealth and poverty present in the fairy tale hint at its probable medieval origin. In the story, a disparity in wealth …show more content…

To conclude, the likely medieval origin of "Godfather Death" is most effectively illustrated by its Christian perspective, which is seen mostly in the initial section of the narrative where the impoverished man searches for a godfather for his newly born son. The unknown author represents a scale of Christian moral standards with two characters in the story: God and the Devil. He then harshly judges the impoverished guy, putting him far closer to the Devil than to God on the scale. Thus, just as the author himself judges the poor man and places him near the devil on the scale, the author expects his readers to judge the godson and place him near the Devil as well. In fact, the godson’s behavior is motivated by pride, greed, and lust, three deadly sins. Hence, the godson is also closer to the Devil than to God since he is sinful and therefore evil. In the folk tale, Death makes a promise that he will make the poor man’s son “rich and famous” …show more content…

The godson gave the king some of the herb to save him, even though Death was standing at his feet, meaning that he was supposed to die. Why did the doctor do that? The king was the richest man in the realm; hence, if the doctor saved him, he would make the godson rich. However, the doctor was already rich; hence, he did not actually need to save him. Therefore, he was greedy; he wanted more wealth even though he was already wealthy. Thus, he committed one of the seven deadly sins: greed. Furthermore, saving the king would bring him more popularity. He wanted to be even more famous than he already was; his current popularity was not enough for him, which is yet again a proof of greed but also of pride, another deadly sin. Moreover, the godson cheats death a second time when he gives the herb to the king’s daughter, despite Death standing by her feet: “He should have remembered his godfather’s warning, but the princess’s great beauty and the happy prospect of becoming her husband so infatuated him that he flung all caution to the wind”

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