Importance Of Decisions In Godfather's Death

Throughout our lives decisions seem to have a greater impact. Some decisions are deciding upon small things such as what type of fruit to buy, while other decisions are very important. In the story, “Godfather Death”, by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, the main character is faced with a decision given to him by Death himself. Every decision in life can change a person’s fate forever. The story begins with a child being born and Death is named the godfather. Death had told the child’s father “I will make your child rich and famous. Whoever has me as a friend shall lack for nothing” (Grimm 13). Once the child grew older Death made him a famous doctor. He was able to heal anyone that Death didn’t want to die yet. One day the doctor was summoned to the king. The king was very ill and …show more content…
He grabbed the doctor and brought him to an underground cavern. It was filled with thousands of candles. “‘Look,’ said Death, ‘these are the life-lights of mankind. The large ones belong to children, the medium-sized ones to married people in their best years, and the little ones to old people. However, even children and young people often have only a tiny candle’” (Grimm 14). These candles represent the amount of life each person still has. Death then showed the doctor his candle. It was a small stub that was flickering. At this point the doctor understood what he had done. He had gone against Death’s wishes and he would now have to pay the price. The doctor begged him to light a new one, but Death wouldn’t allow it. The doctor was probably filled with joy once he saw what Death was doing. Death pretended to try making the candle larger, but he stumbled and put the candle out. The doctor watched as his life faded away and he fell dead into Death’s arms. The doctor faced the ultimate price for making just one wrong decision. Death knows how long everyone has. He never told the doctor about how small his candle was because he wanted the doctor to suffer for what he