Household Tales · Chapter
Godfather Death explained
A poor man with twelve children rejects God and the Devil as godfather for his thirteenth child, choosing Death instead.
What happens
A poor man with twelve children rejects God and the Devil as godfather for his thirteenth child, choosing Death instead. Death makes the boy a famous physician who can tell if a patient will live or die based on Death's position at the bedside. The physician twice defies Death by saving a king and then a princess, leading Death to extinguish his own life-candle.
Themes in this chapter
Promises and Their Consequences
Death's gift comes with a clear condition; the physician's betrayal leads to his own death.
Greed and Its Downfall
The physician's desire for wealth, kingship, and the princess drives him to break his promise, resulting in his demise.
Characters to notice
- Death
Chosen as godfather; grants the boy power to heal or not based on Death's position; ultimately punishes the physician for defiance.
- the rich man
Implied as the king who is healed and later the father of the princess.
- the princess
King's only child; her illness leads the physician to defy Death a second time.
- the son
The thirteenth child who becomes the physician; godson of Death.
- the poor man
Father of thirteen children; seeks a godfather for his youngest.
Key passages
“A poor man had twelve children and was forced to work night and day to give them even bread. When therefore the thirteenth came into the world, he knew not what to do in his trouble, but ran out into the great highway, and resolved to ask the first person whom he met to be godfather.”
A destitute father of twelve, struggling to feed his family, decides to ask the first stranger he meets to be godfather for his newborn thirteenth child.
Opening sets up the father's desperation and the fateful choice.
“If I could but cheat Death for once, thought the physician, he is sure to take it ill if I do, but, as I am his godson, he will shut one eye; I will risk it.”
The physician rationalizes defying Death's rule, hoping his godson status will grant him leniency.
First act of rebellion; shows the physician's hubris.
“Death pointed to a little end which was just threatening to go out, and said, Behold, it is there.”
Death shows the physician his own life-candle, a tiny stub about to expire.
Climactic revelation of the physician's mortality.