Death Tale Similarities and Differences

The “Pardoner’s Tale” and J.K. Rowling’s three brothers story are similar because both stories encompass three friends/siblings that encounter death and try to overcome it. For instance, in the “Pardoner’s Tale”, the three friends go on a hunt to kill death, but in his place they find gold coin. The friends then kill each other to get the coins all to themselves.  Similarly in J.K. Rowling’s story, the three brothers encounter death when they cheat him by successfully crossing the river and get rewards for doing so. Although both tales have a similar meaning, they vary in actions taken, character personality, as well as the plot. The actions taken by the three brothers vary quite differently from the “Pardoner’s” friends. The brothers were offered gifts from death and set up their own demise by the gift they asked for.  The brothers got a powerful wand, a power to bring the dead back to life, and a cloak to hide from death, but in the pardoner’s tale, the friends saw gold, but did not get gifts. The gifts that the brothers did get both helped and harmed them.  The brother who has the wand was murdered, the zombie guy killed himself and the other brother died of old age. However, in the pardoner’s tale, the friends kill each other, but ultimately in both stories death gets their lives. The character personalities in both stories also vary. The brothers in Rowling’s tale are both greedy and conservative but getting gifts that will help them, but the youngest son also helps his son with his cloak. The friends however, are ruthless in their greed and kill each other for their own fortune. Instead of helping themselves with still keeping their friends alive. The plots, however, are what differ  the most. In both plots, the characters meet death, but in the pardoner’s tale, death is disguised as a human where with the brothers, death is in his true form. Also, death gives the brothers “gifts” which ultimately kills them, where as in the pardoner’s tale the friend kill each other from greed, not from their gifts.