Death

Death is personified in the fable “The Old Man and Death” as a figure who answers when summoned, but the encounter turns on the woodcutter’s retreat from the consequence of his own appeal. The old man, worn out by a journey carrying firewood to the city, wants his load restored to his shoulders once Death appears; the reversal makes the fable a compact image of attachment to life even under hardship.

Appearance and Role

Death enters the story after an old man cutting wood in the forest has carried his faggots toward the city for sale and become very tired. He sits by the wayside, throws down the load, and calls on Death to come. The figure answers the summons immediately and asks why it was called. Death has no described appearance or independent history: its role is defined by this direct response and by the question that gives the old man a chance to state what he wants.

The Summons and Reversal

The old man’s appeal seems to invite an ending to his exhaustion, but once Death appears he quickly gives a more modest reason for calling. He asks Death to lift the load and place it back on his shoulders. The request changes the scene from an apparent acceptance of death to a wish to resume the very burden that prompted the summons. The fable does not show Death carrying out the request; its decisive turn is the old man’s answer.

Meaning in the Collection

The old man’s response makes Death the measure of a contrast between momentary weariness and the will to continue. His fatigue is concrete—the long journey with firewood, stopped beside the road—while his request reveals that he prefers renewed effort to the consequence he appeared to call for. The ending rests on that reversal rather than on a separate explanation of the moral.

The Fable’s Form

The collection’s preface describes a fable as a short narrative that conveys instruction through fictitious characters, with the lesson meant to emerge from the action rather than from an elaborate explanation. This episode follows that compact design: one summons, one question, and one unexpected request are enough to expose the gap between calling for Death and being ready to meet it. The personified figure serves the story’s human point without needing a biography or further action of its own.