Reading Log #7

     The main conflict of "The Tale of the Three Brothers" is Death wanting to take the men for himself. You see, in the beginning of the tale, it says, "And Death spoke to them. He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travellers usually drowned in the river" (88). Basically, Death used that spot to claim people after they'd died in the river, but because the three brothers did not die, he felt enranged that they did not die like others and thus, the conflict expanded. He pretends to congratulate the men and gives them three prizes for their own, the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak. The reason I believe this is the main conflict and not an important event is because if Death never gave the brothers the prizes to try to kill them, nothing that happened in the story would have actually happened. This affects both Death and the brothers because Death is trying to get the brothers and they will die because of this. The conflict here is definetly external because death and pain is all just external things. The conflict does get resolved at the end of the story, "And so Death took the first brother for his own. . . . And so Death took the second brother for his own. . . . And then he (the youngest brother) greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life" (91, 92, 93). So the Old and Middle brother die and Death takes them, he also takes the Young brother, but as equals. This resolves the conflict because now Death finally has the three brothers we wanted to keep, and the brothers have finished their lives.