"Who was the fool, who the wise man,
who the beggar or the emperor?
Whether rich or poor, all are equal in death."
who the beggar or the emperor?
Whether rich or poor, all are equal in death."
— Anonymous, Vierzeiliger oberdeutscher Totentanz
Statistics regarding life expectancy tell people — We All Die Someday, and people say we will all be treated equally by and in it. It doesn't matter if you're a master or a slave, a sinner or a saint, man or woman, a bishop or knave, white or black — or how the deceased are treated by others around — you might still say everyone is all treated the same. Hence death is often called "The Great Leveler", for all and their distinctions be leveled. Either the funerals or the afterlife (if any) must be the same for everyone, whichever is used last in the work.
It's an old theme in medieval art with the Danse Macabre, which told the living that death comes to all and that all earthly glories are bound to vanish, but it can also take other expressions.
Note that this goes one step further than that everyone, in at least a given setting, is going to die — everyone must be treated the same as well. Even a statement that everybody is judged the same way implies a weakening of this trope. If everyone has the same funeral, but then go to different afterlives, then the trope is subverted. Put another way, this is An Aesop that all differences among people are erased upon death.
This is also one reason Balancing Death's Books is a viable option when Death comes to collect a soul: If everyone's equal, then there's no problem subbing one person for another.
See also Cessation of Existence, No Animosity in the Afterlife, and Only One Afterlife. Part of the reason why Death Means Humanity. Not to be confused with Together in Death. Contrast Species-Specific Afterlife for one situation where different types of people are treated quite differently after death. Contrast also Immortality and, in particular, Immortality Seeker.
As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.
Examples
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Advertising
- "Stop the Hate"
, an old anti-racism Public Service Announcement, used this effectively.
[shot of a maternity ward]
Announcer: Here's one time where it doesn't matter who your neighbor is.
[rapid-fire montage of racial violence, hate groups, race riots and genocide, then a shot of a cemetery]
Announcer: Here's the other.
Anime & Manga
- In Death Note, Ryuk literally says, in the English translation anyway, "Death is equal." Everyone is treated exactly the same upon death in that universe, because they all go to Mu--nothingness.
- In Death Parade, it's very much averted with the deceased who are sent to the arbiters and play games that determine their fate; there's often a fairly large imbalance between players' skills and experience in the games they're made to play, giving a clear indication of who's meant to win. As Decim says, "Life is unfair." Of course, this is all deliberately done to put the players through a high-stress scenario, to see how they react under the pressure. Considering that there's no rules against assault, it means that a pro can lose by virtue of being unconscious after a beating.
- A central plot point in Monster (1994). Johan Liebert's goal is to show Tenma this. He also believes that when he dies, he'll be redeemed. The reason why he is the monster makes it because he refuses redemption in life due to this belief.
Art
- The Danse Macabre of mediaeval Christian art was meant to evoke this trope.
- The Death trump, in some older Tarot Cards, depicts The Grim Reaper standing or riding over the severed heads of a king and a bishop as well as a commoner.
- La Calavera Catrina, the Trope Codifier for Calacas in Mexican art, depicts the skeleton of a Mexican woman in faux-French garb. The image satirized Mexicans attempting to pass themselves off as white Europeans, the skeleton signifying that their false status would eventually crumble upon death.
Comic Books
- Addressed in the very first page of Mort the Dead Teenager, in which Mort complains about his fate being unfair and Teen Death replies that there's no one more equal-opportunity than himself.
- Death from The Sandman (1989) is a rather benevolent version of this trope, she never misses the opportunity to say that everybody dies at the end, but for the same reason and since she knows everything about everyone, she never hates anyone, they are all the same to her but because she knows them all.
Comic Strips
- In an early Life in Hell strip, Binky tells a sleepless Bongo that "Death is the only thing that's fair, because everybody dies, and everybody stays dead the same amount of time: forever." Ironically this proves a lot more comforting for little Bongo than Binky himself.
Fan Works
- The narrative of Flow Like Fire gives an example when Zuko discovers the bones of the dead airbenders slaughtered years ago.
In death, everyone looks the same.
Film — Animation
- In an early draft of Bambi, it was planned that the Great Prince showed Bambi the charred corpse of a hunter after the forest fire scene, showing Bambi that even Man cannot escape Death's clutchesnote . However, the scene was cut on Walt Disney's orders, as he felt it was too graphic for a children's movie.
Film — Live-Action
- Invoked by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War when he explains to Doctor Strange the rationale behind his plan to kill half the universe's population. The process would have been completely random and indiscriminate, free of bias towards race, gender, rich or poor, weak or powerful, and therefore in Thanos's mind, fair. When he succeeds, those who die at the end are crumbling into dust in the same way. It's not completely fair, though, as Thanos agreed to spare Stark in exchange for the Time Stone.
- The epilogue of Barry Lyndon reads: "It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarrelled: good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now." See also the original novel.
- In Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, The Grim Reaper makes it very clear:
You may be a king, or a simple street sweeper
But sooner or later, you dance with the Reaper. - In the end of Gangs of New York, all of the victims from the Draft Riots get the same barebones burial, despite their race, nationality, social class, or gang alliance.
- In the end of Glory, all the men of the 54th that were killed in the assault on the fortification are shown being dumped in a mass grave by the Confederates, white officers and black enlisted alike.
- Part of the really dark alternate ending of Heathers, that was changed after Executive Meddling. After Veronica kills J.D., stopping him from blowing up everyone in the school, she ignites the bombs herself. All the kids, no matter their clique, appearance, or background, are then shown interacting peacefully in heaven. The trope is lampshaded in the film, when J.D. says:
"Let's face it, all right! The only place different social types can genuinely get along with each other is in heaven."
- In History of the World Part I, a court official whispers over and over, "Remember, thou art mortal!" at Marcus, after having won a great victory.note Marcus exasperatedly just retorts, "Oh, blow it out your ass!"
- Les Misérables (2012) contains the following lyrics:
Gavroche: This was the land that fought for liberty
Now when we fight, we fight for bread.
Here is the thing about equality:
Everyone's equal when they're dead. - In Odds Against Tomorrow, the last two criminals shoot it out after a botched robbery. One is Black, and the other is a White bigot. They wind up setting off gasoline, and both are fried. When one policeman asks which is which, another shrugs. They'll never know, and it doesn't matter now. Incidentally, this a big "message", because in the book, the White bigot could have gotten away but went back to rescue the Black criminal (and both are killed).
- The Seventh Seal ends with the deceased characters — from a range of walks of life — forming a Danse Macabre on the horizon.
- One of the few things that makes sense in Zardoz. By the end of the film, every named character, whether immortal Eternal or barbarian Brutal, has died, whether it be from gunshot or old age.
Literature
- Arabian Nights stories sometimes end with "and so they lived happily until Death, the destroyer of happiness, who comes for rich and poor alike, came for them".
- A cynical version appears in Best Served Cold (2009): Morza tells Shivers that good people turn into the exact same kind of corpses as bad people, so there's no point in trying to be good.
- The Dark Profit Saga:
- The god of Death, Mordo Ogg, gives nobody special treatment, not even his few clerics. Which is why he doesn't have many followers, much less priests.
- Detarr Ur'Mayan's Head of Marketing pitches the phrase as a recruiting slogan for the undead horde, but the focus group points out that undead are not created equal. The horde has a de facto caste system with basic skeletons and zombies at the bottom, ghouls, wraiths, and vampires above them, and Detarr the liche on top. That also gets them thinking about what type of undead Tyren, Detarr's right-hand skeleton, really is, particularly whether he might have risen as a revenant for attempting to desert.
- The god of Death, Mordo Ogg
- This is what makes Death a sympathetic character in the Discworld novels; he isn't cruel or sadistic, he's just good at his job, and he performs it efficiently and without favour (mostly). In fact, the Disc's reality almost breaks down when his apprentice Mort can't bring himself to reap a young princess who's destined to be assassinated like her father on the orders of her Evil Uncle.
- Invoked in-universe in The Elenium, when Sparhawk has to sneak into the catacombs under the Cimmura Cathedral.
- In one of the later Gaunt's Ghosts novels, a company of ghosts are on their way to their post when they realize that the barren field they are in is supposed to be a forest, which has been bombed into nonexistence. One of the Tanith notes "Behold the leveling glories of field artillery, beneath which all things are rendered equal."
- In the fairy tale "Godfather Death", a poor man looks for a godfather for his newborn; having rejected God's offer because God favors the rich and neglects the poor, he happily accepts Death as a godfather, because Death "makes everyone equal" and "takes rich and poor alike, without distinction". While originally played straight, the later edition adds a line that this reflects the man's ignorance more than anything, since traditionally the poor get the last laugh in Heaven.
- Referenced in the first chapter of The Luck of Barry Lyndon: "It was in the reign of George II that the aforesaid personages lived and quarrelled: good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now." Note that this lists another king than in the film version.
- Sunako from Shiki holds this view on death:
Sunako: I think death is equally terrible for everyone. Young people, old people, the good, the bad, it's always the same. It's rather fair in its treatment. There is no such thing as a particularly terrible death. And that's why it's frightening. Your behavior and your age, your personality, your wealth, your beauty or personal beliefs, all the things that add up to make us who we are. They only matter while we are alive. Death makes every one of them null and void. So any death is terrible.
- According to canine mythology in Survivor Dogs, all beings become one with the Earth-Dog after they die. Their spirits ascend and live together with all the other spirits.
- Boba Fett in Tales of the Bounty Hunters invokes this with the opening line of his story, "The Last Man Standing": "Everyone dies. It's the final and only lasting justice." This is repeated throughout the story.
- A theme of the Vorkosigan Saga short story "Aftermaths", showing the crew of a spaceship that is out reclaiming the dead bodies after a space battle.
- In the World of the Five Gods series, every soul is picked up by one of the gods at their death, regardless of status or faith, and which god is shown in a miracle at their funeral. Then explored in the third book, The Hallowed Hunt, in which certain souls are shown to be impossible for the gods to pick up, and the trouble is about how to make them pickable again.
Live-Action TV
- In the Blackadder Goes Forth finale "Goodbyeee", this trope is why Blackadder uncharacteristically treats Darling with kindness and respect instead of his usual taunts and mockery right before the big push that will kill them: at that moment, he doesn't see his Sitcom Arch-Nemesis who's been antagonizing him all through the series, he sees a fellow soldier about to die for a pointless war on the orders of a mad Armchair Military general.
- Bones: In "The Titan on the Tracks", a rich industrialist faked his death, then was beaten severely by his accomplice in order to cover his (the accomplice's) participation. The following takes place in his hospital room:
Brennan: When can we talk to him?
Doctor: Any time you want, as long as you don't expect a response. This man has severe brain damage. Off the record, he's not going to wake up. Best case scenario, he spends the rest of his life hooked up to feeding tubes.
Brennan: This is one of the richest men in the country.
Doctor: Most of the time, that might mean something. Not now. - Game of Thrones: In "Walk of Punishment", Missandei explains a dying slave's desire to die when Daenerys asks by saying "There are no masters in the grave, your grace."
- Homicide: Life on the Street: This is part of Pembleton's philosophy; he sincerely feels that this trope applies to everyone, and works diligently to investigate murders regardless of who the victim was in life because he feels all deaths are a tragedy.
- The M*A*S*H episode "Follies of the Living - Concerns of the Dead" is told from the POV of a dead soldier. At the end of the episode, he walks down the road toward the afterlife along with all the other dead — U.S. soldiers of various ranks, North Korean soldiers, civilians, et cetera.
- In Pompeii: The Last Day, slaves and masters alike die side by side, and many people who would never have interacted with each other otherwise form close bonds in their last moments.
- The Twilight Zone (1959): The episode "The Passersby" depicts a scenario similar to the M*A*S*H example with American Civil War dead, ending with Abraham Lincoln.
Music
- "Auf dem Hügel" by Subway to Sally describes a cemetery where everyone, parents and children, murderers and righteous men, "sleep" side by side.
- Tom Waits' Bone Machine song "Dirt in the Ground":
Ask a king or a beggar
And the answer they'll give
Is we're all gonna be just dirt in the ground - "Cry of the Banshee" by Brocas Helm:
Banshee howling in the city means a knight has died
For what reason, for what glory?
Who knows for what pride?
Country, king, or criminal
War or vengeance, what the Hell?
Death is all the same
If he died in shame or honor
Who on Earth can tell? - Queen's "Hammer to Fall":
Rich or poor or famous, for your truth it's all the same!
- "A Lifetime of War" by Sabaton, which is about the soldiers fighting in the Thirty Years' War:
When they face death, they're all alike
No right or wrong
Rich or poor
No matter who they served before
Good or bad
They're all the same
Rest side-by-side now... - This is the theme of "My Boy Builds Coffins" by Florence + the Machine, about a man who builds coffins:
My boy builds coffins for the rich and the poor
Kings and queens have all knocked on his door
Beggers and liars, gypsies and thieves
They all come to him because he's so eager to please
(...) He's made one for himself, one for me too
One of these days he'll make one for you - The American folk song "O'Death" is about how death doesn't care who you are and how the singer wishes death will pass over them at least this year.
- The British folk song "The Shaking of the Sheets", best known these days by the Steeleye Span version:
Bring away the beggar, bring away the king,
And every man in his degree.
Bring away the oldest and the youngest thing,
Come to death and follow me. - "Twenty Tons of TNT" by Flanders and Swann is about a nuclear apocalypse. The trope is referenced directly in the last verse:
Ends the tale that has no sequel
Twenty tons of TNT.
Now in death are all men equal
Twenty tons of TNT.
Teach me how to love my neighbour,
Do to him as he to me;
Share the fruits of all our labour
Twenty tons of TNT. - "Leveller" by Inkubus Sukkubus. One of many songs about death by the band, but this one is the most blatantly about this trope.
All the kings, and the queens, and the generals dread the gaze of his eyes.
But to the cold, and the sick and the starving, he's a blessing in disguise.
For his sweet kiss means, at least, they shall suffer no more.
So they don't fear when he comes a-knock, knock, knocking on the door.
Tabletop Games
- In Pathfinder, once a person dies, their mind and soul become a being called a petitioner. While there might be some differences in their appearance or certain abilities depending on where they end up going in the afterlife, all petitioners are only a Combat Rating 1. Skill with weapons, languages, magic, it's all left behind, making the strongest centuries-old archmage exactly as powerful as a child after they're both dead.
Theater
- Quoth Death in Elisabeth: "My order is to destroy, I do it coldly. / And you belong to me, young and old."
- Hamlet: "Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service — two dishes, but to one table. That's the end."
Video Games
- When he is released from his sarcophagus near the beginning of Baldur's Gate III, Withers asks the PC, "What is the value of a single mortal life?" If the player chooses to answer that all lives have equal value, Withers responds, "In death, that is so." Since it is very heavily implied that Withers is Jergal, the former God of the Dead, he would know.
- Dark Souls 2: Grave Warden Agdayne makes a speech about this: "Countless souls rest here, in peace. Some were rich, others poor. Some bright, some dull, but now they're all just dead. Death is equitable, accepting."
- In the first chapter of The Legend of Dragoon, examining a dead Sandora soldier in the Seventh Fortress will cause Dart to comment that there are no enemies in death, and wishing that the Sandoran will rest in peace.
- Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: Halara Nightmare firmly believes this, explicitly saying that they only trust the dead. As for the living, they hate everyone equally as well.
- Once he's fully gone 'round the bend and turned Ax-Crazy, Eddie of Silent Hill 2 espouses this as part of the reason why he's gone on a killing spree.
Eddie: Maybe they're right. Maybe I am nothing but a fat, disgusting piece of shit. But you know what? It don't matter whether you're smart, dumb, ugly or pretty... It's all the same once you're dead!
Web Animation
Webcomics
- Fire Emblem Heroes: A Day in the Life: In "The Strongest Refutation", Sonia believes there are two types of people: those who lead, and those who serve. She is refuted by Hel, who believes all mortals are the same as they are all powerless before death.
- Oglaf: The god Sithrak will supposedly treat everyone equally, by torturing them forever (allegedly). When one of his worshippers dies, Sithrak sends him back with a message that he doesn't mean all that torture stuff. The disciple concludes that Sithrak also plays mind games on the living, to the delight of his fellows.
Western Animation
- Gargoyles: Anubis speaks with a pretty heavy level of responsibility regarding his job in "Grief", and doesn't take kindly to being imprisoned by Emir. It's detailed in this scene:
Anubis: On the contrary, death is the ultimate fairness. Rich and poor, young and old, all are equal in death. You would not like to see the Jackal God play favorites. Think what you are doing: all over the world there is birth, but no death. Our planet cannot support so many lives at once.
Real Life
- Islamic funeral customs are, as defined in Sharia law, austere and egalitarian. The body is washed in a ritual way, and then shrouded in simple cotton cloths. The grave should be marked with only a simple marker, if any, and no casket should be used. See the other wiki for more details.
- Similarly, in Jewish tradition, the deceased, regardless of socioeconomic status in life, is dressed in a simple white shroud and prayer shawl, and buried in a plain, unvarnished pine coffin.
- A story from Ancient Greece claims that Alexander the Great once encountered Diogenes picking through bones. When Alexander asked what the philosopher was doing, Diogenes (founder of the Cynics) replied, "I'm looking for the bones of your father, but I can't tell them apart from those of his slave."
- The Eleusinian Mysteries in Athens were a way to achieve happy afterlife through learning sacred knowledge. There were two prerequisites for entering: paying an entry fee, and being free from the taint of having blood on one's hands. Otherwise, king or slave girl, everyone had the right for Heaven.
- An Italian proverb loosely translates as, "After the game, the king and pawn go to the same box."
- Moravians, a Protestant Christian sect, bury their dead in special cemeteries called God's Acre. Members of the congregation are placed under flat headstones of identical proportions and material to show that in death God does not recognize the rich from the poor. In addition, they are not buried with other family members but in sections called choirs, with others of the same gender, age, and marital status to show they are all part of the same family of God.
- A Greek proverb says "the grim reaper will put enemies and friends at the same table".
- When a Roman general would celebrate victories, a slave called an "auriga" would be positioned by him to whisper, "Remember, you are mortal."
- The Chapel of Bones in Portugal has a message at the entrance: "We bones that are here, for yours await", and has a poem inside with this stanza:
Recall how many have passed from this world,
Reflect on your similar end,
There is good reason to reflect
If only all did the same. - The funeral ritual for Habsburg monarchs culminates with the procession reaching the gates of the Vienna Capuchin Monastery, and the imperial crypts contained beneath. They are forced to knock in the gate and request access. When the abbot asks who's there, a herald introduces the dead monarch with all their titles. The abbot coldly replies that he doesn't know him. Ultimately, the herald announces the monarch simply by his Christian name and as "a mortal, sinful man". Only then is the body admitted.
