After reading several of Aesop’s fables, I noticed a recurring theme: foolishness and/or
vanity almost always results in misfortune. In the fables, “misfortune” as a
result of foolishness could refer to several different possibilities. It could
be something as simple as missing out on a meal such as in The Wolf and the Kid. In this story, the wolf found a kid who had strayed away from his flock. Realizing
that he was about to be eaten, the kid cleverly thought to ask the wolf to play
a tune on his pipe so he could at least be merrily dancing when he died. The
wolf obliged, but as a result, captured the attention of the
shepherd’s dogs. They recognized the wolf’s tune and quickly chased him away
before he was able to feast on the kid.
In addition to simply missing a meal, foolishness could also lead to something as drastic as death
as seen in The Tortoise and the Ducks. In this story, the tortoise was very
upset because he was confined to the ground and was not able to fly like the birds.
Then, two ducks offered to help him see the world from their point of view. The
ducks grabbed a stick and told the tortoise to grab on with his mouth. The
tortoise bit down on the stick and the ducks flew off, revealing a new
perspective of the world to the tortoise. As the ducks were flying with the
tortoise a crow flew by and said, “This must surely be the King of Tortoises.”
Foolishly, the tortoise opened his mouth to respond to the crow. Obviously
losing his grip on the stick, the tortoise fell to his death.
“Misfortune” as a result of vanity
was usually associated with different consequences. For example, in The Eagle and the Jackdaw, vanity ultimately led to embarrassment. In this story, the
jackdaw witnessed an eagle diving down and grabbing up a lamb in its talons.
The jackdaw thought that he was strong enough to do the same thing, and
attempted to carry off a ram. However, the jackdaw only succeeded in getting
his talons caught in the wool of the ram. And in the end, he was seized by a
farmer who clipped his wings and gave him to his children as a pet.
However, much like foolishness,
vanity could also lead to death, as seen in The Wolf and His Shadow. In
this story, a wolf was out looking for something to eat one evening, and he
noticed his shadow being cast across the ground. His shadow was very large, and
therefore so was his ego. Since his shadow was so large, he felt that he had no
reason to be afraid of anything, not even the lion. Then, in the midst of his
admiration of his shadow, the lion killed the wolf.
These recurring themes made it easy
to predict what was going to happen in the story; whether that is good or bad, is up to the reader I suppose. I enjoyed having the recurring themes
throughout the stories. I found myself almost creating a game out of it; I
would try to guess what the moral of the story would be before I actually
finished reading it, and that was all made possible by the recurring themes!
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| Cain, after killing Able. Or, when Aesop's characters succumb to foolishness or vanity. Sculpture by Henri Vidal, Tuileries Garden, Paris, 1896. Source: Wikipedia |
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