Essay for Week 2: Tricksters and Fools of Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

     Tricksters and fools are a common theme in Aesop's writings. Often, the character of the Fox is represented as a clever trickster. However, this is not always the case; sometimes the Fox can be seen as a fool to a more clever animal. Looking specifically at the The Fables of Aesop rewritten by Joseph Jacobs, we see many examples of both tricksters and fools.

     In the fable, The Lion in Love, we see the lion made to be a fool by some tricky humans. When the lion falls in love with a beautiful maiden, he approaches her parents and asks for her hand in marriage. The maiden's parents convince the lion that if he removes his claws and teeth, the maiden will marry him. However, when he returns with his claws and teeth removed, the parents laugh in his face! They had tricked the lion into removing the only things that could get him his way.

     Although the Lion was seemingly a fool in The Lion in Love, in the story The Lion, the Fox, and the Beasts, we see the Lion take the role of trickster instead. In this fable, the Lion feigns sickness and summons all the animals to hear his dying wishes. It is only the Fox who notices that all the animals who enter the Lion's den never come out again!

(Red Fox: Wikimedia Commons)

     In The Fox and the Stork, we see the Fox play a trick on the Stork by inviting him over for dinner and serving soup in a shallow dish from which the stork cannot eat. It is ultimately the Fox, however, who ends up looking like a fool when the stork in turn serves the fox dinner in a long narrow-necked jar.

    This isn't the only instance we see the Fox's tricky ways turned around on him, either. In The Fox, the Cock, and the Dog, the Fox attempts to lure the Cock down from his perch by saying that a universal truce has been declared between all animals. The Cock responds to this by telling the Fox to wait for his owner's dog to come congratulate the Fox on the news. The Fox wisely decides to leave instead.

     We see the Fox's true trickster come out when he makes a great fool of another animal in The Fox and the Goat. In this fable, the Fox finds himself stuck inside a well. When the Goat passes by, he claims there is a drought coming and that he sought out the well to insure he had water. After he convinces the Goat to join him in the well, he climbs the Goat to get out! He then leaves the poor goat trapped in the well, even mocking him as he leaves.