Some people behave foolishly on a sporadic basis; other is consistently foolish in society. The societal problem is also a dominant feature of stories for children. In Tales of Wonder from Many Lands there are many foolish characters that are deficient in judgment, good sense, or intelligence.
How can the foolish characters in Tales of Wonder from Many Lands be classified? The foolish characters in this text can be classified according to their lack of knowledge or lack of ability to use knowledge to good effect.Three Groups of foolish characters includes characters who act possessive, gullible and short sighted. The first group of foolish characters in Tales of Wonder from Many Lands consists of those who are possessive. Foolish characters in this group are often seen as obsessive and impulsive who are willing to do many tasks.
However, at times these characters portray an innocent personality. For instance in “Hansel and Gretel,” The witch seemed like a kind old woman to the children, but after luring them to her candy built home she caged them up and anticipated eating them.The children proved the witch to be foolish by putting out chicken bones so she could check their fingers to see if they were fattening up. Also Gretel pretended to act as if she didn’t know how to work oven to cook her brother which made the witch foolishly check and be burned to her death.
Like in Hansel and Gretel, the witch in “Rapunzel,” was also possessive and portrayed an innocent personality. She pretended to be Rapunzel true mother as she was to raise her as her own.She kept her locked in the tower away from people and when she allowed the prince to come and see her every evening the witch felt betrayed and burdened her to a waste and desert place after cutting off her beautiful long hair. The second group of foolish characters in Tales of Wonder from Many Lands consists of those who are gullible. Foolish characters in this group believe what enemies, or people who are trying to harm them tell them.
For instance in “The Foolish Lion and the Clever Rabbit” The Lion was a feared beast who killed any animal that came across his path with no regard to if he was hungry or not.The Rabbits decided the killing should stop one rabbit asked for pity with a plan to lure the Lion to a deep well where he thought another rabbit was waiting there to challenge him, but instead he leaped to his doom in to the well and the animals including the rabbits became free. Another example of gullible characters can be found in “The Warrior Maiden” the Mingoes tortured Aliquioiso because she would not show them where the people were hiding, but she was able to continue the pain to carry out the plan to destroy the Mingoes by saying a specific phrase so that her people could attack.The third group of foolish characters Tales of Wonder from Many Lands consists of those who are short sighted. Foolish characters in this group do not think ahead, they lack foresight.
They seem to be impulsive and lazy with their activities. For instance in “The Frogs and the well” the second frog was impulsive and lacked foresight. He looked down the well and decided to jump in and settle down not knowing what could happen or if he would be able to get out.If the well dried up like the marsh the frog wouldn’t be able to get out.
Another example can be found in “The Ant and the Grasshopper” The grasshopper in the tale hopped about singing and chirping instead of gathering food for the winter as the ant did. When winter can the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger and starvation. The ant worked hard to gather food and expressed to the grasshopper he should also work hard. There are many different types of foolish characters in Tales of Wonder from Many Lands.
These characters all play an important role and can be categorized based on their lack of knowledge or lack of ability to use knowledge to good effect. . Foolish characters in this group are often seen as obsessive and impulsive who are willing to do many tasks. Today many people are not accountable for their actions and need to pay more attention to their surroundings. One this can be learned from the experience of theses foolish characters, to think before actions takes place.
