Gimpel the Fool Literary Elements

Short Story

A Jewish village called Frampol in Poland, in the late nineteenth century.

Gimpel is the first-person narrator of the story.

The story has a straightforward and matter-of-fact tone that describes Gimpel's response to the townspeople's ridicule. The tone shifts toward the end of the story, when Gimpel develops his own sense of wisdom through old age and becomes content with himself and the idea of death.

Gimpel is the protagonist and the townspeople are the antagonists.

The major conflict in the story is between Gimpel and the townspeople. Gimpel feels he has no choice but to play the part of the fool because otherwise, the townspeople get angry with him. Gimpel essentially sacrifices himself for the entertainment of others throughout the story.

The climax of the story is when Gimpel allows the evil spirit to convince him to bake contaminated loaves of bread. He eventually realizes what he risks by engaging in such cruelty, and so he decides to bury the loaves in the ground before leaving Frampol for good.

When Gimpel is temporarily separated from Elka, he notes that he had an apprentice deliver a loaf of bread to her each day. The apprentice, at one point, tells Gimpel that his wife is lovely. This conversation foreshadows Elka's adulterous relationship with the apprentice that is not confirmed for Gimpel until Elka confesses her infidelities on her death bed.

Gimpel frequently wonders what harm can be done by going to see if what people tell him is really happening. By questioning what he stands to lose, Gimpel uses understatement to show that it does not really matter to him that he becomes a figure of entertainment and mockery because of his decisions.

The story makes many allusions to the Bible and to the Jewish tradition, specifically through Gimpel's diction. He compares himself, for example, to a "golem" (994), which is a being from Jewish folklore often associated with incompleteness, lack of substance, and stupidity.

Most of the imagery in the story revolves around Elka. At first, she is described in a grotesque manner, as Gimpel highlights his own disdain for her and embarrassment over having been matched with her. After her death, however, Gimpel has visions of her as an angelic creature, suggesting his own hope that she is in Heaven.

The story revolves around the central paradox of Gimpel's foolishness. While he declares frequently that he is not a fool and often knows the truth about what is going on, he still acts foolishly. Gimpel allows himself, for example, to be convinced that Elka's first baby was simply born five months prematurely. This paradox functions to illuminate the concept of "chosen foolishness," or the deliberate choice to live in ignorance to avoid pain.

Gimpel encounters Elka in bed with another man two times in his life: first right after their marriage, and second with the apprentice he sends to her house to deliver bread. That this experience repeats itself showcases Gimpel's choice to ignore the reality in front of him in order to continue his life with his family.

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