# the Soul — Children’s Stories character guide

> the Soul in Children’s Stories by Oscar Wilde.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0007-the-fisherman-and-his-soul

## Snapshot

A young fisherman's soul, bargained away for love of a sea-maiden, who finds itself unwanted by priest, merchant, and owner alike.

## Who they are

When the Fisherman begs to be rid of his soul so he may join the Sea-folk, the Priest thunders that it is the noblest part of man, while the merchants mock it as worth less than a clipped coin. The Soul thus begins its strange career as a thing both priceless and worthless, severed from the only person who could value it. Its exile sets the story's central wager in motion: what a man gains, and loses, by trading the invisible for the desired.

## In the story

### [The Nightingale and the Rose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/children_s_stories_se/chapters/the-nightingale-and-the-rose)

Not present in this chapter.

### [The Fisherman and His Soul](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/children_s_stories_se/chapters/the-fisherman-and-his-soul)

The Soul attempts to tempt the Fisherman with Wisdom and later with tales of exotic cities and pleasures, but fails to sway him.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/children_s_stories_se/characters/soul
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/children_s_stories_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/children_s_stories_se/characters