Household Tales · Chapter
The Wolf and the Man explained
The fox demonstrates to the wolf the strength of man by showing him three examples: an old soldier, a schoolboy, and a hunter.
What happens
The fox demonstrates to the wolf the strength of man by showing him three examples: an old soldier, a schoolboy, and a hunter. The wolf, despite warnings, attacks the hunter and is severely wounded by gunshot and a hanger, learning a painful lesson about human power.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
The emotional and psychological peak occurs when the sisters, driven by envy of the Queen’s beauty and their o…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished
The wolf's arrogance and aggression are punished by the hunter's superior strength and weapons.
Characters to notice
- the fox
The fox acts as a guide, showing the wolf different types of men and warning him of their strength.
- the wolf
The wolf is arrogant and insists on attacking a man, only to be brutally beaten by the hunter.
- the old discharged soldier
The first man shown to the wolf, described as 'one that was' a man.
- the little boy
The second man shown, described as 'one that is going to be' a man.
- the hunter
The third man, a fully armed hunter who defeats the wolf with his gun and hanger.
Key passages
“If I had but the chance of seeing a man for once, I would set on him notwithstanding.”
The wolf boasts that if he ever saw a man, he would attack him without hesitation.
This shows the wolf's overconfidence and sets up his downfall.
“First, he took a stick from his shoulder, and blew into it, and then something flew into my face which tickled me terribly; then he breathed once more into the stick, and it flew into my nose like lightning and hail; when I was quite close, he drew a white rib out of his side, and he beat me so with it that I was all but left lying dead.”
The wolf describes the hunter's gun as a stick that blows something into his face, and his hanger as a white rib that beats him nearly to death.
The wolf's naive description highlights his ignorance of human weapons.
