The Storyteller

“The frown on the bachelor’s face was deepening to a scowl. He was a hard, unsympathetic man, the aunt decided in her mind.”

This line reveals more about the aunt’s character than it does the bachelor’s. She has decided that the bachelor must be a hard, unsympathetic man because she is feeling self-conscious about her inability to control the children in her care. It also implies that the aunt believes she is the one who deserves sympathy in this situation, rather than the bachelor or the children.

“She repeated the line over and over again in a dreamy but resolute and very audible voice; it seemed to the bachelor as though some one had had a bet with her that she could not repeat the line aloud two thousand times without stopping. Whoever it was who had made the wager was likely to lose his bet.”

The story reveals not only the bachelor’s growing impatience with the children’s antics but also his dry humor. The idea of making a bet with the small girl and the bachelor’s confidence that the girl would win is a joke that he imagines for himself, for his own amusement.

“The children moved listlessly towards the aunt’s end of the carriage. Evidently her reputation as a story-teller did not rank high in their estimation.”

The use of the word “evidently” shifts this sentence so that rather than the story simply telling the reader that the aunt is not a good storyteller, the reader instead sees the bachelor’s interpretation of the children’s reactions. The bachelor has determined the aunt is a bad storyteller, just as the aunt determined that the bachelor must be hard and unsympathetic.

“‘Wouldn’t they have saved her if she hadn’t been good?’ demanded the bigger of the small girls. It was exactly the question that the bachelor had wanted to ask.”

The bigger girl asks a difficult question here, interrogating the meaning and intent of the aunt’s moralistic story and leading toward the themes that become more evident in the bachelor’s tale. It also highlights that the bachelor has much more in common with the children than the other adult in the train car. If he has sympathy for anyone, it’s the children, not the aunt.

“‘It’s a very difficult thing to tell stories that children can both understand and appreciate,’ she said stiffly.”

The aunt is embarrassed by her failure to keep the children entertained and quiet. She also reveals that she has little understanding of what children will enjoy or appreciate and underestimates how much children can understand. This, juxtaposed with the story the bachelor is about to tell, makes her lack of empathy with the children more telling. It is also this moment when the bachelor pits himself against her in competition.

“The children’s momentarily-aroused interest began at once to flicker; all stories seemed dreadfully alike, no matter who told them.”

This is an important truth for the children: All stories seem alike at their core because they are all meant to teach them how to behave. It is a truth they can feel implicitly and that some adults, such as the aunt, eventually forget. Some truths are more readily apparent to children than to adults.

“There was a wave of reaction in favour of the story; the word horrible in connection with goodness was a novelty that commended itself. It seemed to introduce a ring of truth that was absent from the aunt’s tales of infant life.”

As with the previous quote, this indicates a deep truth that is more readily apparent to children than adults. Presumably, the bachelor feels this truth as well since he was the one telling the story. However, the children understand on some basic level that “horribleness” and “goodness” can be intrinsically linked together. It demonstrates that they respond more readily to this kind of truth and honesty than to the aunt’s trite, sugar-coated story.

“‘There were no sheep in the park,’ said the bachelor, ‘because the Prince’s mother had once had a dream that her son would either be killed by a sheep or else by a clock falling on him. For that reason the Prince never kept a sheep in his park or a clock in his palace.’”

This line demonstrates that the bachelor better understands how to entertain the children than the aunt, giving them answers to their incessant questions that will also forestall further questions. It is also an odd detail to add to Bertha’s tale, which heightens the overall humor of the story.

“If I were not so extraordinarily good I should not have been allowed to come into this beautiful park and enjoy all that there is to be seen in it….”

Bertha reflects on the awards she has been given because of her goodness, which are, in her mind, the entire reason for being good in the first place. Being good affords her privileges, like walking in the prince’s private park. This sentence becomes even more relevant when it is echoed and subverted later in the bachelor’s story; Bertha’s goodness puts her in harm’s way.

“Bertha was terribly frightened, and thought to herself: ‘if I had not been so extraordinarily good I should have been safe in the town at this moment.’”

Bertha’s thought here echoes, almost exactly, the previous quote. In the first, she realizes her goodness gives her access to the park, and in the second, she realizes that this same goodness put her in a dangerous place, far from the safety of her home. The similarities in the phrasing of both lines highlight the connections between her reward and her death.

“Bertha was trembling very much at having the wolf prowling and sniffing so near her, and as she trembled the medal for obedience clinked against the medals for good conduct and punctuality. The wolf was just moving away when he heard the sound […]. He dashed into the bush, his pay grey eyes gleaming with ferocity and triumph, and dragged Bertha out and devoured her to the last morsel. All that was left of her were her shoes, bits of clothing, and the three medals for goodness.”

This moment is the climax of both the bachelor’s tale and “The Story-Teller” itself. In this moment, the symbols and rewards of Bertha’s goodness become her downfall and lead to her violent death. The wolf takes advantage of her goodness to find and catch her, and after she is eaten, only the medals remain.

“‘The story began badly,’ said the smaller of the small girls, ‘but it had a beautiful ending.’”

This sentence (and similar comments from the other two children) demonstrate the ways the children can feel something true and real in the bachelor’s story, even if they cannot articulate precisely what they are responding to. The story’s ending, like the phrase “horribly good,” resonates with the children on some instinctual level. Once again, this feeling is heightened through juxtaposition, calling a violent death “beautiful.”

“A most improper story to tell to young children! You have undermined the effect of years of careful teaching.”

This sentence demonstrates one of the major differences between the aunt and the bachelor—the question of what is or is not improper and whether one should care. It is interesting to think a single story told on a train could undermine years of teaching, and it calls into question whether that is a bad thing or not. It is, of course, bad for the aunt, who must now wrestle back control of the children.