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Pinsker traces the schlemiel character back to the mythical town of Chelm, a Jewish community that is the subject of countless "Wise Men of Chelm" stories. Pinsker recounts one such story with a direct parallel to "Gimpel" in which a troubled Chelmite consults his rabbi because his wife has given birth after the couple has been married only three months. The rabbi assists the man with the following calculation: Since the man has lived with his wife three months, and she has lived with him for three months, and together they have lived three months, then three plus three plus three equals nine months. '"So, what's the problem?'"
In addition to representing the recurrent "wise or sainted fool'' of Yiddish literature, Gimpel also represents a "centuries-old archetypal figure of western literature," according to critic Paul Siegel. Siegel traces Gimpel's character type back to the idiot of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance who was regarded as being' 'under the special protection of God."
Like Siegel, Edward Alexander sees Gimpel's ''descent from the schlemiels of the classical Yiddish writers'' and also sees that Gimpel differs from them in several ways, namely that he' 'chooses to be fooled, to be used, to forsake his dignity. This means that not only his creator but he himself is capable of irony about the sacrifices required by faith. Moreover, Gimpel's folly is connected with his credulity, whereas much of the folly of his Yiddish predecessors comes precisely from their unwillingness to credit unusual and extraordinary events, especially if those events portent evil." In other words, Gimpel's literary predecessors were silly optimists, whereas Gimpel would likely believe bad as well as good.
Gimpel's roots extend all the way back to the Bible, according to critic Thomas Hennings who posits that "Gimpel'' is based on the Old Testament Book of Hosea. While understanding Singer's Yiddish background is essential to understanding "Gimpel," his Hebraic background is key as well, and the immigrant audience Singer was writing for would be well aware of Biblical allusions, Hennings sees parallels in that both Gimpel and Hosea marry women who are sexually unfaithful and that "Gimpel" follows the four-part structure of the Book of Hosea exactly: first, the marriage; second, the affairs, the birth of the children, and divorce; third, the...
Gimpel the Fool Analysis
Style and Technique (Comprehensive Guide to Short Stories, Critical Edition)
By having the protagonist narrate his own story, Singer achieves a mixture of humor, realism, and fantasy; what Gimpel narrates is unquestionably happening, but the interpretation of the events is that of a simple, naïve commentator (although Gimpel is not really very naïve when he tells the story, because it may be assumed he is speaking after the events, with his newfound wisdom and understanding). From Gimpel’s own words, the reader comes to understand the kind of person that Gimpel is, as well as the events in his life, in a way that the narrator himself does not completely comprehend. The reader is able to infer that Gimpel is not as intelligent as others; as Gimpel says, “they argued me dumb.” His realization of what others are doing to him is apparent as he comments, “I realized I was going to be rooked”’ and “To tell the plain truth, I didn’t believe her.” His eventual compromise—“But then, who really knows how such things are?”—is a mixture of his attempt to avoid strenuous intellectual debating and his simple faith.
The strong faith, the essential goodness, of the narrator is childlike in its simplicity: He is like a child who does not know how to interpret the incomprehensible things that are told to him by adults. Singer maintains this tone of childlike simplicity by his choice of words and by the unaffected language with which Gimpel expresses his perception of reality.
More Content: Analysis (hide)
By having the protagonist narrate his own story, Singer achieves a mixture of humor, realism, and fantasy; what Gimpel narrates is unquestionably happening, but the interpretation of the events is that of a simple, naïve commentator (although Gimpel is not really very naïve when he tells the story, because it may be assumed he is speaking after the events, with his newfound wisdom and understanding). From Gimpel’s own words, the reader comes to understand the kind of person that Gimpel is, as well as the events in his life, in a way that the narrator himself does not completely comprehend. The reader is able to infer that Gimpel is not as intelligent as others; as Gimpel says, “they argued me dumb.” His realization of what others are doing to him is apparent as he comments, “I realized I was going to be rooked”’ and “To tell the plain truth, I didn’t believe her.” His eventual compromise—“But then, who really knows how such things are?”—is a mixture of his attempt to avoid strenuous intellectual debating and his simple faith.
The strong faith, the essential goodness, of the narrator is childlike in its simplicity: He is like a child who does not know how to interpret the incomprehensible things that are told to him by adults. Singer maintains this tone of childlike simplicity by his choice of words and by the unaffected language with which Gimpel expresses his perception of reality.
More Content: Analysis (hide)
Gimpel the Fool Analysis
Style and Technique (Comprehensive Guide to Short Stories, Critical Edition)
By having the protagonist narrate his own story, Singer achieves a mixture of humor, realism, and fantasy; what Gimpel narrates is unquestionably happening, but the interpretation of the events is that of a simple, naïve commentator (although Gimpel is not really very naïve when he tells the story, because it may be assumed he is speaking after the events, with his newfound wisdom and understanding). From Gimpel’s own words, the reader comes to understand the kind of person that Gimpel is, as well as the events in his life, in a way that the narrator himself does not completely comprehend. The reader is able to infer that Gimpel is not as intelligent as others; as Gimpel says, “they argued me dumb.” His realization of what others are doing to him is apparent as he comments, “I realized I was going to be rooked”’ and “To tell the plain truth, I didn’t believe her.” His eventual compromise—“But then, who really knows how such things are?”—is a mixture of his attempt to avoid strenuous intellectual debating and his simple faith.
The strong faith, the essential goodness, of the narrator is childlike in its simplicity: He is like a child who does not know how to interpret the incomprehensible things that are told to him by adults. Singer maintains this tone of childlike simplicity by his choice of words and by the unaffected language with which Gimpel expresses his perception of reality.
More Content: Analysis (hide)
By having the protagonist narrate his own story, Singer achieves a mixture of humor, realism, and fantasy; what Gimpel narrates is unquestionably happening, but the interpretation of the events is that of a simple, naïve commentator (although Gimpel is not really very naïve when he tells the story, because it may be assumed he is speaking after the events, with his newfound wisdom and understanding). From Gimpel’s own words, the reader comes to understand the kind of person that Gimpel is, as well as the events in his life, in a way that the narrator himself does not completely comprehend. The reader is able to infer that Gimpel is not as intelligent as others; as Gimpel says, “they argued me dumb.” His realization of what others are doing to him is apparent as he comments, “I realized I was going to be rooked”’ and “To tell the plain truth, I didn’t believe her.” His eventual compromise—“But then, who really knows how such things are?”—is a mixture of his attempt to avoid strenuous intellectual debating and his simple faith.
The strong faith, the essential goodness, of the narrator is childlike in its simplicity: He is like a child who does not know how to interpret the incomprehensible things that are told to him by adults. Singer maintains this tone of childlike simplicity by his choice of words and by the unaffected language with which Gimpel expresses his perception of reality.
More Content: Analysis (hide)
Gimpel the Fool Summary
Summary (Society and Self, Critical Representations in Literature)
The publication of “Gimpel the Fool,” in a translation from the Yiddish by Saul Bellow, launched Isaac Bashevis Singer’s career. During the 1950’s and thereafter, his work appeared widely in English, and throughout the history of Singer studies, “Gimpel the Fool” has held a place of honor. Gimpel belongs to a brotherhood of literary characters—that of the schlemiels. In this work, Singer explores the nature of belief, which, in the modern, secular world, is often considered foolish.
Gimpel believes whatever he is told: that his parents have risen from the dead, that his pregnant fiancée is a virgin, that her children are his children, that the man jumping out of her bed is a figment of his imagination. Gimpel extends his willingness to believe to every aspect of his life, because, he explains: “Everything is possible, as it is written in the Wisdom of the Fathers, I’ve forgotten just how.”
When, on her deathbed, his wife of twenty years confesses that none of her six children are his, Gimpel is tempted to disbelieve all that he has been told and to enact revenge against those who have participated in his humiliation. His temptation is a central crisis of faith. His faith in others, who have betrayed him, is challenged, as is his faith in himself and in God, because among the stories he has believed are those pertaining to the existence of God. Gimpel’s belief has always been riddled with doubt; only after he concretizes...
Isaac Bashevis Singer is known for stories that re-create the lost world of Jewish life in the Polish ghetto. This is the setting of “Gimpel the Fool,” but the story also presents a gently humorous psychological study as well as a thematic analysis of the nature of reality. From the very beginning, Gimpel the narrator cannot quite understand why he is treated as a fool. That he is narrating his own story makes it unlikely that one should consider him foolish in the ordinary sense. He is only partially a naïve narrator; although he is constantly tricked and deceived by others, Gimpel does show an awareness of what they are doing. His apparent “foolishness” consists in his taking the line of least resistance to avoid their teasing: He simply decides that it is easier to believe what he is told than to make an issue of it. In addition, his faith in God makes him believe that many things are possible, so he convinces himself of the improbable. In a sense, his simplicity and naïveté protect him from harm; his narration shows him to be largely oblivious of the viciousness of others’ pranks, and this apparent gullibility leads to relative contentment in his life.
The rabbi’s comment to Gimpel that the others are the real fools, combined with Gimpel’s epiphany on hearing Elka’s words in the dream, show that he may not be the complete fool that others have made him out to be. After his temptation by the Spirit of Evil and Elka’s advice to him,...
Gimpel the Fool Characters
Characters
Gimpel the Fool is perhaps Singer's most famous character. He is a schlemiel (a fool), but one may also consider the possibility that he is a wise and devout Jew. Gimpel, from Frampol, becomes renowned in his shtetl for being so gullible, for believing everything that he hears. People enjoy testing him, telling him falsely that the rabbi's wife has gone into labor, that the dead (even his own parents) have risen from their graves, and that the woman (Elka) he is to marry is a virgin (she is actually a loose woman who has been divorced and widowed and who has already given birth to a son whom she calls her younger brother). He marries her, despite his knowledge that she lies about being a virgin, and she cheats on him throughout the marriage and gives birth to a child seventeen weeks after their wedding (obviously not his child although she claims that the child has simply been born prematurely). But Gimpel manifests his goodness by never losing his temper towards his wife or anyone else who lies to him. This ability to accept the lies of others and to maintain his temper as the others publicly humiliate him ennobles him in the eyes of many. And perhaps Gimpel is not such a schlemiel because he actually is not duped by these tricksters; he merely pretends to believe because he does not want to hurt their feelings and because he feels that he has nothing to lose by believing. And he links belief in worldly matters with belief in God. If one loses faith in what others say, one may eventually lose faith in God. One day Gimpel does have a crisis of faith: Satan comes to him and convinces him to revenge himself on the townspeople for their lies, to urinate in the bread that he bakes for them in the bakery. He does so, but Elka, his wife, returns to him from Hell to convince him to change his mind. Gimpel regains his faith and...
Gimpel the Fool
(Unabridged)
 Author: Isaac Bashevis Singer Date: 19-AUG-2014 Narrator: Theodore Bikel Provider: Blackstone Audio, Inc. Running Time: 39 min 18 s Format 4 Widely considered one of Isaac Bashevis Singer's most notable works of short fiction, "Gimpel the Fool" was originally written in Yiddish. It was later translated into English by Saul Bellow and appeared inthe 1953 edition of Partisan Review. The story, a parable, tells of a foolish, unlucky baker named Gimpel, who isconstantly tricked and heckled by other villagers. His follies ultimately reveal a moral lesson. |
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