The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish is a fairy tale. It was written without any side events that would disrupt the main course of action. In the introduction, main characters are mentioned – an old man, an old woman and a place where they live – on the beach by the blue sea.
The plot begins when the old man catches a goldfish, and the climax of the story comes with the old woman’s greed. The old woman is insatiable and constantly has new demands. When the old woman wants to be mistress of the sea – a goddess, fish gets angry and returns her to her reality – poverty.
The center of the story is a conflict between good and evil, and the victory of good. At the end of the story, an old woman is punished for her greed.
Time: undetermined
Place: everything happens on the seaside
Book Summary
For 33 years an old fisherman and his wife led a very poor life in a cottage on the shore.
The fisherman was fishing to provide food for him and his wife. One day he caught a goldfish. When he saw her in his net, she talked in the human voice. She begged him to let her go, and in return, she promised to grant him three wishes.
The old man was kind and modest, so he had mercy on the fish and let her go without making a single wish. But when his wife found out about everything she demanded that he goes back to the sea, finds the fish and wishes a new trough.
The old man pleased his wife and went to the shore. He noticed that the sea was unsettled. He called the goldfish and she granted his wish. The greedy woman got her wish.
But the woman didn’t want to back down. She wanted a new house. The old man went back and saw that the sea was even more restless than last time. He called the goldfish again and she granted him his wish. When he came home, he saw a beautiful and big house with a new chimney and a door made of oak wood.
He thought that now his wife would stop with the wishes, but she didn’t. She wanted more and more. This time she wanted to become a rich noblewoman, and she sends her husband back to the sea again. The sea was even worse than the last time. The man found the fish and she granted him his wish.
When he came back home, he saw his fancy-dressed wife while she was ordering and hitting the servants. She sends her husband to the stable to serve her.
Two weeks passed by and the women wanted something again. She sent her husband to find the fish and tell her that she wants to be a rich empress. The old man told her that she was unreasonable, but she wouldn’t back down. From a dark sea, the fish comes again and grants another wish.
The woman became a wealthy and powerful empress that lives in a castle and has many servants. She chased the old man out of the castle while the citizens were laughing at him. The servants nearly killed him, and the people kept on saying that it was rude of him to come to the castle.
The women wanted to be the queen of the sea and to have the goldfish always at her service.
The poor fisherman went to the sea again, and there was a storm. He found the fish but this time she did not grant his wish. She just went back to the sea.
Even though the old man waited a long time for her, she never showed up. When he came back home, he saw his old cottage and his wife standing beside it with a broken trough.
Characters: old fisherman, his wife, goldfish
Alexander Pushkin biography
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian poet, born on 6th of July, 1799. in Moscow. He is known as one of the best Russian poets and a father of Russian literature in general. At his early age, he is left in the care of peasants Nikita Kozlov and Arina Yakovleva.
Pushkin was a descendant of the old noble family by his father’s side while his mother was a granddaughter of Gannibal, famous Ethiopian prince who had a lot of influence on the emperor Peter the Great.
As a child, he was sent away to Lyceum near St. Petersburg. He begins writing his poems during his schooling, and after graduating, he was well known in poetic circles. At first, he was influenced with traditional classicism, but later he started writing on manners of romanticism. He was spending his time in the company of many intellectuals who made his creativity even stronger.
His most famous works are “Mozart and Salieri, “Weeding in the Time of Plague”, “Captain’s Daughter”, “Dubrovski”, “The Gypsies”, and his greatest accomplishment is a novel “Eugene Onegin”.
He dies on January 29th,1837., succumbing the shooting consequences.
Book reports from Alexander Pushkin
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