Woodcutter Loathes In What, Of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?

In the old, French folk tale “The Woodcutter’s Woes”, a woodcutter loathes of how miserable his life is. This causes Jupiter, “the king of the universe”, to give the woodcutter three wishes. The woodcutter tells his wife and they plan to use the wishes for riches and a life of lavish. However, the woodcutter mistakenly “wishes” for sausages, and angers his wife. Irritated and disgruntled, the woodcutter wishes for a sausage to hang from his wife’s nose. He realizes his mistake and instead of wishing for a new life of what he dreamed of, he wishes for his wife’s nose to be readjusted and hopes for his wife to stay, and she concurs. They may not end up living the life of dreams or swimming in gold in a enormous house, but they end their

His goldfish attempts to try and convince Sergei to use his last wish to bring back Yonatan, which would set the goldfish free from his service. However, Sergei does not want to use his last wish because it would set his fish free. Sergei has experienced a string of hardships and betrayals from using his wishes, and he is afraid of the loneliness he is succumbing to and considers the goldfish his only friend. Sergei plans to take the young man’s body and dump Yonatan in the river Sergei fishes in and hide all evidence to save his last wish and keep his friend with him until the end of his time. In both of these stories, there are similarities and differences that have shaped why these characters used their wishes for the purpose they did, and what kinds of consequences ensued due to their

In the folktale of the woodcutter, the motivation for this character was the hopes of living a better life for his wife and family. The woodcutter expresses this when he says, “Mon Cherie, my love, we shall be rich and happy from this day on!” The woodcutter is thrilled and overjoyed after Jupiter tells him of the endless possibilities that are available now that they have the ability to wish for whatever they please. He rushes home quickly to tell his wife of the good news, all because he knows she will be just as ecstatic as he is. The woodcutter hopes and dreams for a better life for him, his wife, and his family, and he believes that their three wishes will be the start of it all. Unlike the woodcutter, Sergei has a different mindset for his wishes. He was more serious and careful with the wishes he used, as those he used his wishes for were in danger of losing their lives or leading miserable ones. This is explained when the story progresses and speaks “That first wish, Sergei used up when they discovered a cancer in his sister…. The second wish Sergei used up five years ago, on Sveta’s boy…. He was going to grow big but not in the brain….” Sergei used his wishes out of compassion and fear for those he held near and dear to his heart, otherwise his sister may have lost her life to cancer or the young boy he fixed could have led a life of torment and misery.