The Fisherman And His Wife --- German Fairy Tales (9)

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The story in a nutshell: A fisherman catches a flounder but releases it when it pleads for mercy and tells him that it‘s an enchanted prince. When he tells his wife Ilsebill about this encounter, she scolds him for not asking the flounder for a reward. She urges him to go back to the sea and ask for a bigger house. He does so and the wish is granted. The wife is content only for a short time and then sends him back to demand more. She wants to be king and live in a castle, then emperor and live in a palace and later pope. All wishes are granted but when she wants to be God, she and her husband find themselves back in the primitive hut in which they used to live. The fish is seen to have developed out of a god of the sea thus rooting the fairy tale in former myths. The character of the demanding wife is also very old beginning with Eve of the Old Testament. Also Lady Macbeth can be mentioned here. Ilsebill’s wishes don’t lead the couple into a catastrophe, though, they just have to go back to where they came from. Superficially this fairy tale is a parable on the insight that greed doesn’t pay, that immoderateness is punished with losing everything. With this the fairy tale expresses timeless wisdom. The psychoanalyst Otto Gross understands the behaviour of the protagonists as the expression of a will for power inherent in a patriarchal society. The insight would be that only God can’t be encroached. The psychotherapist Hans Jellouschek interprets the fairy tale from the point of view of a relationship counsellor. It looks as if the fisherman does everything which is humanly possible to satisfy his wife’s wishes assuming that that will make her happy. This, however, is not the case. He merely fulfils her material wishes but he denies her what she really needs, namely, more attention, real conversation and a closer relationship. According to Jellouschek Ilsebill utters her outrageous wishes not to have them fulfilled but only to get into closer contact with her husband. Sadly, he doesn’t realise this and so, despite becoming materially richer they become poorer spiritually. The fisherman is seen as too undemanding. He must learn to realise what he wants for himself and his marriage and he must learn to voice his wishes and stand up to them. --- P.S. If you're interested in more interpretations of German fairy tales, you can click on the green bar at the top of the site.