Mrs. Fox

There was another tale I was going to write about named "King of the Golden Mountain", which had some very interesting comparisons to "The Lady and the Lion". The tale, however, was very long, and I felt it would be slightly repetitive. Still, don't be shy and read the story on your own and see what comparisons you can glean out of it :)

And now for this week's story:

http://novatale.com/the-wedding-of-mrs-fox/
I love this picture. Don't you?

This is one strange tale. Apart from the plot itself, lots of it is in verse. I'll post the link so that you can all go read it and appreciate it properly.

The Tale:

We start off with a wonderful gentleman, Mr. Fox, who has no less than nine tails. He wants to check how faithful his wife is, so he pretends to be dead. Mrs. Fox locks herself in her room to mourn. Then, the moment they find out the fox is dead, suitors start to arrive. First to come is a regular fox. The maid, a cat, goes up to Mrs. Fox and tells her about the suitor. As expected of a new 'widow' Mrs. Fox immediately... starts asking how the suitor looks. She turns him away when she finds out she only has one tail and not nine. More foxes come, the next with two tails and then with three and so on until a young fox with nine tails arrives. Mrs. Fox immediately organizes a wedding, and orders;

"And as for that nasty old master of ours,

Throw him out the window, Puss, into the street”.

The old Mr. Fox waits until the wedding to spring up and drive everyone away with a club (including his wife, the bride).

"How Mrs. Fox Married Again"
Walter Crane

Some time later, old Mr. Fox actually does die. A wolf comes to pay his respects and a give a marriage proposal to the widow. She immediately asks the cat if he has red feet and a sharp snout, and turns him away when she discovers he does not. Then along come a dog, a goat, a bear, a lion and “all the beasts, one after another. But they all wanted something that old Mr. Fox had, and the cat was ordered to send them all away.” Finally, a young fox arrives and passes the test of having four red feet and a sharp snout. Once again, Mrs. Fox orders dead Mr. Fox thrown into the street;

“the stupid old rascal, I’m glad that he's dead,

now I've got such a charming young fox instead.”

There is another wonderful wedding, this one uninterrupted where everyone sings and dances and that's the end.

Discussion Points:

I think this tale wins points for being one of the stranger ones in this collection. Apart from the strange way it is written, half story and half in verse and even something that looks like a part of a script, the story itself is just plain strange.

Mrs. Fox's character is the strangest of them all. She seems to mourn her husband, but only as long as it suits her. She goes as far as locking herself in her room after both his deaths, but has no problem getting married the moment a suitable suitor arrives. Not only that, when she gets married, she throws her dead (or fake dead) husband to the streets and claims how much she hated him. She has many suitors, which makes me wonder what was so desirable about her. The only hint we have is in the cat's words; “she weeps until her beautiful eyes are red”, and that intriguing line “they all wanted something that old Mr. Fox had” (which I will return to later). Perhaps it was her beauty that drew so many? Or was it something else? She does seem to be playing 'hard to get' in a way. As a whole, her character puts me in mind of a gold-digger. She goes for very specific kinds of men, puts on an act for the rest of the world to see and moves quickly between husbands once she finds the best prospect.

The Wedding of Mrs. Fox-
Fairy Tale Bedtime

The Traits: Mrs. Fox has many suitors, but she only seems to settle for the best of the best. Onlynine tails are good enough for her, and any fox with less isn't worth her time. I would say the nine tails symbolizes either grandeur, riches or something similar. While most foxes only one (or a few) tails, Mr. Fox had many, which made him special in some way. Mr. Fox was a successful man (well, fox, but you get the gist), which is why everyone “wanted what he had”. He had his nine tails and the perfect woman (fox) which everyone also desires, perhaps because they hope that if they marry her, they will get the rest of his success as well. What I find interesting is that after Mr. Fox really dies, during the second round of proposals, the best of the best is suddenly a plain, regular fox with one tail, quite like the one that Mrs. Fox turned down the first time. For some reason, her options have gotten worse. The moment the wolf comes, Mrs. Fox understands the playing field. She understands that her options are on a different scale than they were before. She also understands that it would be quite impossible now to expect a nine tailed fox- getting any fox at all would be lucky enough. So she lowers her high demands from the start, but she still has a certain standard which she keeps to.

The Moral: I’m really stumped on this one. What could this peculiar tale possibly be trying to tell us? I can barely tell which characters are shown in a bad light. Is Mr. Fox to blame for not trusting his wife, or is Mrs. Fox to blame for giving him reason to doubt (and then proving it very nicely)? Is this a tale about being faithful, or trying to get the best out of every situation even if it includes throwing away all past devotions the moment they are no longer relevant? Mrs. Fox gets her happy ending, but the way she completely disregards Mr. Fox when she finds her suitor really bothers me. I can't see her as the good guy of the tale, even though according to her ending she is.

What do you think?

"How Mrs. Fox Married Again"
Walter Crane

Link to the actual tale (with a slightly different translation than what I had): The Wedding of Mrs. Fox.