The directory «Plots»

«The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish»

"The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" (1835) is a short story, written in verse, similar to the story written by the Brothers Grimm called "The Tale of the Golden Fish". In Pushkin's story, an old man and woman have been living poorly for many years. They have a small hut, and every day the man goes out to fish. One day, he throws in his net and pulls out seaweed two times in succession, but on the third time he pulls out a golden fish. The fish pleads for its life, promising any wish in return. However, the old man does not want anything, and lets the fish go. When he returns and tells his wife about the golden fish, she gets angry and tells her husband to go ask the fish for a new washboard (their washboard is broken), and the fish happily grants this small request. The next day, the wife asks for a new house, and the fish grants this also. Then, in succession, the wife asks for a new palace, to become the ruler of her province, to become the king, to become the Pope, and finally to become the Ruler of Sea, to subjugate the golden fish completely to her boundless will. As the man goes to ask for each item, the sea get more and more stormy, until the last request, where the man can hardly hear himself think. When he asks that his wife be made the Ruler of the Sea, the fish cures her greed by putting her back in the old cottage and giving back the broken washboard. The moral of the story is: do not get too greedy, or you will end up with nothing.

Guinea Bissau, 2003, Tale about Gold Fish

Hungary, 1979, The Fisher and the Goldfish

Kyrgyzstan, 1999, The Fisherman and the Fish

Marshall Islands, 2001, The Golden fish

Poland, 1968, The Fiherman and the Gold Fish

Russia, 1997, The Fishman and the Gold Fish

Transnistria, 1994, Aleksander Pushkin and his fairy tales

USSR, 1975, Fisherman and Goldfish (I. Vakurov)