Household Tales · Chapter
Master Pfriem (Master Cobbler's Awl) explained
Master Pfriem is a perpetually critical and fault-finding shoemaker who cannot resist meddling and criticizing everything around him, from his wife's fire to the work of carpenters and peasants.
What happens
Master Pfriem is a perpetually critical and fault-finding shoemaker who cannot resist meddling and criticizing everything around him, from his wife's fire to the work of carpenters and peasants. After a dream in which he goes to heaven and continues his nitpicking, he is expelled by an angel but wakes up to realize that heavenly ways are different from earthly ones, though he remains unrepentant.
Themes in this chapter
Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished
Master Pfriem's constant fault-finding leads to his expulsion from heaven in his dream, suggesting that such behavior is a vice that is punished.
Characters to notice
- Master Pfriem
The protagonist, a short, thin, lively shoemaker with a turned-up nose and a habit of criticizing everything and everyone.
- Saint Peter
The apostle who opens heaven's door to Master Pfriem and warns him to stop finding fault.
- the servants
Household servants whom Master Pfriem scolds for laughing and gossiping while washing.
Key passages
“Master Pfriem was a short, thin, but lively man, who never rested a moment. His face, of which his turned-up nose was the only prominent feature, was marked with smallpox and pale as death, his hair was gray and shaggy, his eyes small, but they glanced perpetually about on all sides.”
Master Pfriem was a small, thin, energetic man who was always active. His face, dominated by a turned-up nose, was pockmarked and deathly pale, with gray, messy hair and small eyes that constantly darted around.
Describes the physical appearance and restless nature of Master Pfriem.
“He saw everything, criticised everything, knew everything best, and was always in the right.”
He noticed everything, found fault with everything, believed he knew best, and never admitted being wrong.
Summarizes Master Pfriem's overbearing and self-righteous personality.
“One night Master Pfriem dreamed he was dead, and on his way to heaven. When he got there, he knocked loudly at the door. 'I wonder,' said he to himself, 'that they have no knocker on the door—one knocks one's knuckles sore.'”
One night Master Pfriem dreamed that he had died and was approaching heaven. He banged loudly on the gate and complained to himself about the lack of a knocker, which made his knuckles hurt.
Introduces the dream sequence where Pfriem arrives at heaven's gate.