Household Tales · Chapter
The Poor Boy in the Grave explained
A poor orphan shepherd-boy is placed with a cruel, greedy farmer who starves and beats him.
What happens
A poor orphan shepherd-boy is placed with a cruel, greedy farmer who starves and beats him. After a series of mishaps—losing a hen and chickens to a hawk, eating grapes from a delivery to a judge—the farmer threatens him with a beating if he fails to chop straw in five hours. In his haste, the boy accidentally chops his coat along with the straw. Fearing death at the farmer's hands, he consumes what he believes is poison (actually honey) and then drinks what he thinks is fly poison (actually Hungarian wine). Intoxicated, he lies down in a fresh grave in the churchyard and dies from the cold. The farmer, terrified of being blamed, faints; his wife's pan of fat catches fire, burning down their house, and they live the rest of their lives in poverty and guilt.
Themes in this chapter
Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished
The boy's innocent suffering and honesty are not rewarded in life, but the cruel farmer and his wife are punished by losing their home and living in poverty and guilt.
Greed and Its Downfall
The farmer's greed and refusal to feed the boy properly lead to a chain of events that culminate in the boy's death and the farmer's own ruin.
Characters to notice
- the boy
The poor orphan shepherd-boy who is mistreated by the farmer and ultimately dies in a grave after consuming honey and wine.
- the rich man
The cruel farmer who starves and beats the boy, and whose house burns down after the boy's death.
- the judge
The judge who receives the boy's deliveries of grapes and laughs at his simplicity, sending a letter advising better treatment.
Key passages
“The man and his wife, had however, bad hearts, and were greedy and anxious about their riches, and vexed whenever anyone put a morsel of their bread in his mouth.”
The farmer and his wife were cruel, selfish, and so obsessed with their wealth that they resented even giving the boy a single bite of food.
Establishes the farmer's greed and mistreatment of the orphan.
“The judge could not help laughing at the boy’s simplicity, and sent the man a letter wherein he cautioned him to keep the poor boy better, and not let him want for meat and drink, and also that he was to teach him what was right and what was wrong.”
The judge found the boy's naivety amusing and wrote to the farmer, advising him to treat the boy more kindly and provide proper food and moral guidance.
Shows the judge's recognition of the boy's innocence and the farmer's neglect.
“The poor boy never awoke again; the heat of the strong wine and the cold night-dew deprived him of life, and he remained in the grave in which he had laid himself.”
The boy died from the combined effects of the strong wine and the cold night air, never waking from his sleep in the grave.
Describes the boy's tragic death.
“When the farmer heard the news of the boy’s death he was terrified, and afraid of being brought to justice indeed, his distress took such a powerful hold of him that he fell fainting to the ground.”
Upon learning of the boy's death, the farmer was so frightened of being held accountable that he collapsed in a faint.
Highlights the farmer's guilt and fear of punishment.