Household Tales · Chapter
The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean explained
A straw, a coal, and a bean escape from an old woman's hearth and decide to travel together.
What happens
A straw, a coal, and a bean escape from an old woman's hearth and decide to travel together. They come to a brook, and the straw offers to serve as a bridge. The coal becomes frightened midway, causing the straw to burn and break, and both fall into the water. The bean laughs so hard it bursts, but a passing tailor sews it back together with black thread, which is why beans now have a black seam.
Themes in this chapter
Magic and the Supernatural
The straw, coal, and bean are anthropomorphized and speak, acting as magical beings in a supernatural narrative.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The old woman who gathers beans and starts the fire, but is not a named character.
Key passages
“I think that as we have so fortunately escaped death, we should keep together like good companions, and lest a new mischance should overtake us here, we should go away together, and repair to a foreign country.”
The bean suggests that since they all survived, they should stick together and leave for another land to avoid further danger.
This sets the plot in motion as the three companions decide to travel together.
“The bean, who had prudently stayed behind on the shore, could not but laugh at the event, was unable to stop, and laughed so heartily that she burst.”
The bean, watching from the bank, laughed uncontrollably at the coal and straw's misfortune until it split open.
This leads to the bean's near-death and the tailor's intervention, explaining the bean's black seam.