Household Tales · Chapter
The Three Brothers explained
A father with three sons and only a house to leave them devises a contest: each son must learn a trade and return to perform the best masterpiece.
What happens
A father with three sons and only a house to leave them devises a contest: each son must learn a trade and return to perform the best masterpiece. The eldest becomes a blacksmith, the second a barber, and the third a fencing-master. They demonstrate their skills—shaving a running hare, shoeing a galloping horse, and remaining dry in a rainstorm with a sword. The father awards the house to the fencing-master, but the brothers, loving each other, live together happily until they die and are buried in the same grave.
Themes in this chapter
Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished
The clever and skilled son is rewarded with the house, while the brothers accept the outcome without envy, leading to a harmonious life.
Family Dynamics and Betrayal
The brothers initially compete but ultimately live together in love and unity, subverting typical rivalry.
Characters to notice
- the son
The three sons are the central characters, each learning a trade and competing for the house.
Key passages
“Go into the world, and try each of you to learn a trade, and, when you all come back, he who makes the best masterpiece shall have the house.”
The father sends his sons to learn trades, promising the house to the one who performs the best skill upon return.
This sets up the central contest of the story.
“Then the third son said, 'Father, let me have my turn, if you please;' and, as it was beginning to rain, he drew his sword, and flourished it backwards and forwards above his head so fast that not a drop fell upon him.”
The youngest son demonstrates his fencing skill by keeping himself completely dry despite heavy rain.
This is the winning masterpiece that earns him the house.