Short Fiction · Chapter
The Dress of the Lily and of the Cabbage explained
A proud lily boasts of its royal beauty, comparing itself to Solomon, while a cabbage in the kitchen garden mocks the lily and claims credit for teaching people how to dress properly, describing the many layers that cover a cabbage stalk.
What happens
A proud lily boasts of its royal beauty, comparing itself to Solomon, while a cabbage in the kitchen garden mocks the lily and claims credit for teaching people how to dress properly, describing the many layers that cover a cabbage stalk.
Themes in this chapter
Illusion vs. Reality
The lily's pride in its appearance and the cabbage's claim to have taught fashion both reflect a preoccupation with surface appearance versus deeper reality.
Social Class and Inequality
The lily's self-identification as a 'royal lily' and the cabbage's humble position in the kitchen garden highlight themes of class distinction and pride.
Key passages
“I am a royal lily, and even Solomon, the wisest of men, was not clothed so luxuriously and so beautifully as I.”
The lily claims its beauty surpasses that of the famously adorned King Solomon.
The lily's arrogance is expressed through a biblical comparison.
“That old Solomon, in my opinion, was just a sansculotte.”
The cabbage dismisses Solomon as poorly dressed, like a revolutionary without fine clothes.
The cabbage uses a term from the French Revolution to mock ancient fashion.
“You take a bare cabbage-stalk and you put on it the first covering, an under-vest; over that something to fasten it; then an underskirt and fastenings for it; over this you put a skirt and its fastenings, and then a buckle.”
The cabbage describes the many layers of clothing that cover a cabbage stalk.
The cabbage's detailed description of layering mirrors the construction of a garment.