What are the characteristics of a fable?
16 characteristics of the fable
What are the characteristics of a fable?
The fable is a literary genre that consists of a short narrative with a didactic or moralizing intention, whose characters, almost always animals or humanized things, develop actions and behaviors whose consequences embody a lesson.
Let's get to know one by one which are the main characteristics of the fable to better understand this important genre.
1. It is a genre of popular character
Illustration from the fable The Fox and the Raven by Aesop.
The fable is a popular genre, which means that it is related to the structure of values and interests of society as a whole. For this reason, it is usually orally transmitted, although since ancient times it was incorporated into the educational plans of the young generations according to the customs of the time.
2. It is short
Fables are short stories, so that they focus the reader's attention on a few lines, in order to guarantee the effectiveness of the message.
3. Can be told in prose or verse
Fables can be found written in both verse and prose. Everything will depend on the choice of the writer based on his style, use or objective.
4. The narrative structure is simple
The narrative structure of the fable is usually simple, and is divided into the following parts:
5. The story is linear
Due to the brevity and purpose of the fable, the story is linear. This means that the story is told from beginning to end without time jumps that could jeopardize the understanding of the message. In this sense, the fables are straightforward.
6. Has a third person narrator
The fable is told by a third-person narrator, who, in addition to telling the story and knowing everything the characters do, acts as a sanctioner who directs the interpretation of the facts.
7. Has a moralizing or didactic character
The fable always sanctions the characters who incur vice or sin, that is, it always deals with giving them an exemplary punishment that serves to teach correlative virtue.
Fables seek to highlight the consequences of certain actions or behaviors, in order to extract from them a moral or ethical teaching. For this reason, fables are usually aimed at children.
8. Contains a moral
All fables contain a moral. Moral is called a moral teaching that is put in evidence from the succession of the facts of the story. In this literary genre, the moral is not left to the reader's interpretation but is explicit in the text, whether it is as short as a sentence or whether it is a stanza. It can then be said that the moral is part of the structure of a fable.
For example , Aesop's fable The Plowman and the Wolf .
A farmer led his team towards a stream, after the daily work. The oxen, dejected with fatigue, exclaimed: "At last the day is over!" The work was arduous and a little fresh water does not hurt us at all. Let's leave the yoke and go to drink. While they were thus talking, a hungry wolf passed by and, looking for food, he found the plow and began by licking the two inner sides of the yoke. Then, little by little and without realizing it, he put his neck inside and, unable to free himself from the yoke, in his jerks, he dragged the plow through the furrow. The farmer came back to that, and when he saw him he said: Ah, damned creature! If only you gave up your robberies and robberies to dedicate yourself to working the land ...
Moral
If chance gives you work, stop trickery and relax.
9. The moral can be in the introduction or in the conclusion
According to the type of fable or the narrative style of the author, the moral may be in the introduction —that is, in the promitio— ; or at the conclusion — at the epimitium .
10. May attend dialogues or stories of events
The fable as a story can refer to dialogues between characters or stories of events. It will depend on the author and his stylistic context. For example, Aesop's fable frequently comes to dialogue.
11. The characters can be people, gods or animals and humanized objects
As a general rule, the characters in a fable are animals or humanized objects. This facilitates the understanding of those aspects that are to be highlighted, since characteristic elements of animals or objects that are easily understandable are used.
For example , Aesop's fable The Hare and the Tortoise . Let's see:
A tortoise and a hare argued over who was faster. Thus, they set a date and a place and parted ways. The hare, by its natural quickness, neglected to start running, threw itself over the edge of the road and fell asleep. But the tortoise, aware of its own slowness, did not stop running, and thus overtook the sleeping hare and took the prize of triumph.
In some cases, there may be fables that contain human characters, and these may or may not be mixed with anthropomorphized animal characters.
12. Characters are archetypal
The characters embody archetypes of values or anti-values that are to be contrasted to cause an effect of meaning. Thus, the characters in fables always act as antagonists. This means that each character represents a virtue or a sin, from whose contrast the moral arises.
13. It's timeless
Because they focus on educational purpose, fables are timeless, that is, they do not obey a specific historical context, but rather claim universality.
14. Topics
Due to the moralizing character of the fables, the themes usually revolve around the behavior of the subjects in society, that is, they are oriented to expose codes of values and behaviors. For this reason, the fable exposes the dangers of vices and antisocial attitudes. For example: greed, envy, lack of empathy, pride, greed, excess of self-confidence, etc.
15. There are different types of fable
There are different types of fables, although they all comply with the elements that we have exposed. Let's see below the main types or classes of fable:
- Fables of situation: they are those that contain two moments:
- a character is in trouble,
- another character verbalizes his misfortune, even when it does not affect the development of the story.
- Agonal fables: are those structured in three parts:
- expose a character to a dilemma
- another character antagonizes and represents a second position
- the situation is evaluated and sanctioned.
- Etiological fables : very brief fables headed or crowned by the moral.
16. It is an ancient genre
Fables have existed since ancient times. There is news that fables circulated in the ancient culture of India, from where they would have reached the Hellenic world. It was the Greek Aesop who compiled the fables in writing and gave them literary form.
- Update date: March 7, 2021.
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