Candice Celeste Jensen

Evil Makes a Beautiful story

“Off we skip like the most heartless things in the world, which is what children are, but

so attractive; and we have an entirely selfish time, and then when we have need of special

attention we nobly return for it, confident that we shall be rewarded instead of smacked.” So says

J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan; in fact, the very title, “Pan”, suggests a theme about children

loving nothing so much as chaos; so too is this evident in H. H. Munro’s “The Storyteller”. The

children in this story might seem selfish at first, but then when one looks at the motifs used in

“Storyteller”, one can deduce that these children are simply acting in accordance with which they

believe to be exciting and wonderful.

First of all, the “size” motif which runs throughout the story is pretty intriguing. For

instance, sometimes a sibling will be referred to as “the bigger of the small girls”, or “the smaller

of the small girls”, but the boy is simply “the boy”. It’s ironic that their ages aren’t really

discussed, simply their size, as though these kids could be any age, literally or figuratively, and

by any Freudian slip, I’m sure that anyone could be this way. If one were to refer to Barrie’s

works, the children in his story are ruled by their Id, a part of the self where only immediate

desires and automations are acted upon. This could be said about these children, as well, because

not only are they selfish(as is every human being ever), but they also seem to want wickedness.

They deny a story about a “good” little girl, writing it off as “stupid”, but they embrace a story

about a “terribly good” girl who gets her comeuppance for being good and obeying. In this

contrary manner, it seems as though the children not only embrace disobedience, they also favor

villains, and revere the “improper story” as “the only beautiful story” they’ve ever heard.

The Aunt seems to be a bit contemptible about the children’s misbehaving conduct; she

doesn’t hold much sway with the kids, and this is most strongly illustrated when she distracts

them. For example, she has them look out the window first, to distract them from arguing with

her or amongst themselves. Being the children that they are, figuratively or literally, they find a

metaphor for themselves right away in the sheep. They question at once why the sheep are being

driven into another field, and the aunt explains that it’s for the sheep’s good. When the boy

answers her, his question is “inevitable”, as though this could go on forever. She then promptly

distracts him again. However, the reason why she distracts them is very important; both times,

she was distracting them from wickedness, and trying to divert their attentions to being good.

This “being good” is obviously very important to the aunt, considering both her story(which is

summed up in one very short paragraph) and her reaction to the bachelor’s story. “A most

improper story to tell to young children! You have undermined the effect of years of careful

teaching.” One must wonder; if the teaching were so careful, how can it be undermined so

quickly if the idea of wickedness weren’t planted in the children’s minds in the first place? As

seen through the bachelor’s eyes, we get the distinct impression that this “unenterprising and

deplorably uninteresting story about a little girl who was good and made friends with every one

on account of her goodness, and was finally saved from a mad bull by a number of rescuers who

admired her moral character” is boring. However, there is nothing, aside from the biased opinion

of the bachelor, which suggests that this story is boring or “stupid”; this is simply the naughty

children’s responses. The Aunt isn’t uncreative; it’s simply that she lacks in the “wolfy”

department, that of telling a colorful and, perhaps, violent story. However, even the aunt can’t

help but “suppressed a gasp of admiration”, because she sees the bachelor’s twist as cleverness,

as her story did not include interesting things, and she “was utterly unable to come to any

satisfactory decision about the grass in the other field”.

The bachelor’s story was different from the aunt’s in many different senses; most

certainly because of the “horrible” motif. He first mentions that the girl wasn’t only good, she

was “horribly good”. This direct contradiction delights the children, who love a little chaos,

because they considered the aunt’s story “the stupidest story [they’d] ever heard”. However, add

a little word in there, like “horrible”, and “the word horrible in connection with goodness was a

novelty that commended itself. It seemed to introduce a ring of truth that was absent from the

aunt’s tales of infant life.” This smidgeon of “maturity” is passed over as he describes the girl’s

many virtues, going so far as to be sarcastic, even facetious, in describing the various medals she

received for her good conduct. Indeed, the medals are most ironic; the one she received for

“obedience”, “punctuality”, and “good behavior”- it is only ironic if one were to examine, that is,

what the children want the opposite of. For instance, the children question their aunt’s every

word with “why?”, which goes against obedience. They don’t seem to be too impatient about

being in the train, but not once do they question whether they are ‘there yet’. Thirdly, they

obviously don’t have good behavior. However, Bertha’s motives are questioned; she is “rather

sorry to find that there were no flowers in the park. She had promised her aunts, with tears in her

eyes, that she would not pick any of the kind Prince’s flowers, and she had meant to keep her

promise, so of course it made her feel silly to find that there were no flowers to pick.” One

cannot help but note that Bertha has an undercurrent of disobedience in her. The clinking of her

medals “helped to remind her how very good she really was.” Also, the aunt and the bachelor

himself seem to make an appearance here. However, looks can be deceiving, as the Bachelor

describes himself as the wolf. Indeed, with its romantic description, one can see clearly that this

wolf, who pretends to have sheeps clothing by “telling a story about a good little girl” ends the

story with a bad ending. He does this because the children are symbolic of Bertha in the story,

trying to be good, but giving themselves away by their “punctuality” perfect timing. Indeed, this

story does leave behind a moral. Considering that “The story began badly… but it had a beautiful

ending”, what was the turning point of the story? What made it good? It was obviously that the

good little girl in the pinafore which was “so spotlessly white and clean” gave in to evil. It was

because this wolf of a Bachelor exposed these children to a tale of corruption, and by doing so,

corrupted them. But was it really an act of corruption, or simply introducing them to a new

maturity? This is why the kids refer to it as “the only beautiful story” they have ever heard, and

why the Aunt refers to it as “improper”. She sees this tale as a corruption, and the bachelor points

out that he kept them quiet, “which was more than you were able to do”; in other words, he was

able to teach them about goodness with a story about evil. He pities the Aunt’s “limited”

viewpoint, this “unhappy woman”, because she views anything that is not told with the brightest

of rainbows as “bad”. In fact, what she views as “improper” is what a child ruled by their Id

refers to as “beautiful”; but then, who are we to judge which one is the right opinion?

That’s why this story is so interesting; it leaves the meaning a little ambiguous because

the Bachelor put himself into the story twice; once as a Prince and once as a Wolf. He both

introduced the children to a colorful, imaginative, interesting story with reasons why things

happen, not simply because they did; he also corrupted them with a tale of horror, a cautionary

tale not to trust strangers like him anymore, to listen to their aunt. In conclusion, this Bachelor is

certainly in “ferocity” and “triumph” as he leaves the poor Aunt to pick up the pieces of her

young wards in the wake of his meaningful story.