The “Premature” Son Character Analysis

Four months after Gimpel and Elka’s wedding, Elka gives birth to a baby boy. This greatly angers Gimpel, as he figures that there is no way he can be the father’s child. Elka insists that the baby is just extremely premature, and she offers up, as support, a very implausible anecdote about her grandmother having borne a similarly premature child. Gimpel sees right through this. But as the days go on, she remains so adamant that she is telling the truth, that Gimpel starts to become persuaded that maybe the child really is his. He is helped by a talk with the school-master, who shares that Eve herself brought two children into the world almost immediately after conceiving them. Finally, Gimpel accepts the son as his own, and the two grow extremely close. The boy always wants to be in Gimpel’s arms, and if he is feeling unwell, Gimpel is the only one who can soothe him. Sadly, at the end of Elka’s life, she reveals that this child, along with the others, was not Gimpel’s, but the child of one of her lovers, a confession that causes Gimpel deep grief. We never learn this child’s name, but we know that it is the same as Gimpel’s deceased father.