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Summary
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Gimpel the Fool, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Credulity as Wisdom and Holy Faith
Punishment vs. Forgiveness
The Real vs. The Imaginary
Summary
Analysis
Gimpel, the narrator, introduces himself by the nickname he has long been called in the village of Frampol: “Gimpel the Fool.” He does not agree that he is a fool but explains that people think he is one because of his reputation for believing whatever he hears. It all started when he was a school-boy. Some classmates (falsely) told him that, since their teacher’s wife was giving birth, school was canceled. Gimpel took their word for it and stayed home—only to find everyone laughing their sides off at him the next day, amazed that he fell for their trick so easily.
This opening immediately connects Gimpel to his reputation in Frampol as an extremely gullible person. “I am Gimpel the Fool,” he says quite simply. Yet already in this paragraph, the reader is meant to feel a tension between Gimpel’s acceptance of the clownish role his town has assigned him and his own private resistance to that persona. He confides that, in spite of public opinion, he does “not think [himself] a fool. On the contrary.” When he shares the origin story of the nickname, he makes clear that he does not believe it was really so idiotic of him to take his classmates’ story at face value. These kids are astonished that Gimpel did not have any doubts. The important reason, however, that Gimpel does not suspect any trick is because he is not a trickster himself. This is an early instance of the story’s connection of the habit of skepticism with the ability—or even a proclivity—to cheat and deceive.
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These kids taunted him taunting him endlessly, even going so far as to fill his hands with disgusting goat’s droppings that they told him were raisins. Gimpel reflects that he could have made his classmates regret their cruelty, as he was a very strong boy and might have punched them hard; but he has never been the retaliating type and simply “let it pass.” Gimpel realizes that this aspect of his personality encourages people to take advantage of him, since they know he won’t fight back.
In this anecdote, the merciless cruelty of Gimpel’s classmates stands in strong contrast to his own gentleness. Importantly, none of them suspect that Gimpel, who seems so weak and ridiculous, would be capable of injuring them himself. As will be the case throughout the story, nobody guesses Gimpel’s hidden strength. This moment also demonstrates Gimpel’s impulse to forgive rather than punish. Although he would have been able to wound the kids who pranked him, he explains that he doesn’t really have it in his nature to hurt others. This aspect of his character is one of his major moral strengths, and his commitment to it is what ultimately allows him to triumph over evil at the end of the story.
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Gimpel recalls another incident from his boyhood that helped create his reputation as a “fool.” One day, as he was walking home from school, he heard what sounded like a dog barking. Even though he was not afraid of dogs, he ran in the other direction, reasoning that if the animal happens to be rabid and then also happens to bite him, he could get very sick. Moments later, Gimpel once again found all his fellow-villagers laughing at him. It hadn’t been a dog at all, but only the village thief, Wolf-Lieb, pretending to be one. Another trick.
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Since those first successful tricks, his neighbors in the village have been constantly pranking him. They tell him outlandish stories: the Czar is coming to Frampol; the moon has fallen down; a little girl found a treasure behind an outhouse; the rabbi gave birth, prematurely, to a calf. Gimpel believes each of these tales. He reasons that, as it says in the famous book of Jewish ethics The Wisdom of the Fathers, “everything is possible.” Further, he finds it impossible to reject a story when everyone in Frampol insists that it is true.
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Gimpel explains that he is an orphan and spent his childhood living with his sickly grandfather. When his grandfather died, Gimpel was apprenticed to the village baker. One day, when Gimpel is working in the bakery, a student from the Yeshiva comes in and tells him that the Messiah has finally come. He and other townspeople tell Gimpel that all the dead, including Gimpel’s parents, have risen from the grave. They urge him to come see. Gimpel knows that this is almost certainly not true, but he decides he has nothing to lose by taking a look. Of course, when he steps out, the villagers are all there, heckling him as usual.
Gimpel, embarrassed and frustrated by all the mockery, goes to the rabbi for advice. The rabbi declares that the only important thing is to be a good person. He says that it is “better to be a fool all your days than for one hour to be evil. You are not a fool. They are the fools.” These words comfort Gimpel. On his way out, the Rabbi’s daughter tells him that he has forgotten to kiss the wall, and that it is the law to do so after every meeting with the Rabbi. Gimpel has never heard of such a law but dutifully follows her orders. The girl starts wildly laughing.
Gimpel decides he has had enough of the village, but just as he is on the point of leaving, his neighbors start insisting that they have the perfect bride for him. The woman they propose, Elka, does not seem to Gimpel to be a good match: he has heard she is sexually promiscuous; that the little boy she lives with, Yechiel, is believed to be her bastard son, by a lover; and also that she has a limp. The villagers protest that she is a virgin, that the child is her younger brother, and that she walks with the limp intentionally, as a bit of innocent playfulness. They tell Gimpel he should be ashamed of himself for calling her a “whore.” This makes him feel guilty, and he agrees to pay her a visit. He thinks to himself that he would probably enjoy being a husband.
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The villagers are in high spirits as they lead Gimpel to Elka’s house. However, they are too afraid to actually go inside with Gimpel, for they fear Elka. She is a tough woman with a “fierce tongue.” Gimpel enters and finds Elka standing barefoot by the washtub in a “worn hand-me-down gown,” doing the laundry. The place “reek[s].” Gimpel asks Elka if there is any truth to the rumors about her and tells her she should be honest with him, as he is an orphan. Elka responds that she is an orphan, too, and would hate to see anyone make trouble for Gimpel. Yet she ignores his original question, informing him instead how much money she expects from him as a dowry (fifty guilders). He protests that the bride, not the groom, is supposed to give a dowry. She ignores this and demands “either a flat yes or no.”
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Gimpel’s neighbors enthusiastically pitch in to raise the money Elka requires. During the wedding ceremony (which takes place during a dysentery epidemic, with the corpses of those who succumbed to the illness being washed nearby), Gimpel is humiliated to learn that his bride, whom everybody promised was a virgin, has already had two previous husbands (one died, one she divorced). Yet Gimpel feels it would be inappropriate to desert Elka at this point. So, he goes through with the wedding and ends up heartily enjoying himself at the rest of the festivities. Among the very many wedding presents the new couple receives, there is a crib. This confuses Gimpel, since he and his new bride are not yet expecting a child.
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