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Bónová Zuzana
Mgr. Joel Cameron Head, B.A.
Composition 2
19 October 2019
Gimpel the Fool and the Wise, the Weak yet the Strong
The author of Gimpel the Fool, Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Polish-American
writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Gimpel the Fool is one of his short stories
and it gave the name to the collection of short stories it is part of. The story takes place
in a shtetl, small Jewish town, typical for Eastern Europe, before Holocaust. They were
cut away from the rest of the world and people there were usually very poor. The author
himself lived in one when he was younger. The main themes of this story are Faith,
Deception, Acceptance and, Knowledge and Ignorance. They are very well known to
everyone. In our lives we encounter all of them to some extent. Gimpel is an overly
gullible man who suffers from it. The main character struggles with the pressure of
bullying on everyday basis his whole life. He is shown no respect and he is somehow
kicked out of the society in Frampol. Why does he let everyone make fun of him? Is he
a strong or a weak character for not fighting back? I intend to look at this problem in my
essay and speculate if Gimpel is even a good man, if he knows that if everyone evil fun
of him they will go to hell after death and he deliberately still lets them. I will try to
look at the idea of him being a trickster and a bad person. And then then I will try to
deny it. I am going to show that Gimpel is not a weak character and that his strength
comes from something else then other people.
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Isaac Bashevis Singer determines the main character, Gimpel, to tell his story to
the readers. He narrates the tale of his own life from first-persons perspective. Firstperson narratives are convenient to draw the readers into the story and to show them the
thoughts and opinions of the author. Thereby the reader obtains an opportunity to see
and understand a different level of the story, as the process of thoughts, decisions and
opinions. But then, using a first-person narrator means also a disadvantage; the narrator
is not omniscient, he knows only what only a regular reader would know. Consequently
he brings the readers to further understanding of his own process of thoughts leaving
out the thoughts of the rest of characters in the story. A first-person narrator sees the
world subjectively and presents it that way. The reader has to decide whether the
narrator is saying the truth or not and has to realize this reality when reading the story.
That’s why this style can be called misleading and cause confusion for the reader. It is
the more difficult in a story that deals with motives of truth, reality and credibility.
When the narrator proclaims this or that to be true, he might be lying and the reader can
easily get lost. The main character is usually the hero. Hypothetically he might be only
pretending to be one and misleading not only the villagers but also the unsuspecting
readers into thinking he is the hero and a very strong character.
When we meet Gimpel for the first time, he introduces himself with the words “I
am Gimpel the fool” (Singer 1), and then he tells us about all the other names he was
called by the kids. We read about the misfortunes that happen to him in his life, how he
doesn’t stand up for himself and lets other people mislead or bully him. We watch him
being talked into marrying a local whore and believing that she is a virgin when he tells
us that he knew that she is wasn’t one, proceeding to believe that the children she bore
after repeatedly being unfaithful to him are all his and other nonsense. At this moment
the reader not only feels bad for the simple man Gimpel, but is mad at him for letting
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everyone use him for their amusement. This leads the reader to overthinking Gimpel’s
decisions.
Let us consider the idea that Gimpel is weak and a trickster character. He
realizes his weaknesses and takes advantage of them. The part where he refused to slap
his bullies even when he said he had the physical strength to do it is presented as a
moment of mental maturity and wisdom. On the other hand it is also a moment of
weakness and an important moment in his life where he failed. He was simply too weak
to stand up for himself. There is a big possibility, that if he had the power he speaks
about and hasn’t been such a coward to slap them, he wouldn’t have to suffer for the
rest of his life. He tries to excuse it. He is the narrator of the story. That also means that
he is usually subjective, therefore we should question his truthfulness and if he really
had the power to fight back or he is simply trying to make himself look like a mature
individual who deals with it “the right way”.
After some time under the pressure of constant bullying and the fact that he is
incompetent to act, he becomes bitter. He is not stupid and knows the Torah by heart.
He went to school and visited the Rabbi for more wisdom. The Rabbi told him: “You
are not a fool. They are the fools. For the he who causes his neighbour to feel shame
loses Paradise himself” (Singer 5). He realizes that if the villagers don’t live according
to the “wisdom of the Fathers” they will be suffering for eternity. And decides to use his
knowledge and take revenge on the whole Frampol.
Gimpel impersonates with the fool other people call him. And he decides to let
the whole town use him for amusement and pretend to know nothing and to believe the
things they tell him. He turns to the religion because it is a way how to excuse his
weakness and to feel better about himself even when he is incapable to act and fight
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back. It is some kind of a coping mechanism in such environment and a way how to
except himself; firstly a way how to escape the bullies and secondly how to deal with
the feeling of humiliation.
But Gimpel only appears to be a weak and a silly person. At first it seems he
doesn’t distinguish reality from fiction, but then when the villagers try to deceive him
by saying that the Messiah has come, he tells the readers, that he knows very well that it
wasn’t true, but he goes outside to check it because “What did I stand to lose by
looking?” (Singer 5). The villagers of Frampol laugh and call him a fool. However this
behaviour is by no means foolish. At the very beginning of his storytelling, Gimpel is
deceived by other kids and he describes that he could have slapped them, because he has
the strength, but it isn’t in his nature. Instead, he tells himself: “Let it pass” (Singer 4).
This is another obvious proof of him being anything but stupid and weak.
The way he deals with the bullying is mature and wise. The reader can assume
that the bullies were superior in numbers and fighting back would not only provoke but
encourage them in doing it again. He behaved in the way parents usually tell their
children when they are laughed at or made fun of; to let it pass, for it will stop the
amusement of the bullies. He also learns to love children his wife gave birth to, even
when their conception was caused by her infidelity. He takes responsibility and takes
the role of breadwinner of the family and takes care of them and their mother his whole
life. Moreover he achieves to become wealthy and known in such unfriendly
environment like Frampol. He works himself up from being a poor orphan into owning
his own bakery and supplying the whole town with bread and other pastry every day.
Still he isn’t dependent on his worldly achievements that he “almost forgets” to mention
it in his storytelling and in the end he gives it all to children, who aren’t even his. He
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knows that it doesn’t have the true value. He finds the highest values in belief and in the
hope to see his wife soon.
There are however more reasons why the thought that Gimpel is weak and mean
is untrue. There is no visible moment in the story, where we could surely say that
Gimpel became bitter or angry at everyone. The only possible one is when he speaks
with the Spirit of Evil who tells him to take revenge and that there really is no God, but
the spirit of Elka stops him. If he was really pretending to be a fool as it was said
previously, the Spirit of Evil would probably know. He deals with every situation
calmly and there is no proof of him being angry or full of spite. Everything indicates the
opposite. He wishes everyone the best even when they do him wrong as it is seen at the
beginning where he gave up on fighting back “What was I to do? I believed them, and I
hope at least that did them some good” (Singer 4). This very decision shows how good
and kind he really is.
The narrator firstly presents himself the way other people from the story see
him; as a fool. He then admits that he is easy to persuade and believes everything
(Singer 1). Other people notice this weakness and never stop taking advantage of it and
Gimpel always seems to fall for their mean jokes and lies. But he accepts it with
kindness and stays positive at all times. And it appears that he doesn’t want to make a
scene: “If I ever dared to say “Ah, you’re kidding!” there was trouble. People got angry
“What do you mean! You want to call everyone a liar?” What was I to do? I believed
them, and I hope it did them some good” (Singer 4).
The truth is that he probably turns to religion when something bad happens, but
it is not to excuse his or somebody else’s doings but because he realizes that this is not
something he or somebody else could solve. He finds strength in religion, because it
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gives him meaning, it is clear and gives him hope. It also gives him strength to accept
people’s cruelty and to stay kind and able to forgive. It makes his life prettier and
somehow even simpler. He is looking forward to the afterlife, where everything will be
clear and easy to understand unlike this life which he describes as only an illusion.
“When the time comes I will go joyfully. Whatever may be there, it will be real, without
complication, without ridicule, without deception. God be praised: there even Gimpel
cannot be deceived” (Singer 21).
We might guess that he sees a different reality apart from what the villagers see
and that he doesn’t understand why they act the way they do and the way they think.
Kateřina Kučerová, a student of English language and literature, writes too about this
theme in her essay Gimpel the Fool…or is he?: “Gimpel seems to perceive another
reality and refuses to consider whether or not the particular thing is true. He knows that
reality is in fact completely different and ultimately depends on other, more important
things” (Kučerová 3). She shows Gimpel as an ascetic. He devotes his life into more
that materialistic things and thoughts. It is a question if it is caused by religion or
something else. The book doesn’t offer an answer to this problem.
Doan Hai Nguyen, a student of English language and literature at the university
in Ústí nad Labem states in his essay Gimpel the Fool and Being a Good Strong Person
in a Cruel Society that Gimpel often visits the rabbi and that the author himself was
surrounded by them. Not only his father and grandfather were rabbis, he even visited a
rabbinical school (Doan 4). This might be the reason why I.B. Singer lets Gimpel trust
the rabbi this much. He doesn’t question what is told to him and lives according to it.
When he applies the things he has heard from the rabbi to his life, he is able to start
loving his wife and her children. “…I lived twenty years with my wife. She bore me six
children, four daughters and two sons. All kinds of things happened, but I neither saw
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nor heard. I believed, and that’s all” (Singer 17) If he didn’t have his faith, he would
have worried his whole life, but this way, he realizes that some things had happened,
but he chooses to believe and it makes it easier to bare the reality. His faith is even the
root of all his strengths mentioned earlier like responsibility.
Either way, he follows the “Godly way” his whole life. In his faith he finds
acceptance, which he doesn’t get from anyone in the town his whole life. Therefore he
naturally fixes on it and puts his trust to it. He has been taught that everything is
possible as it was written in the Wisdom of the Fathers. And accepts that as a fact and
lives his life according to it. When in doubt or uncertain he visits the rabbi, a wise
person who studied the Torah, and asks him for an advice. He tells him that: “Belief in
itself is beneficial. It is written that a good man lives by faith” (Singer 17). So he
accepts it and believes. When the villagers humiliate Gimpel or make fun of him, he
turns to god with trusting him and almost excusing his behaviour. “Shoulders are from
God, and burdens too” (Singer 11) or “What’s the good in not believing? Today it’s
your wife you don’t believe, tomorrow it’s God Himself you won’t take stock in”
(Singer 14). This shows how important his faith is in his life.
Gimpel is told to be a representative of two archetypes reoccurring in literature.
Firstly it is “schlemiel” (or dos kleine menschele in Yiddish), a character type typical
for Yiddish culture. This type of personality can be found in East-European literature
(typically Russian literature) and is used to show irony and occurs in Jewish anecdotes.
Ruth R. Wisse, a scholar of Yiddish literature and of Jewish history and culture and a
literary and social critic, offers a description of the schlemiel and the schlimazel in The
Schlemiel as Modern Hero:
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“The American distinction between the schlemiel and the schlimazel,
summarized in the rule of thumb that says the former spills the soup, the latter is the one
into whose lap it falls, provides a helpful basis for definition. The schlemiel is the active
disseminator of bad luck, and the schlimazel its passive victim. Or, more sharply
defined, the schlimazel happens upon mischance, he has a penchant for lucklessness,
but the unhappy circumstances remain outside him, and always suggest the slapstick
quality of surprise. The schlemiel's misfortune is his character. It is not accidental, but
essential. Whereas comedy involving the schlimazel tends to be situational, the
schlemiel's comedy is existential, deriving from his very nature in its confrontation with
reality.”
Schlemiel represents an unlucky person who, as said in The Schlemiel as
Metaphor, by Sanford Pinsker, a professor and a literary critic is someone who:
“handles a situation in the worst possible manner or is dogged by an ill luck that is more
or less due to his own ineptness” (Pinsker 2).” But Gimpel somehow doesn’t fit this
characterization. Although his life is full of misfortunes and deception, it is not caused
by his bad luck or less of intelligence, and certainly not by ineptness. On the contrary,
he knows that other people deceive him and he knowingly chooses to be fooled and
humiliated.
The second archetype Gimpel is usually associated with is the “holy fool”. This
character is misunderstood by people, but lives for more than this earthly life. The holy
fool is described as “an individual who outwardly behaved in an eccentric manner by
the commonly accepted standards of his society; inwardly he pursued a religious ideal
or was enlivened by mystical experience” by professor Michael W. Dols in The
Madman in Medieval Islamic Society (Dols 1992). The Holy fool is frequently linked
with the Eastern-European Cristian tradition, although he occurs in many other cultures
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and religions as well. In Christianity one example is Francis of Assisi, who gave up on
all his possessions in order to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and focused his life
on preaching. There is a similarity to Gimpel’s life: In the end of the story he gives up
his possessions, he splits all his money between the children, realizing that he doesn’t
need it and leaves the town, travels the world and meets many different people and tells
stories, like this one. He looks forward to see his wife after death.
Gimpel seems to be a silly fool; his decisions and no dignity make no sense at first. He
doesn’t fight back or question the things other people from Frampol tell him. He
willingly lets others to fool and use him. This behaviour has its roots in the fact that he
believes that everything can be possible and in the fact, that he might be really a weak
person originally. He doesn’t find any inner strength to face his bullies. Nevertheless it
would be untrue to claim that he stays weak throughout the story. He finds some kind of
strength and support in his religion, which he doesn’t have in his ordinary life. It gives
him assurance of something more than there is to have in earthly life, which in his case
seems like a very pleasant promise, considering his miserable life. It is very improbable
that he would actually want to fool everyone into not going into heaven. It is
contradicting to his faith, he lives by and his kindness and innocence. He wouldn’t be
able to keep hold spite and take revenge on other people without feeling guilty
afterwards. His character is recognized two archetypes. One is called “holy fool”, which
describes people, who are misunderstood by other people for acting unusually or
weirdly for the sake of being closer to God. Because of this, Gimpel’s life is compared
to a life of a saint. The second archetype Gimpel is associated with is called schlemiel.
This word covers a type of person, who is unknowingly very foolish and unlucky;
usually it is caused by his own ineptness. But this archetype doesn’t really fit Gimpel,
for he has decided to be knowingly fooled and that is something a schlemiel doesn’t do.
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Works Cited
Doan, Hai Nguyen. Gimpel the Fool and Being a Good Strong Person in a Cruel
Society. Ústí nad Labem: Unpublished Essay, 2019. Print.
Dols, Michael W., and Diana E. Immisch. Majnūn. The Madman in Medieval Islamic
Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Print.
Kučerová, Kateřina. Gimpel the Fool…or is he?. Ústí nad Labem: Unpublished Essay,
2019. Print.
Pinsker, Sanford. The Schlemiel as a Metaphor: Studies in the Yiddish and American
Jewish Novel. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.
1972. Print.
Singer, Isaac Bashevis. Gimpel the Fool and Other stories. New York: Farrar,
Straus and Giroux, 1994. Print.
Wisse, Ruth R. The Schlemiel as Modern Hero. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1980.
Print.