The Well of the World's End

I denne study guide kan du få hjælp til at analysere eventyret "The Well of the World's End". Udover analysehjælpen kan du finde et summary af teksten, samt inspiration til fortolkning og perspektivering.

Præsentation af teksten

Titel: “The Well of the World’s End” (1890).
Forfatter: Ukendt forfatter. Nedskrevet af Joseph Jacobs
Genre: Eventyr

Joseph Jacobs (1854-1916) var en australsk historiker og forfatter. Jacobs var kendt for at indsamle og udgive engelske folkeeventyr, og han var ansvarlig for at popularisere mange ikoniske fortællinger, så som "Jack and the Beanstalk" ("Hans og bønnestagen") og "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" ("Guldlok og de tre bjørne").

"The Well of the World's End", et eventyr fra grænselandet mellem England og Skotland, blev indsamlet i det skotske lavland og udgivet i samlingen English Fairy Tales.

Uddrag

Nedenfor kan du se et kort uddrag fra vores analysehjælp til eventyret:

Title

The title of the fairy tale “The Well of the World’s End” does not immediately indicate much about the plot. Readers will assume that the story revolves around a well, but may not realise that it is both an important symbol and a central element of the plot.

The title has both a literal and a symbolic meaning. In the literal sense, it refers to the well where the protagonist’s evil stepmother sends her:

At last, one day, the stepmother thought to get rid of her altogether; so she handed her a sieve and said to her: ‘Go, fill it at the Well of the World’s End and bring it home to me full, or woe betide you. (ll. 5-8)

The well’s symbolic meaning is revealed by the well’s name and the stepmother’s thoughts about the task she gives to her stepdaughter: “For she thought she would never be able to find the Well of the World’s End” (ll. 8-9). The well is symbolic of the stepmother’s wish to get rid of the protagonist forever, as the task she gives her seems impossible.

Mere hjælp

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Engelsk

Short story analysis

I denne vejledning får du Studienets hjælp til at analysere noveller (short stories) i engelsk.