The Golden Goose

"Yet another way to think of fairy tales is to imagine them as a language of the imagination, with a vocabulary of images and a syntax of plots." Marina Warner

 

1) What kind of social and cultural behavior does this story seem to validate? Why would a society want to validate this behavior? To what extent is the writer of the play questioning/making fun of (often the same thing) that behavior?

2) The writer uses different adjectives to describe each son. What contrast is she accentuating between the adjectives and the actions that follow?

3) What do you think is the comic effect of all the odd numbers in the story? Why?

4) What role do the golden goose and the people stuck to it fulfil in the play, and why do they disappear at the end?