The Old Woman & the Doctor

Aesop's Fables - 15. The Old Woman & the Doctor

- The Aesop's fables dramatic structures -

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Text

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Structure

The Old Woman & the Doctor

Dramatic Cycles

In S1 and S2:

• ((steal,haveMoney,doctor,people),(steal,oldWomanStolen,oldWoman,people))

The stealing from the doctor is good for the doctor, bad for the old woman.

• ((steal,haveMoney),(steal,oldWomanStolen,oldWomanRefuses,pay,haveMoney))

Stealing has brought money to the doctor, but at the same time it caused the old women not to pay him.

In S2 only:

• ((steal,haveMoney),(steal,pretendNotCured,cured,oldWomanRefuses,pay,haveMoney))

Stealing has brought money to the doctor, but it gives the opportunity to the old woman to pretend she is not cured and therefore not to pay him.

Comments

The story stages two negative paths from "steal" to "have money". One is obvious ("I won't pay you if you stole me"), the other is ironical ("I was not cured"). This corresponds to the two sucessive situations.