Gimpel the Fool

The publication of Gimpel the Fool, in a translation from the Yiddish by Saul Bellow, launched
Isaac Bashevis Singers career. During the 1950s and thereafter, his work appeared widely in
English, and throughout the history of Singer studies, Gimpel the Fool has held a place of
honor. Gimpel belongs to a brotherhood of literary charactersthat of the schlemiels. In this
work, Singer explores the nature of belief, which, in the modern, secular world, is often
considered foolish.
Gimpel believes whatever he is told: that his parents have risen from the dead, that his pregnant
fiance is a virgin, that her children are his children, that the man jumping out of her bed is a
figment of his imagination. Gimpel extends his willingness to believe to every aspect of his life,
because, he explains: Everything is possible, as it is written in the Wisdom of the Fathers, Ive
forgotten just how.
When, on her deathbed, his wife of twenty years confesses that none of her six children are his,
Gimpel is tempted to disbelieve all that he has been told and to enact revenge against those who
have participated in his humiliation. His temptation is a central crisis of faith. His faith in others,
who have betrayed him, is challenged, as is his faith in himself and in God, because among the
stories he has believed are those pertaining to the existence of God. Gimpels belief has always
been riddled with doubt; only after he concretizes...
The climax of "Gimpel the Fool" is when Gimpel finds another man sleeping in
bed with his wife for the second time and she fools him again! She tells him to
go out and check the goat while the man (his baker's apprentice) slips away.
When Gimpel comes back, his wife convinces him that he must have seen a
shadow. He makes some mention of it to the man the next day at work, but
forgets the whole things and accepts the lie yet again. The falling action is the
fact that he stays with her for 20 more years! He explains,
"All kinds of things happened, but I neither saw nor heard. I believed, and that's
all. The rabbi recently said to me, 'Belief in itself is beneficial. It is written that a
good man lives by his faith.'"
Gimpel also helps to raise six girls and two boys that his wife gives birth to. The
Resolution is that his wife confesses on her death bed that none of the children
are his and that she had lied throughout the whole marriage. However, Gimpel's
personal resolution is to continue what he said in the quote above and simply
believed everything. He never changed and even still loved his wife till the day
he died.

Gimpel the Fool Characters

Characters

Gimpel the Fool is perhaps Singer's most famous character. He is a schlemiel (a

fool), but one may also consider the possibility that he is a wise and devout Jew.
Gimpel, from Frampol, becomes renowned in his shtetl for being so gullible, for
believing everything that he hears. People enjoy testing him, telling him falsely
that the rabbi's wife has gone into labor, that the dead (even his own parents) have
risen from their graves, and that the woman (Elka) he is to marry is a virgin (she is
actually a loose woman who has been divorced and widowed and who has already
given birth to a son whom she calls her younger brother). He marries her, despite
his knowledge that she lies about being a virgin, and she cheats on him throughout
the marriage and gives birth to a child seventeen weeks after their wedding
(obviously not his child although she claims that the child has simply been born
prematurely). But Gimpel manifests his goodness by never losing his temper
towards his wife or anyone else who lies to him. This ability to accept the lies of
others and to maintain his temper as the others publicly humiliate him ennobles
him in the eyes of many. And perhaps Gimpel is not such a schlemiel because he
actually is not duped by these tricksters; he merely pretends to believe because he
does not want to hurt their feelings and because he feels that he has nothing to lose
by believing. And he links belief in worldly matters with belief in God. If one loses
faith in what others say, one may eventually lose faith in God. One day Gimpel
does have a crisis of faith: Satan comes to him and convinces him to revenge
himself on the townspeople for their lies, to urinate in the bread that he bakes for
them in the bakery. He does so, but Elka, his wife, returns to him from Hell to
convince him to change his mind. Gimpel regains his faith

In the story "Gimpel The Fool"Would you consider Grimpel or the

towns people a fool...and why?

it appears that Gimpel is the fool, very gullible, someone who will believe anything you tell
him. The townspeople take advantage of Gimpel's kindness, innocence and faith in human
nature, by tricking him and publicly humiliating him. Once he marries Elka, he appears to
be the biggest fool who ever lived.
But Gimpel is not simply an idiot, or a fool, who does not see the truth, he is a man with a
kind and generous heart who loves the children his wife has with other men.
He had received some advice from the Rabbi, which Gimpel takes to heart and uses as a
guide to live his life.
"The rabbi tells Gimpel, "It is written, better to be a fool all your days than for one hour to be
evil. You are not a fool. They are the fools. For he who causes his neighbor to feel shame
loses Paradise himself."
Even at the end of the story when Gimpel is tempted to try to fool the townspeople, he
cannot go through with it. He is warned by the spirit of his dead wife to remain true to his
beliefs.
"You fool! Because I was false is everything false too? I never deceived anyone but myself.
I'm paying for it all, Gimpel." Gimpel awakes, sensing that "everything hung in the balance.
A false step now and [he'd] lose Eternal Life."
The story has a moral. People who live their lives with kindness, compassion and
forgiveness are not fools. People who think they are getting away with sinful or hurtful
behavior are the real fools.