Prominent Trickster Tales In British Literature

A trickster is a recurrent figure in world folklore and literature. It is a cunning, deceitful, and mischievous character that upsets established hierarchies, conventions, and rules by playing tricks. Tricksters could be human, divine, or anthropomorphized characters possessing supernatural powers. Native American, African-American, and European literature and folklore have featured Anansi the spider, the Coyote, Br’er Rabbit, Reynard the Fox, and the Raven. Trickster tales have used these characters to solve problems and pass down folk wisdom on human behavior. British literature transforms the trickster archetype in narrative and thematic representation as well as in character portrayals.

The trickster theme in British literature is repeated in fairy tales such as ‘The Three Little Pigs’, ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’, and stories involving ‘Jack’, an archetypal jester. The wolf, in ‘The Three Little Pigs’, after destroying the stick-houses of first two pigs and devouring them deceptively, is outwitted by the third pig who catches and eats him instead.

‘Jack’ in the ‘Beanstalk stories’ shrewdly steals treasures and conquers the giant. Whereas in ‘Jack Mary Ann’ versions, he fools the authority figures and poses a challenge to the dominant norms.

The wily figure is found in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. According to Dean Swinford, Chaucer transforms the familiar archetype to obscure fixed character identities (229). For instance, the Wife of Bath overturns a normative belief that women are inferior to men. She disrupts social hierarchies by being an outspoken critic of the marriage institution. She cunningly exploits the reference to the Bible, Greek, and Latin in her speeches.

In ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’, Chaucer relates the tale of three drunks who wish to find Death. Finding gold instead, they decide to trick each other. However, they die falling prey to their own tricks imparting the lesson that greed is the root of all evils. Moreover, the tale plays a trick on human guilt as it portrays a sinner as a pilgrim seeking redemption (McAlpine, 1980).

British trickster tales also famously pertain to the fools of William Shakespeare. The Grave Diggers in Hamlet, for example, infuse wit and humor in the most sanctimonious location and unexpected circumstances. Puck is another celebrated jester from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Through his mischief, he makes the queen of the fairies fall in love with a common worker. In doing so, Puck dispels the belief that any given social order is absolute (Doty & Hynes, 1993). Disguised as man, Viola from Twelfth Night guides the actions of other characters and serves her own needs. Ariel in The Tempest is a shape-shifting spirit of the air, who enhances Prospero’s role. We see a rich share of trickster tales and figures in English literature.

Trickster figure in British literature manifests itself in multivalent forms symbolizing the trickery of life. Found in both oral and written British literary traditions, it attempts to correct human follies and establish new orders. Exhibiting both humorous and profound characteristics, British trickster tales continues to fascinate and direct the readers to reflect more deeply on the human behavior.