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The Unicorn in the Garden by James Thurber reprinted from Fables For Our Time.
Once upon a sunny morning a man who sat in a breakfast nook looked up from his scrambled eggs to see a white unicorn with a golden horn quietly cropping the roses in the garden. The man went up to the bedroom where his wife was still asleep and woke her. "There's a unicorn in the garden," he said. "Eating roses." She opened one unfriendly eye and looked at him."The unicorn is a mythical beast," she said, and turned her back on him. The man walked slowly downstairs and out into the garden. The unicorn was still there; now he was browsing among the tulips. "Here, unicorn," said the man, and he pulled up a lily and gave it to him. The unicorn ate it gravely. With a high heart, because there was a unicorn in his garden, the man went upstairs and roused his wife again. "The unicorn," he said,"ate a lily." His wife sat up in bed and looked at him coldly. "You are a booby," she said, "and I am going to have you put in the booby-hatch."The man, who had never liked the words "booby" and "booby-hatch," and who liked them even less on a shining morning when there was a unicorn in the garden, thought for a moment. "We'll see about that," he said. He walked over to the door. "He has a golden horn in the middle of his forehead," he told her. Then he went back to the garden to watch the unicorn; but the unicorn had gone away. The man sat down among the roses and went to sleep.As soon as the husband had gone out of the house, the wife got up and dressed as fast as she could. She was very excited and there was a gloat in her eye. She telephoned the police and she telephoned a psychiatrist; she told them to hurry to her house and bring a strait-jacket. When the police and the psychiatrist arrived they sat down in chairs and looked at her, with great interest."My husband," she said, "saw a unicorn this morning." The police looked at the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist looked at the police. "He told me it ate a lilly," she said. The psychiatrist looked at the police and the police looked at the psychiatrist. "He told me it had a golden horn in the middle of its forehead," she said. At a solemn signal from the psychiatrist, the police leaped from their chairs and seized the wife. They had a hard time subduing her, for she put up a terrific struggle, but they finally subdued her. Just as they got her into the strait-jacket, the husband came back into the house."Did you tell your wife you saw a unicorn?" asked the police. "Of course not," said the husband. "The unicorn is a mythical beast." "That's all I wanted to know," said the psychiatrist. "Take her away. I'm sorry, sir, but your wife is as crazy as a jaybird."So they took her away, cursing and screaming, and shut her up in an institution. The husband lived happily ever after.Moral: Don't count your boobies until they are hatched.
Glossary:
James Thurber's "The Unicorn in the Garden"
Commentary by Karen Bernardo
The plot of Thurber’s fable "The Unicorn in the Garden" can be summarized in only a few paragraphs. A man wakes his wife to tell her there is a unicorn in the garden, eating the flowers. Without getting up to look out the window, she tells him there can’t be: "A unicorn is a mythical beast." He goes back into the garden, returns again to the bedroom, and repeats his assertion. His wife, still not getting up to look out the window, warns him that "You’re a booby . . . and I’m going to have to put you in the booby hatch."
After the man returns to the garden, the wife -- with "a gloat in her eye" -- calls the police and a psychiatrist. When they arrive, she tells them what her husband said to her, assuming that they will lock him up (which is clearly what she wants). The police and the psychiatrist ask her husband whether there is, in fact, a unicorn in the garden, and he says "Of course not. The unicorn is a mythical beast."
Consequently, they lock up the wife -- which is clearly what the husband wants. Thurber even attaches a moral -- "Don’t count your boobies until they are hatched."
The woman in Thurber’s story does not know whether there’s a unicorn in the garden, and she doesn’t care; she immediately sees how her husband’s assertion can be used to get rid of him. In other words, she isn’t interested in getting inside his head; she isn’t interested in sharing his vision of life; she’s only interested in pursuing her own agenda, which doesn’t include her husband.
Until the last two paragraphs, however, we have no indication that the husband feels the same way. Thurber still does not give us any indication whether the husband has planned this outcome all along; in other words, he leaves completely open the question of whether there was ever a unicorn in the garden at all. However, Thurber does tell us that after the wife was committed to a mental institution, "the husband lived happily ever after," so we can see that up till then, this couple essentially lived two separate lives in the same house.
Anticipating the current "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, " argument, Thurber’s story is grounded .
Glossary:
- booby: in this context, a crazy person (probably from the name of a stupid extinct bird).
- booby-hatch: a mental institution, a place where the insane are kept.
- breakfast nook: a little side room for eating breakfast.
- browsing: sampling or tasting here and there.
- "crazy as a jaybird": extremely crazy or hopelessly insane
- cropping: clipping or cutting close to the root.
- cursing: using dirty or obscene speech.
- "Don't count your boobies until they are hatched": from the American expression "Don't count your chickens before they are hatched", meaning "Don't count on things to turn out exactly as you planned them."
- gloat: a look of malice or greed.
- institution: a mental institution, an insane asylum.
- moral: in this context, the "lesson" of the story.
- mythical: relating to a myth, hence not real.
- psychiatrist: a mental doctor
- solemn: grave or serious
- strait-jacket: an armless belted jacket used to confine the violently insane
- subdue, subduing: capturing, seizing
- unicorn: a mythical beast which looks like a horse with a horn in the center of the head.
James Thurber's "The Unicorn in the Garden"
Commentary by Karen Bernardo
The plot of Thurber’s fable "The Unicorn in the Garden" can be summarized in only a few paragraphs. A man wakes his wife to tell her there is a unicorn in the garden, eating the flowers. Without getting up to look out the window, she tells him there can’t be: "A unicorn is a mythical beast." He goes back into the garden, returns again to the bedroom, and repeats his assertion. His wife, still not getting up to look out the window, warns him that "You’re a booby . . . and I’m going to have to put you in the booby hatch."
After the man returns to the garden, the wife -- with "a gloat in her eye" -- calls the police and a psychiatrist. When they arrive, she tells them what her husband said to her, assuming that they will lock him up (which is clearly what she wants). The police and the psychiatrist ask her husband whether there is, in fact, a unicorn in the garden, and he says "Of course not. The unicorn is a mythical beast."
Consequently, they lock up the wife -- which is clearly what the husband wants. Thurber even attaches a moral -- "Don’t count your boobies until they are hatched."
The woman in Thurber’s story does not know whether there’s a unicorn in the garden, and she doesn’t care; she immediately sees how her husband’s assertion can be used to get rid of him. In other words, she isn’t interested in getting inside his head; she isn’t interested in sharing his vision of life; she’s only interested in pursuing her own agenda, which doesn’t include her husband.
Until the last two paragraphs, however, we have no indication that the husband feels the same way. Thurber still does not give us any indication whether the husband has planned this outcome all along; in other words, he leaves completely open the question of whether there was ever a unicorn in the garden at all. However, Thurber does tell us that after the wife was committed to a mental institution, "the husband lived happily ever after," so we can see that up till then, this couple essentially lived two separate lives in the same house.
Anticipating the current "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, " argument, Thurber’s story is grounded .
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