Critical Essay on Jealous Husband Returns in the Form of a Parrot

Introduction

The story the Jealous Husband Returns in the form of a Parrot looks at the theme of infidelity in a marriage. The author can use the original description to bring out the character of a jealous husband who has been transformed into a parrot and is kept at a pet store. Fortunately, his wife happens to be the customer that purchases him as a pet. The parrot enjoys his new accommodations at his former home. However, he experiences a bittersweet feeling since he is back home, but at the same time he is trapped and haunted by feelings of jealousy. The parrot is tormented by the fact that his wife is seeing another man and is inviting him into their home. He, therefore, tries to reconcile himself with the fact that he has lost his spouse and that he should accept his new life as a parrot.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The author describes the husband's feelings of discomfort and jealousy through the actions of a parrot. For example, he states that "I flap my wings and I squawk, and I fluff up, and I slick down, and I throw seed, and I attack the dangly toy..... But it's no use" (Butler, 1996, p. 768). The author also brings out the fact that the wife still cares for the husband despite the fact she is unaware he has been transformed into a bird. Her actions are an indication of the affection she has for the pet but also a sign that she misses her husband. The author brings out this aspect when he mentions the incident where the parrot flew into a closed window trying to escape into the backyard, and the wife cried and picked him up and placed him back in the cage. The parrot felt comforted by her emotional reaction, and this shows how much she cares for him. However, the narrator admits to the fact that his jealous feelings caused him to lose his wife and that in his current state he can never get her back.

Robert Butler makes excellent use of fables in this story to bring out the theme of jealousy in relationships. Butler can link up the feelings of resentment to the mannerisms of a parrot. For example, a parrot's agitation towards strange people is interpreted as distress that can be attributed to other men who are approaching the narrator's former wife. The author uses the parrot's speech to showcase the narrator's feelings for other people. For example, the parrot says the word "pretty" when referring to his wife while he blurts out words like "cracker" and "peanut" when addressing his wife's partners to frustrate them. Moreover, normal bird behavior such as flapping of wings, fluffing up and playing with seeds have been humanized to bring out the narrators feelings. The author, therefore, has made effective use of the construct of fables to investigate the theme of jealousy.

The author also brings out some valuable lessons on jealousy that the narrator can learn. The husband before his parrot transformation was a jealous man and was in constant fear that other men would want to tempt her wife into cheating. For example, the narrator states that "And what would I say if I could? I was jealous of Life. I admit it. I would admit it to her" (Butler, 1996, p. 768). The narrator agrees that his feelings of jealousy were an impediment to the relationship and he wishes he had not been so jealous in the past since it destroyed their relationship. The narrator even describes how he died as a result of pursuing his jealous feelings. He mentions that he suspected his wife of having an affair with a colleague and therefore, he went over to the man's house to investigate. Unfortunately, he tried to climb up a tree to access a wind on the second floor, but he fell to his death. Moreover, he never had proof that his wife ever cheated on him and overreacted based on his suspicions or assumptions.

The author, therefore, can show that jealousy can be harmful to a relationship. Thus, resentment can result in the termination of relationships. For example, in this story, the husband died, and the wife was left abandoned and lonely. Consequently, after his death, the narrator is brought back to life as a parrot and gets to live out his fears of infidelity. The narrator, in his parrot cage, can observe as his wife entertains male partners in their home. The narrator is distressed by this and prefers to turn his gaze from the wife's bedroom door to look into the backyard.

Additionally, the author can bring out the aspect of regret in this story. The narrator expresses regret for being overly jealous and acknowledges that his feelings and suspicions resulted in him losing his wife. The narrator is also forced to live with the consequences of his actions. The fact that he died as a human meant that his wife was free to seek other partners. The narrator in his parrot form admits that he cannot do anything about his wife acquiring new partners. For example, he mentions that "She is single now, of course. Her husband, the man that I was, is dead to her" (Butler, 1996, p. 768). His new form of the body also does not allow him to communicate his regrets to his wife effectively. Therefore, the narrator has resigned himself to living a life without the woman he loved since his jealousy made him lose her.

All in all the author has been able to show us that the narrator learned his lesson about the harmful effects of jealousy in a relationship. If the narrator had not been excessively jealous, he would not have lost his wife and more importantly his wife. The author was able to show that the narrator's source of jealousy was sometimes innocent interactions between his and other men. The narrator never had proof that his wife was unfaithful yet he continued worrying, and his investigations led to his untimely demise. Perhaps, If he were more trusting of the wife they would still have been together. The author has also shown through the feelings of regret that the narrator learned his lesson about how jealousy can destroy a relationship.

A fable can be described as "a fictional story under which a moral lesson is hidden" (Wolosky, 2014, p. 19). Johnson and Waugh (1903) states that

A Fable, or an Apologue, such as is now under consideration, seems to be, in its genuine stage, a narrative in which beings irrational, and sometimes inanimate, are for moral instruction, feigned to act with human interests and passions (p. 68)

Conclusion

According to the above-stated attributes we can conclude that Robert Butler was effectively able to use fables as a tool for storytelling. The Jealous Husband Returns in the form of a Parrot made use of the humanization to bring out the narrator's character in the form of a parrot.

Furthermore, the author was able to effectively communicate the moral lesson that excessive jealousy can be harmful to a relationship. Moreover, the author also showed that infidelity could be a source of distress to the aggrieved party. The symbolic use of the cage shows that feelings of jealousy can make one feel trapped in a relationship with an unfaithful partner.

Robert Butler also makes use of simple language in the narration. This type of storytelling allows readers of the short story to understand the message being propagated quickly. Secondly, the author can differentiate fiction from reality through the separation of human husband from the character of the parrot. This separation prevents confusion since a person cannot be both a human and a bird. The use of narration, therefore, elegantly reconciles these two distinct characters as one and brings meaning to the story. Consequently, Robert Butler is successful in communicating a moral lesson for human beings through the use of an animal character.

References

Butler, R. O. (1996). Jealous Husband Returns in Form of a Parrot. In Tabloid Dreams (pp. 71-81).

Johnson, S., & Waugh, A. (1903). Lives of the Poets (Vol. 3, p. 68). Doubleday.

Wolosky, A. C. (2014). History as Rhetoric, Fable, and Literary Genre. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 2(1), 16. doi:10.11648/j.ijla.20140201.14