Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
http://mythbustersresults.com/episode56
Old Man: Unnamed Norwegian fisherman who survived a descent into a raging whirlpool.
Narrator: Unnamed person who listens to the old man's survival story. The following dialogue indicates that he is non-Norwegian.
Brothers of the Old Man: Victims of the whirlpool.
“A Descent Into the Maelström” is a story within a story. The unnamed narrator begins the “outer story” by setting the scene. The old man, also unnamed, then tells the “inner story.” The structure of the story thus resembles a framed painting–the outer story being the frame and the inner story being the painting. Over the centuries, many writers have written “frame tales,” such as Geoffrey Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales), William Shakespeare (The Taming of the Shrew), Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), and Joseph Conrad ("Heart of Darkness").
One may interpret “A Descent Into the Maelström” as an allegory for every human being’s journey through the turbulent times of life. That the narrator never mentions his or the fisherman’s name suggests that they could be any men in any time. And, though the Maelström is a natural phenomenon occurring only off the northwestern coast of Norway, it could symbolize the storms of life anywhere in the world. An allegory, of course, usually teaches a lesson. In this short story, the old man identifies himself as the narrator’s guide on their climb up the mountain. Guide here could also mean that the old man is imparting a lesson about (1) the inscrutability and awesomeness of the world and nature and (2) the way to confront life’s pitfalls–namely, to face them courageously and to persevere while using intelligence and common sense to traverse them.
Early in “A Descent Into the Maelström,” the reader learns that the main character faced what appeared to be certain death–but survived. This knowledge does not ruin the story for the reader, however. Rather, it whets his curiosity with this question: How did the main character survive? Shakespeare used this approach in Romeo and Juliet, telling the reader in the prologue that the two lovers died.