Dogs in La Fontaine’s fables
Read five of La Fontaine's fables through their canine roles: a comfortable life with a hidden cost, mutual help refused, hospitality abused, an entrusted meal and a hunting pack. Discover how dialogue, reversals and satire speak about human society. Plot details are included; the historical stories are not guidance for treating animals.
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Dogs in La Fontaine’s fables
Questions covered in this exam
- At the start of La Fontaine's The Wolf and the Dog, what attracts the wolf?
- Which detail changes the wolf's mind about joining the dog?
- What does the wolf ultimately choose over assured meals?
- In The Wolf and the Dog, why is the dog's reassuring speech not the whole truth?
- In The Ass and the Dog, why does the hungry dog ask the ass to bend down?
- What does the ass tell the dog instead of helping him?
- In The Ass and the Dog, how does the dog's later reply echo the ass's refusal?
- Which principle frames both the opening and ending of The Ass and the Dog?
- What does the old French word lice mean in La Lice et sa Compagne?
- Why does the female dog first borrow her companion's shelter?
- What changes when the puppies have grown stronger in La Lice et sa Compagne?
- What is the target of the shelter fable's warning?
- What responsibility does the dog initially have in La Fontaine's dinner fable?
- What does the meal-carrying dog first do when another dog tries to take it?
- Why does the entrusted dog eventually take a portion himself?
- What human situation does La Fontaine explicitly compare with the stolen dinner?
- What interrupts the boasting in La Fontaine's The Cat and the Fox?
- In The Cat and the Fox, what is the cat's single effective escape?
- What weakness does the fox's abundance of tricks reveal?
- Can a dog matter to a fable without being its main speaking character?
