Grimms' Fairy Tales The Old Man and His Grandson Summary

Summary

An extremely elderly man lives with his son, daughter‑in‑law, and their young child. Age has robbed him of sight, hearing, steady hands, and table manners; he spills his broth and breaks the dishes. His son and daughter‑in‑law grow impatient and ashamed of his weaknesses, relegating him to a corner behind the stove and giving him scant food in a coarse earthenware bowl.

One day the frail man's hands tremble and break the bowl; the young wife scolds him. The four‑year‑old grandson, meanwhile, is gathering bits of wood and quietly building a small trough. When his father asks what he is doing, the child replies that he is making a little trough for “father and mother to eat out of when I am big.” The parents are struck by the child’s thoughtless cruelty reflected back at them and are moved to tears. They immediately take the old grandfather back to the table and thereafter treat him with patience and kindness, accepting his spills and frailties without complaint.

Key events

1. Description of the grandfather’s physical decline and clumsiness at table
2. Son and daughter‑in‑law grow disgusted and isolate him behind the stove
3. Grandfather’s bowl is broken when his hands tremble; wife scolds him
4. Four‑year‑old grandson gathers wood and builds a tiny trough
5. Child explains the trough is for his parents to use when he is grown
6. Parents realize their own cruelty and restore the grandfather to the table

Analysis

This short tale functions as a moral fable about filial duty, empathy, and the social response to aging. The narrative compresses character and action to deliver a single ethical pivot: the parents’ bad behavior is exposed to them through the unfiltered imagination of their child. The grandson’s innocent remark externalizes the logical endpoint of the parents’ attitudes—if they treat the old man as useless now, he imagines they will receive the same fate later. The story thus uses role reversal and projection as a moral mirror.

Structurally the tale is concise and linear: setup of degradation, an incident that heightens tension (the broken bowl and scolding), then a revelation triggered by the child and the immediate corrective action. The language is plain and didactic, typical of oral moral tales; there is no prolonged interiority, only observable actions that teach. Symbolically, the wooden trough and broken bowl stand for reduced dignity and the poverty of compassion; the act of moving the grandfather back to the table symbolizes restored social and familial recognition. The tale’s narrative technique—showing rather than lecturing—allows readers to infer the moral, making it effective for both young and mature audiences.

Important quotes

“There was once a very old man, whose eyes had become dim, his ears dull of hearing, his knees trembled, and when he sat at table he could hardly hold the spoon, and spilt the broth upon the table-cloth or let it run out of his mouth.”

NarratorSets the physical condition and social problem that trigger the story's moral lesson.

“'I am making a little trough,' answered the child, 'for father and mother to eat out of when I am big.'”

the little grandsonThe child’s innocent remark reflects the parents’ attitude back to them and provokes their change of heart.

“Then they took the old grandfather to the table, and henceforth always let him eat with them, and likewise said nothing if he did spill a little of anything.”

NarratorDescribes the immediate, restorative consequence the parents enact after recognizing their cruelty.

Characters in The Old Man and His Grandson

• the old man
• his son
• his son’s wife
• the little grandson