The Boatman
"There is a river with a bridge over it and a wife and her husband live in a house on one side. The wife has a lover who lives on the other side of the river, and the only way to get from one side of the river to the other is to walk across the bridge or to ask the boatman to take you. One day the husband tells his wife that he has to be gone all night to handle some business in a faraway town. The wife pleads with him to take her with him because she knows if he doesn’t she will be unfaithful to him. The husband absolutely refuses to take her because she will only be in the way of his important business."
"So the husband goes alone. When he is gone, the wife goes over the bridge and stays with her lover. The night passes, and the sun is almost up when the wife leaves because she must get back to her own house before her husband gets home. She starts to cross the bridge, but she sees an assassin waiting for her on the other side, and she knows if she tries to cross, he will murder her. In terror, she runs up the side of the river and asks the boatman to take her across, but he wants fifty cents. She has no money, so he refuses to take her. The wife runs back to the lover’s house, and explains to him what her predicament is. She asks him for fifty cents to pay the boatman. The lover refuses, telling her it’s her own fault for getting into the situation. As dawn comes up, the wife is nearly out of her mind and decided to dash across the bridge. When she comes face to face with the assassin. He takes out a large knife and stabs her to death."
Who is most responsible for the wife's murder? List wife, husband, lover, assassin, and boatman in the order you think they are most guilty. I am very curious to read other people's answers!
Interpretation:
Each character represents something and the order of your list shows what is most important to you.
Wife: fun
Husband: love
Lover: sex
Assassin: money
Boatman: magic
Here's my list:
Wife (fun) She shouldn't have been cheating, if she had been a faithful wife she would still be alive.
Assassin (money) Uh, killing people is wrong.
Lover (sex) You really couldn't spare fifty cents?? Very callous of him, obviously he wasn't worth her time.
Husband (love) It sucks he wouldn't take her with him, he seems a little too focused on his job and should have probably given more attention to his wife.
Boatman (magic) Well, I place him last because he has a job to do and he needed to get paid for it. It's not really his fault if she ran across the bridge, she could have just stayed safe and faced her husband later.
