Read "The Companionship of the Cat and the Mouse" last night, from Volume I of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, translated by Jack Zipes.

Synopsis: A male cat makes the acquaintance of a female mouse, falls in love with her, and convinces her to live with him. He advises her to stay home and keep house to avoid falling into any traps in the dangerous world. They worry about the winter, when food will be scarce, and purchase a jar of fat. They decide to hide the jar under the altar inside a church where no one will be likely to find it.

Very soon the cat develops a craving for the fat. He tells the mouse that he must be godfather to a cousin's child, then secretly goes to the church and consumes a third of the fat inside the jar. This happens two more times over the following days: he consumes half the jar, and then all of it.

Winter comes. The mouse suggests to the cat that they go to the church and partake of the fat they stowed away. When they get there, of course, the jar is empty. The mouse reflects and concludes that the cat ate all of it. The cat tells the mouse to stop accusing him or he will eat her up. The mouse continues to accuse him. He eats the mouse.

My Commentary:

On the surface this fairy tale seems to be about the innate nature of different species and how it is almost impossible for them to coexist. Numerous examples can be found in other texts: the stereotype cat and mouse, the stereotype cat and dog, the stereotype lion and lamb, among others. On a deeper, psychological level, however, I perceive this fairy tale to be a story of mismatches in human relationships: there are selfish men who fall in love with women and end up deceiving them. In the end, when they are accused of their misdeeds, they become defensive, abusive, even murderous. This apparently simple fairy tale is a precursor of the theme of the battle of the sexes, a subject that playwright August Strindberg later addressed with amazing complexity.