The Goose - Analysis

Introduction

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s "The Goose" is a concise, satirical narrative that moves from comic generosity to domestic chaos. The tone begins lightly and ironic when a stranger presents a goose that lays golden eggs, then shifts to mounting absurdity and moral lesson as the household unravels. The poem balances humor with a pointed critique of human behavior and social pretension.

Relevant context

Written in the Victorian era, the poem reflects social anxieties about wealth, respectability, and the influence of sudden fortune on traditional households. Tennyson’s reputation for blending narrative clarity with moral observation informs the poem’s fable-like quality.

Main theme: Greed and social aspiration

The poem examines how sudden gain alters character. The old wife moves from poverty to "feeding high, and living soft," growing "plump and able-bodied" while the parson and churchwarden take notice. The golden-egg motif literalizes prosperity, and her pride—"she felt her heart grow prouder"—drives the escalation toward conflict, showing how wealth breeds vanity and disturbance rather than lasting happiness.

Main theme: Noise, disorder, and consequences

Sound and commotion recur as markers of moral and social breakdown. The goose’s "cackle and clatter," the household’s "clamour," and the final storm that makes "tables danced again" tie external noise to internal disarray. Tennyson uses escalating auditory images to dramatize how a small gain can generate disproportionate disruption.

Main theme: The ambiguous role of the stranger and fate

The stranger appears twice as agent and then as remover of the source of wealth. His light, almost dismissive lines—"It is a stormy season"/"It is a stormy morning"—suggest fate or fortune’s caprice. The poem leaves open whether he is benevolent, indifferent, or punitive, inviting readers to question the origin and durability of gifts.

Symbols and vivid images

The white goose is the central symbol: at once a domestic animal and a miraculous producer of golden eggs, it represents sudden wealth that does not integrate peacefully into the household. The golden egg juxtaposed with the old wife’s rags highlights social transformation. Storm and wind imagery—"the wild wind rang," "half the chimneys tumbled"—symbolize forces beyond control that expose the fragility of newly acquired comfort. An open question remains whether the storm is merely natural or a poetic instrument of moral correction.

Conclusion

The poem functions as a compact fable: through lively imagery and ironic shifts in tone, Tennyson critiques greed, social vanity, and the instability of fortune. The comic surface masks a sober insight—that blessings, when mishandled or misunderstood, become the source of one’s undoing.