“The Man Who Came Out Only at Night”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)
* * * (Good) Folktale
A cursed man leaves his new wife with a magical diamond ring to circle the word –tortoise by day and man by night – to break the curse and live happily ever after with his bride.
If you give someone power, there is no guarantee they’ll wield it well or wisely. The woman in this story appears to be noble and loving, but as she begins to use the power of her diamond ring, we see her for what she truly is – a…witch. And the townspeople see the same thing. They send the police to arrest her, only to, what, give up and forget when her husband returns? The story would have been more complete if she either was punished for her abuses, or if she hadn’t succumbed to the power of the diamond in the first place. In the end, all sympathy is lost and the woman becomes little more than throwaway character in a happily ever after story.
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