The elphant and the monkey – La Fontaine’s bestiary

Jean de la Fontaine’s fables are the most famous tales of the 17^th century, which is a great representation of the French society under the reign of Louis the 14^th’s era.   Using animals to tell about human morality and values, La Fontaine avoided censorship with subtlety and communicates to us is ideas via personifying animals and speaking with indirect argumentation.

Remarkable for the diversity of the bestiary, this fable portrays the elephant, his memory, his intelligence, on the kinship of his feelings and those of the man and also on his natural antipathy with the rhinoceros.