“Fish Characters” in Thai Tales: Symbolisms and Functions

Abstract

“Fish characters” in Thai tales are stories that reflect the lives of people living near rivers. Such tales, besides showing the relation between folks and fish, also show some of the supernatural powers about fish characters. This article therefore aims to analyze symbolic meanings of fish characters in Thai folktales based on Clifford Geertz’s concepts of symbolism and the roles of fish characters in the plots, as well as functions of Thai tales in society according to the concepts of folklore, by collecting tales from appendices of research and reports about folktales in Thailand, also collecting from other websites, totaling 26 tales. The results of the research show that the fish characters have three main groups of symbolic meanings consisting of those representing human behaviors, those showing beliefs in cultures, and those representing the identities of group of people living near rivers. Three roles of fish characters in the plots are also found: role of the exposition, role of the complication, and role of the falling action and resolution. Furthermore, the functions of tales can be identified—role in explaining the origins and identities of people and rituals, role in giving education including social rules training and maintaining social behavior standards, and role in providing solutions to personal grievances arising from social rules.