A Fable by Mark Twain. Short summary

5 seconds

The cat told the animals about the picture hanging in front of the mirror. No one knew what the picture and the mirror were. They went to look, but they saw themselves there. That’s the meaning of art — the dialogue between the individual and the world.

1 minute

An artist drew a beautiful picture and hung it in front of a mirror, believing that it made the colors look more effective and created depth. The Cat told the animals about it. But the forest dwellers did not know what a painting and a mirror were. The cat said that a picture is a beautiful flat thing, and a mirror is a hole in the wall through which you can see the picture.

The donkey took Cat’s words with suspicion and decided to take a look himself. But when he stood too close to the mirror, he saw only a donkey in it. He called the donkey a liar. The donkey took offence and went away.

The other animals knew Cat as an honest, intelligent animal. They decided to test Donkey’s words and began to visit the house one by one. But they too saw only a bear, a leopard, a tiger, etc. The king of the beasts, the Elephant, personally verified that his subjects were liars because the elephant was sitting in the mirror.

The author himself derives the moral from this fable. It is you who bring into a work of art what stands between it and the mirror of your perception.