Three Blind Mice

Come Along Now - The Journey Is Better Than the Destination

The perspective of this illustration is similar to Oxenbury’s – the three mice are at the heels of the farmer's wife. There are distinct differences, however, between the two illustrations. This wife carries a cleaver as the mice follow, foreshadowing what is to come. The cheerful colors and the humor in the characters' depictions give little hint of the mice's fate, but then there is that cleaver. Viewers don't see the rest of the woman's body or the expression on her face, nor do they see the back half of the third mouse. Could it be that the third, more realistically-colored, mouse also has a more realistic sense of their impending fate? Although the tail of this mouse is not visible, the tails of the other two are intact; indicating that this image shows the farmer's wife and the three mice before she cuts off any tails. These mice are shown as blind in a unique way - they are blindfolded with a strap/strip of black, as opposed to the shaped blindfolds or the dark glasses more commonly used in other illustrations. The limited detail in this illustration leaves the observer wondering why and how the blind mice are following the wife.