Synopsis

Modifications & Strengths/Weaknesses

Synopsis

• Poor woodman’s wife wishes for a child no bigger than her thumb
• Her wish comes true when she gives birth to a boy as small as her thumb. They call the child ‘Tom Thumb’
• As Tom grows up he wants to help his father.  He makes his mother harness the horse, Tom then sat in the ear of the horse and directed it where to go
• Two strangers see the horse and cart moving and can hear a voice but cannot see anyone.  They then decide to follow the cart and see who it is
• The two strangers see Tom being removed from the horse’s ear by his father.  They then see how Tom could bring them a fortune by taking him from town to town on show.  They offer the father a great deal of money for Tom
• The father refuses the money
• Tom persuades his father to take the money, as he will escape from the men and return
• The woodman eventually agrees
• The strangers take Tom but after travelling for a short time Tom escapes from the two strangers into a mouse hole
• The two strangers poke at the mouse hole with a stick but Tom only goes further and further in.  Eventually the strangers give up, as it is too dark
• Tom finds an empty snail shell and decides to take refugee for the night
• As Tom was in the snail shell, two men go by discussing how they will steal gold from a near by Parson’s house.  Tom pipes up and offers to help
• Tom goes inside the Parson’s house and tricks the two men.  He begins to yell out and wakes up the cook.  The two men flee.
• Tom goes to the barn for refugee
• While sleeping in some hay, Tom gets eaten by a cow.  He wakes to realise he is in a cow’s mouth.  He slides into the cow’s stomach
• Tom cries out to the cow to stop eating any more hay.  As Tom yells, the cow was being milked by the maid.  She thinks it is the cow talking and gest the parson for help.  He assumes that the cow is evil and kills hit.  The stomach is thrown out.
• Tom tries to work his way out of the stomach but not in time, as the stomach was eaten by a wolf.
• Tom talks to the wolf from inside his stomach.  He tells him to go to a particular house, as there are many delicious foods there.  The house is his parents’ home.  He instructs the wolf of how to get in and the wolf does so. 
• The wolf eats all the food but then is too fat to get out the same way he entered
• Tom begins to yell so that his parents wake up
• His father decides to kill the wolf and then realises that it is Tom inside.  He kills the wolf and sets tom free
• The family is reunited and parents swear never to sell Tom again