Meaning & Analysis
This proverb offers a folkloric explanation for a sunshower (rain occurring while the sun is shining), claiming it is caused by the devil physically assaulting his wife.
Insights
Unnatural Contradictions
A sunshower represents a natural contradiction. The proverb links this atmospheric paradox to a moral one: the ultimate evil figure engaged in a mundane, yet violent, domestic squabble. It metaphorically signifies any situation where contradictory or unsettling elements coexist.
Hidden Turmoil
Sunshine often symbolizes happiness, while rain suggests sorrow. The combination implies that even during moments of apparent joy, there can be underlying suffering or conflict, just as the devil's cruelty is hidden behind the shining sun.
Ominous Beauty
The saying attaches a dark and violent narrative to a beautiful natural event, often associated with rainbows. This suggests that appearances can be deceiving and that beauty can sometimes mask a sinister or unsettling origin.
Folk Meteorology
A classic example of folk meteorology, this proverb provides a supernatural narrative to explain a natural paradox. It reflects a pre-scientific worldview that personified nature, attributing inexplicable events to the actions of mythological figures like the devil.
Cross-Cultural Parallels
The theme of a sunshower coinciding with a supernatural event is found globally. While English folklore speaks of the devil, other traditions reference a fox's wedding or a trickster's mischief. This reveals a universal human impulse to create explanatory myths for natural contradictions.
Psychological Projection
The proverb projects a dark, human reality—domestic violence—onto a cosmic scale. This may reflect societal anxieties about hidden turmoil within the home, using the devil's actions as a metaphor for cruelty that exists even behind a facade of normalcy or beauty (the sunshine).
Rhetorical Devices
Paradox
The proverb is built on the juxtaposition of contradictory natural elements—sun and rain—to create a memorable and thought-provoking image.
Personification
It attributes a complex meteorological event to the human-like actions and emotions of a supernatural being, making the abstract phenomenon relatable and narrative.
Dark Humor
The imagery of the devil's domestic dispute is both shocking and absurdly specific (especially in Swift's version). This use of dark humor makes the explanation memorable while trivializing a profound evil.
Transcription
Quotations
When it rains, and the Sun shines both at one and the same time; the French say . . the Devil is beating of his wife.
It rained, and the sun shone at the same time. —Why, then the devil was beating his wife behind the door with a shoulder of mutton.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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