The Magic of Three

I. Oral Tales and Memory

- Stories originally passed on in an oral culture
(vs. a literate culture) use the number 3 to allow
audiences to remember material.

• Other mnemonic devices used in oral cultures include sound, repetition, and rhythm. 
• In Hebrew, the term dabar means both 'word' and 'event.'

- Thus, we often find the number 3 recurring
in fairy tales and parables:

• 3 magic wishes
• 3 kings 
• The Holy Trinity 

II. Mathematics: a prime number


III. 3 in Metamorphosis

• 3 parts to the novella 
• 3 bedrooms/character constellations: Parents---Gregor---Grete

• 3 servants: cook, servant girl, charwoman
• 3 lodgers 
• 3 physical confrontations with his family
• Gregor dies "after the clock struck three in the morning" at the end of March, the 3rd month of the year (Kafka 50).
• His remaining family writes "three notes of excuse" to their employers on the day he dies (Kafka 52).