The plot of the tale is very pleasing as it easily arranges itself into a simple drama of three acts:—­

Act I,
Scene i.  Revery of the Master.  The Cat’s promise to help. 
Scene ii.  Puss in the rabbits’ warren with his bag. 
Scene iii.  Puss takes the rabbits to the King in his
palace.

Act II,
Scene i.  Puss with his bag in the cornfield. 
Scene ii.  Puss takes partridges to the King. 
Scene iii.  Puss and his Master.  Puss gives advice.

Act III,
Scene i.  The Marquis bathing and Puss by the river-side. 
Scene ii.  The Drive.  Puss runs before and meets the mowers. 
Scene iii.  The Ogre’s Castle.  Puss’s reception of the coach. 
Marriage of the Marquis of Carabas.  Puss
becomes a Lord.

The tale possesses an appeal to the emotions, we want Puss-in-Boots to accomplish whatever scheme he invents, and we want the Miller’s son to win the Princess.  Its appeal to the imagination is an orderly succession of images, varied and pleasing.  The invention of Puss and his successful adventures make the tale one of unusual interest, vivacity, and force.  The transformation of the Ogre into a Lion and again into a Mouse, and the consequent climax of Puss’s management of the Mouse, bring in the touch of the miraculous.  A similar transformation occurs in Hesiod, where the transformed Metis is swallowed by Zeus.  This transformation may be produced by a witch, when the help of another is needed, as in Beauty and the Beast and in Hansel and Grethel; or the transformation may come from within, as in this case when the Ogre changes himself into a Mouse, or when a man changes himself into a Wolf.  A situation which parallels the theme of Puss-in-Boots occurs in The Golden Goose where Dummling gets as his share only a goose, but having the best disposition makes his fortune out of his goose.  Grimm’s Three Feathers also contains a similar motif.  D’Aulnoy’s White Cat, the feminine counterpart of Puss-in-Boots, is a tale of pleasing fancy in which the hero wins the White Cat, a transformed Princess, who managed to secure for him, the youngest son, the performance of all the tasks his father had set for him.

But the most interesting parallel of Puss-in-Boots is the Norse Lord Peter told by Dasent in Norse Tales.  Here the helpful Cat does not use a bag, but in true Norse fashion catches game in the wood by sitting on the head of the reindeer and threatening, “If you don’t go straight to the King’s palace, I’ll claw your eyes out!” The Norse tale omits the bathing episode.  The King wants to visit Lord Peter but the Cat manages that Lord Peter shall visit the King.  The Cat promises to supply coach, horses and clothes, not by craft—­their source is not given—­but they are furnished on the condition that Peter must obey to say always, when he sees fine things in the Castle, that he has far finer things of his own.  In the Norse tale