>>56892
It's an interesting story, the man doesn't wish any direct harm on his neighbors, or to be free of their nuisance.
Instead, he chooses to cause more nuisances to them, and ultimately to his self, which he wishes away (but not quite).
If he was merely envious or jealous, he would have wished that he could have what they had, if he truly disliked them he would have wished himself away.
The man seems co-dependent on his neighbors, he loves his neighbors and his own misery more than he can love any happiness for himself.
And how narrow a focus, when given a wish to contain your scope within 3 adjacent houses? His neighbors are the most important thing in his life.
What would he do without them, and their ability to cause him misery!
Completely unrelatable, I do reckon though, when communities were rather tight knit and the world so small, that petty squabbles would occupy peoples mind with this much energy. In that way, perhaps the story is more showing it's age rather than my initial reaction, that it is a demonstration of pathology.