Mother Holle

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In Mother Holle, there is a struggle between the forces of good and evil. The conflict between good and evil is characterized by the pretty sister and Mother Holle versus the ugly sister and the sisters' mother. The mother is evil and has one daughter and a step-daughter who she takes care of. The step-daughter is pretty and hard-working and the real daughter is ugly and lazy. Instead of making the ugly daughter work to get rid of her laziness, she makes the pretty girl do all of the house work and allows the ugly daughter to remain lazy, but the pretty girl does not complain.

The ugly sister and her mother treat the pretty sister very poorly and give her no respect. They make her clean and tend to all the chores of the house. Her mother also makes her spin thread by a well everyday. After the pretty one loses the spindle down the well, the mother yells and scolds her for doing such a stupid thing and tells her to get the spindle back. The pretty one is never given what she deserves, nor is she rewarded by doing anything she is supposed to do.

While the pretty girl is not rewarded at home, she is rewarded in the meadow for the things she does. She listens to Mother Holle when she is scared of her, shakes all the apples out of the tree, and pulls the bread out of the oven. When Mother Holle takes the pretty girl on to help her, she does a wonderful job. She is never lazy, unlike her step-sister, and shakes out Mother Holle's bed out very thoroughly, and does her house-work for her. She is rewarded by Mother Holle with good food, like roast and boiled meats every night. Also, when the pretty girl gets homesick, Mother Holle rewards her for missing the people that are cruel to her by showering her in gold and giving her the lost spindle back.

The ugly sister is very lazy and does none of the work that she is asked to. She jumps down the well out of greed to be covered in gold, but because of her poor work and laziness, she is covered in pitch and is all dirty. She does not help out the bread in the oven, or the apples in the tree.

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