Set in Poland during the German occupation, “The True Story of Hansel and Gretel” is told as a fairy tale, utilizing many of the elements that are common to fairy tales.
This book reflects the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale, “Hansel and Gretel.” However, in Murphy’s parable, Hansel and Gretel are two Jewish children who are abandoned by their father and stepmother in order to save them from the Nazis.
Setting the tale in Nazi Germany creates an atmosphere of fear and anxiety, and establishes a set of circumstances in which it is possible for people to act in ways that would be unacceptable under other circumstances. The stepmother is a good example of this. She is the force in the family – it is she who decides that everyone in the family will have a better chance of survival, if they split up – the children going off alone together and the parents going in another direction. Unlike the portrayal of the stepmother in the Grimm fairy tale, this stepmother is not wicked. She is strong willed and determined, but not evil, although she is protecting herself and her husband by abandoning the children.
Using the stepmother as the villain is common in fairy tales, according to Stone in her article “Things Walt Disney Didn’t Tell Us.” She suggests that the woman of the family is nearly always chosen for the part of the villain. But in Murphy’s story, the stepmother’s actions, while they may appear villainous at the outset, may be construed as heroic in the end, because she only abandons the children in order to save them. She also cares deeply about the children’s welfare, enough that she loses her life as a result of attempting to find them. In this instance, Murphy is reminding us that the horrors of the time were so great th...
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...s not asked to use logic and hence the emotional impact of the story is more direct and perhaps more potent.
This book left me with a deeper sense of the horrors experienced by the Polish people, especially the Jews and the gypsies, at the hands of the Germans, while illustrating the combination of hope and incredible resilience that kept them going.
Works Cited
Murphy, Louise, (2013). The Real Story of Hansel and Gretel. Penguin Books.
Stone, Kay (1975). Things Walt Disney Never Told Us. The Journal of American
Folklore, Vol 88, No 347, Women and Folklore pp42-50, University of Illinois Press.
Hansjorg, Hohr, (2000). Dynamic Aspects of Fairy Tales: social and emotional competence through fairy tales. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, Vol 44, No 1, Department of Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
So in the end it is to be asked what is so important about trying to intertwine Germany Pale Mother with established fairy tales. I propose that it is part of the defensive mechanism Sanders-Brahms uses in dealing with the crime’s of her parents generation, and making sure that it is not forgotten. Fairy tales are timeless pieces of literature. As Anton Kaes wrote, “... fairy tales stand outside of history, they confront us directly with unconscious impulses and let us project into them our own wishes and fantasies. (Kaes, 149).
In The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, the father, Mechanik, and the Stepmother are forced to have their children change their names and survive in the forest by themselves. Hansel and Gretel find a village and a woman names Magda
They serve many purposes, as both demonstrated by Lurie’s article “What Fairy Tales Tell Us,” as well as what is investigated in this paper. Nevertheless, one must keep in mind how dated of many of these stories are; what some may view as having a deeper meaning, such as abuse, may also be reflecting the habits and occurrences of the time period, such as seen in “Hansel and Gretel.” That is not to say, however, that these stories are to be taken lightly. Ostensibly, romantic tales where true love is apparently the only motive may actually be harbouring important ethics and beliefs. This can be seen in the tale of Sleeping Beauty; criticized in modern times for being a feminist’s nightmare, the tale actually consists of genuine messages about the world. It takes insipid daily lessons and turns them into something magical, or, more eloquently, “the fairy tale survives because it presents experience in vivid symbolic form”
In life and in fairytales there are always those that try to harm others or put them down, and fairytales teach children that those who do that do not succeed in the long run. The story of the Pied Piper is a perfect example of this. The people in the city of Hamelin refused to pay the Pied Piper even though they had promised. Because of this the Pied Piper led the children of the village away with his magical music (Young). As one can see this story shows how those that do wrong will be punished for their wrong and cruel acti...
Fairytales, the short stories that most children heard as they went to bed, are actually folktales from previous decades. The fairytales today are primarily adaptations of older versions recreated by Disney— the pioneers of this generation. With that said, the modern versions consistently display good triumphing over evil, a prince charming that constantly came to the rescue, and a happily ever after ending. However, the original folktale version didn’t always come with fortunate events, but often were more violent and gruesome. With the fairytale Cinderella, Disney maintains a similar theme as its Grimm version; however, the conflicts, events, and characters that support this idea are rather different.
Hansel and Gretel face challenges which involve more than their personal problems. The whole world is now threatened by the witches. The wider setting is also reflected in an ever-widening quest. Along the way, while battling the witches, the protagonists find the truth about themselves. They encounter their past and discover their real identities. They also learn to choose according to their personal morality. In fact, this second romance narrative circle deals with the protagonist’s coming of age.
The Grimm’s stories have strict criteria for good and evil. Good women are not the hero, they do not plan, nor do they get themselves out of bad situations; they are obtuse and wait until a Prince saves them. These qualities doom the female protagonists (and readers) to pursue the only destiny women have, and that is to be a wife and mother (Rowe, 1978). Cinderella is the heroine and the ideal good girl. She is unambiguously beautiful, kind, and compassionate. She does not complain or get angry. This is foreseen early in the Grimm’s Cinderella story:
Jessica was suspicious of the queen, and rightfully so. When the queen entered the black room, the ghastly sight caused Jessica to faint in disgust. Suspicious, black, ghastly. These are just a few of the words an author can use to imply evil in a character. The connotation of dark as evil is prevalent in many stories throughout the history of western civilization. Fairy tales “emanate from specific struggles to humanize [forces initially perceived to be evil], which have terrorized our minds and communities in concrete ways” (Zipes), and their usually-heroic endings make us forget on a conscious level the lessons they’ve taught us. However, their impact remains on our subconscious views of the world. Because of this, fairly tales often address issues far more serious than one would think to teach to a young reader. The Brothers’ Grimm tale “Ashputtle”, the basis of our modern-day Cinderella archetype, takes advantage of this to address the issue of the continued oppression of women.
In the classic story of “Cinderella”, a beautiful young woman is treated badly but in the end lives happily ever after with a prince. The French version of “Cinderella” is romantic and happy, where the Cinderella character forgives her bad stepsisters by finding them husbands and allowing them to live in the palace with her and the prince. However, in the German version of “Cinderella” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the stepsisters are violently punished for mistreating Cinderella.
In “Cinderella” by the Grimm Brothers, the moral is that one should never lie or be wicked to others. In the story, Cinderella’s mother passed away and a year later her father gets remarried to an evil woman who has two daughters. The wife and daughters torment Cinderella, making her complete tedious chores. Eventually, Cinderella attends a ball for the Prince and they fall in love. However, she runs away every night and he cannot find her. The Prince finally takes one of her slippers and sets out to find the love of his life. He then goes to her household and asks all the sisters to try the slipper on. The stepsisters try to deceive the Prince but “the blood was streaming from” their feet and they are eventually caught. When Cinderella tries on the shoe it fits perfectly and the two get married. At the reception, two birds peck out the stepsisters’ eyes, punishing them “with blindness as long as they lived.” The archetypes in the story are Cinderella who is the damsel in distress, the Prince who saves her and the evil stepsisters and mother who are the villains. A convention is that true love always...
We all know the story of Hansel and Gretel. Two innocent little children who were walking in the woods and found a house made of candy. There was an ugly old witch inside who tried to bake them into a pie. Well that is only one side of the story. I am here to tell you what really happened.
Fairy tales have been a big part of learning and childhood for many of us. They may seem childish to us, but they are full of life lessons and intelligent turnings. Components of fairy tales may even include violence, but always with the aim to provide a moral to the story. Hansel and Gretel is in itself a very interesting story to analyze. It demonstrates the way that children should not stray too far from their benchmarks and rely on appearances. In 2013, a film adaptation was produced. This film is produced for an older public and has picked up the story to turn it into a more mature and violent version. Hansel and Gretel is a German fairy tale written by the Grimm Brothers which has undergone several changes over the years and across the cultures which it touched, but for the purposes of this essay, I will stick to the original story. In the development of this essay, I will analyze the components of this tale by the Brothers Grimm based on the factors listed in the course syllabus (violence, interpersonal relationships, the function of magic and the ending), and I will then do a summary and comparison between the story and the film which was released in theaters recently.
The next morning when they awoke they found that their father and stepmother had abandoned them. Gretel immediately began to cry and was extremely scared. What will we do now Hansel, said Gretel?
Zipes, Jack. Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.
The story teaches us that society expects women to be passive. Cinderella’s abuse by her stepsisters and stepmother cause her to live in grief silently without expressing her emotions. She does nothing to fight for her freedom except sing about all the dreams of happiness that she hopes will come true someday. She only wishes for things to change rather than attempt to do anything to change it for herself. Cinderella waits to be rescued by Prince Charming instead of fighting for her own freedom. This teaches women that they should suffer in silence without doing anything for themselves.