Hansel and Gretel  

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Summary of the Story:

              Hansel and Gretel lived with their stepmother and their father. Hansel was a boy and Gretel was a girl. Their father was a woodcutter and they lived near a forest. The family was very poor and didn't have enough food to eat. One night Hansel and Gretel heard their parents making a plan to leave them in the forest to save food. The woodcutter did not want to leave his children in the forest, but his wife persuaded him. Then they fell asleep. Gretel wept bitterly. Hansel gave some consolation to her and went out quietly in the moonlit night. He collected some shiny pebbles, filled his pockets with them and came to his houseroom for sleep. 

When they went into the forest early in the morning the next day, Hansel dropped shiny pebbles along the path. The children were left in the middle of the jungle. After lighting fire, the mother asked them to lie by the side of the fire and take rest until their parents came back. However, when it was night and their parents didn't return, Hansel took his sister by the hand and followed by the way shown by the shiny pebbles and reached their house by the morning.

sometime later the whole country again suffered from famine. The woodcutter and his wife took Hansel and Gretel into the forest. This time Hansel didn't have any shiny pebbles, so he dropped small pieces of bread that were given to him for eating at noon.. However, the birds ate the pieces of bread. So Hansel and Gretel could not find their way home.

They were lost in the forest for three days. They became very hungry. Suddenly they saw a snow-white bird flying from one branch of tree to another. They followed the bird. It led them to a beautiful house which was made of bread, cake and sugar. As they were very hungry, they began to eat that house. An old witch lived in the house. She asked who there was to bite her house like a mouse. She saw the children and welcomed them to her house. She pretended herself to be very kind lady and provided them two comfortable beds for taking rest. She gave Hansel and Gretel lots of food, but then she locked Hansel in a small shed and made Gretel do lots of chores. The witch wanted to eat Hansel and she was waiting until he got fat. One they the witch thought not to wait any more. The oven was ready with the spitting flames. The witch asked the little girl to enter the oven-room to see if it was hot enough for bread. Her intention was to bake and roast Gretel and eat. She replied that she didn't know how to get in and instead asked the witch to show her. As the witch put her head in, Gretel gave a push and quickly closed the iron door and fastened the bolt. The witch died miserably. The girl went to the shed and freed her brother. Then they both went to the witch's house and saw in every corner the boxes of pearls and precious jewels. They filled their pockets and apron with them and started for home. They came to a water body but there was no boat to take them across it. Fortunately, they were carried across the river by a large white duck.

When they got home, the discovered that their stepmother had died. They gave their father lots of jewels and after that they were all very happy.

Gretel

                                                                                                                                     Garrison Keillor 

The summary of the critical essay:

The story 'Hansel and Gretel' is criticized in this essay from the Gretel's point of view. As we know Gretel is a sister who suffers along with her brother when their parents leave them in the forest deep. Here Gretel criticizes the type of story that has come to the public and says that the story has no basis on reality. 

Both brother and sister talked for the sale of the book rights about their story. They agreed to divide the profit into two equal halves after selling it. But her brother's lawyers put aside the contract and it had been rewritten. The story was also rewritten. They had twisted all the events and projected quite differently and unrealistically.

Her brother was pictured as a strong and resourceful like a hero and she was shown as a weak sister. Similarly her father was described as a loving father and the stepmother as a wicked one. But the reality was that her brother was fearful from the beginning. He used to cry and had to be slapped by his sister to walk ahead. Her father was an adventurer and drunk. The stepmother had no right to do anything without his permission.

Famine was at its peak and the parents used to leave their children in the forest believing that the animals, fairies or people who lived in the forest would save them. The children too didn't have any problem to go there. The parents thought that their children would become better experienced when they would return.

The reality of their livelihood was not same as described in the story. Gretel says that Hansel and his father lived in a grand building whereas her mother lived in a small room just below the roof. Her stepmother was thrown out. She didn't get even the half of the hut. The stepmother and the witch suffered a lot. She says she does not know why she killed the witch. From the witch's point of view it was justifiable.

Hansel and Gretel

 Jack Zipes 

The summary of the critical essay:

This text claims that 'Hansel and Gretel' is a political story. This is written from a poor person's point of view. It is about hope and victory. The woodcutter doesn't have enough food for the family. His wife suggests that their children must be left somewhere in the forest. They wish to survive themselves. As planned, they take the children to the forest. The children have hard time saving themselves. The witch has almost eaten them up. For the second time when the children successfully defeat the aim of the witch, they return home. 

In the story the struggle is between the poor and the rich. There were wars fought. Because of the wars, people suffered from famine and poverty. This led to the downfall of the feudal system and as a result poor people were compelled to adopt the hardest of the means to survive. The witch is the parasite. She stands for the feudal aristocracy. The killing of the witch is the realization of the hatred of the farmers towards aristocracy. The children understand the situation. They think the fault is not of their parents but of the then social conditions in which they were brought up. According to Jack Zipes the message behind the story is that it allows the common people to learn how they might survive in an unjust society and struggle for hope. 

Hansel and Gretel

Bruno Bettelheim

The summary of the critical essay:

This essay is written from the psychoanalytic point of view. It is about the hidden meaning of the story 'Hansel and Gretel'. One message of the story is that the poverty, scarcity and hardships lead people towards selfishness, cruelty and bad deeds. They become less sensitive to the sufferings of others and lead them to commit evil things.           

The children in the tale are anxious. They feel that their parents have planned them to death. The mother is the source of all food to the children. When they grow up, children must learn to live separately from their mother. This is why there're left in the forest. But they return home because they are not yet old enough to live apart from their mother.           

The children are left in the forest for the second time. They try to solve their problems by concentrating only on food. They don't act like human beings but like hungry animals. This is why they eat the house of the witch instead of using it for shelter.         

Another message of the story is that greed leads to destruction. The witch wants to eat the children. It is only when they think and act like human beings. Then they manage to escape from the witch. The witch symbolizes a mother who provides food to Hansel and Gretel. At the beginning of the life, children get food from their mother. Then the witch's behavior forces the children to start growing up and acting like adults.          

The white duck that helps Hansel and Gretel get home is a symbol of a new beginning. The duck can only carry one child at a time is the indication that children must learn to live without support.           

Birds play an important role in the story. The bird is the guide in each case: to lead the children through destructive impulses to a secure world of ego.           

Hansel and Gretel return home and by the time they are grown up. They can now help their father. The treasures of the children are their newly won independence.

Hansel and Gretel from Marxist point of view: 

A Marxist critic typically undertakes to explain the literature in any era by revealing the economic, class and ideological determinants of the way an author writes and to examine the relation of the resulting literary product to the social reality of that time and place.           

According to Marxist point of view, there is a class conflict between the aristocratic people and the working class. The witch in the story represents the entire feudal system and the children and their parents represent the poor working class. In the feudal system, the rich landlords exploit the poor peasants. They capture the whole production system and the working class people always have scarcity of food. In the story, the witch has collected a lot of treasures and food. Though the woodcutter and his children are suffering from famine, the witch has a house made of bread, cake and sugar. In Marxist point of view, the working class people always fight to fulfil their hunger and other basic needs. Similarly, in the story, the two children Hansel and Gretel fight with the witch and finally they kill her. The murder of the witch stands for the hatred and anger of the working class towards the aristocracy of feudal lords. 

Hansel and Gretel from psychoanalytic point of view:

Psychoanalytic criticism deals with a work of literature primarily as an expression in fictional form of the personality, state of mind, feelings and desires of its author.

When we read the story Hansel and Gretel from Psychoanalytic point of view, we find that the house of the witch, which is made of bread, cake and sugar, is nothing, but a mother. In other words, the house represents a mother. As the children suck the breasts of their mother, the children in this story feed on the house. On the other hand, the children eat the house which gives shelter to them. Because of their greed, they have to face a great danger. When the children murder the witch, we understand that we can overcome a dangerous situation, if we act very carefully and wisely. When they reach the river, they have to face another danger. The white duck comes for their help. They again use their reason (mind) by crossing the river one by one. When they cross the wide expanse of water, they become more mature. They feel free and happy. They become wise, bold, independent and rich. This shows that sufferings, hardships, dangers, experiences etc. make man bold experienced, mature and independent.

Hansel and Gretel from feminist point of view:      

Feminism deals with the contemporary movements for women's social, economic, and cultural freedom and equality. The basic view of this criticism is that our civilization is pervasively male-centered and controlled. It is organized and conducted in such a way as to subordinate women to men, in all cultural domains: religious, political, familial, economic, social, legal and artistic. It claims that the patriarchal ideology has pervaded all the great literatures, which have been written almost entirely by men for men. Such literatures embody masculine traits and ways of feeling and pursue masculine interests in especially masculine fields of actions.           

The story can be interpreted from the feminist point of view. There are more female characters than the males. The roles played by female characters are highly dominant. The stepmother plays main role to lead the children to the dense forest. However, they are in the lap of nature. The forest or the nature itself is the female character. When the children reach the house of the witch, they get sufficient food to eat. So the house itself is a mother who provides food for the children. The witch is also a female character who wants to kill and eat the children. When the boy is imprisoned, the female character Gretel saves him by killing the witch. Thus the female roles are dominant and significant in the story 'Hansel and Gretel'.

The End