Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel
1. Discuss
Garrison Keillor’s Gretel an interpretation and criticism of Hansel and Gretel.
The story, Gretel by Garrison
Keillor is both an interpretation and criticism of Hansel and Gretel. It is written
in the form of arguments made by Gretel herself, who appears to be bold,
argumentative and assertive. She claims that Hansel and Gretel is one sided and
biased because it is written from the perspective of a male.
Gretel claims
that her brother was not as courageous as he has been portrayed in the story
and she was not as weak as she has been projected there. Her father has been
presented as a kind and responsible person but infact he was a drunkard and
wasted his time watching cock fighting, bull bating and garroting. Sympathizing
with her mother, she claims that her mother alone couldn’t have abandoned them
in the forest without the permission of her father.
At
that time, leaving the children in the forest was an act of faith. The parents
would do so with the faith that their children would not starve to death and
that they would come home completely changed.
Gretel also
speaks of economic inequality between male and female. She claims that her
father and brother enjoy their life in a man or, whereas she herself and her
mother rare compelled to live in a condo. She also regrets for killing the
witch.
In this
story, Gretel appears to be a militant feminist. She is bold, argumentative and
assertive. She holds that there should be equality between male and female in
term of social affairs, economic distribution and participation in politics.
She also claims that the females are miss represented in the workshop of
literature written but male. So, she wants all works of literature to be
rewritten from the prospective of female.
2. Offer
Marxist interpretation to the story, Hansel and Gretel.
Hansel and Gretel by Jacks Zipes is a Marxist
interpretation of story, Hansel and Gretel. The writer, Jacks Zipes has tried
to interpret the story using Marxist theory of literature.
Karl Marx, a
socialist theorist views that the history of every society is the history of
class conflict. He also views that every work of literature has to reflect the
class conflict of society in which it is produced. Viewed from this
perspective, Hansel and Gretel reflects the social reality of Germany. During
late 18th and early 19th century when there was
transition from Feudalism to early capitalism. The transition in the system of
government was possible due to the conflict between feudal lords and poor
peasant. The witch in the story stands for the entire feudal system whereas the
children stand for poor peasants. The conflict between the witch and the
children reflect the conflict between ‘haves’ and ‘Haves not’. Killing of the
witch symbolizes the hatred of the peasants for aristocrats and the victory of
the children over the witch represents the victory of poor peasants over the
Feudal lords that made the transition in the system of government possible. Besides
the class conflict, the story reflects other social realities of Germany. There
was wide spread famine due to frequent wars that forced people to commit crimes
like robbery and abandonment of children in forest. Moreover, the women at that
time used to die during child bearing due to poor nutrition and in sanitary
condition. Then the husband of these women used to remarry in order to raise
the children of their first wives. Subsequently, the children would be
victimized by their step mother.
As a whole
the story suggest how we should keep on struggling against soil forces and live
with hope in adverse social conditions.
3. Offer a
psychological interpretation to the story, Hansel and Gretel.
A story Hansel and Gretel by Bruno Bettelheim is a psychoanalytical
interpretation of the story, Hansel and Gretel. The writer has interpreted the
evens and circumstances of the original story with a focus on the psychological
workings of its characters.
After going
through terrible experience of Famine, the parents of Hansel and Gretel decide
to abandon their children in the forest. It suggest that poverty and
deprivation do not improve people’s character. Instead, they force people to
commit crimes like robbery and abandonment of children. When the children
listen to their parents, planning to desert them in the forest, they far that
they would starve to death as their parents have become unkind and unloving to
them.
Hansel
and Gretel return home for the first time following the pebbles Hansel had
dropped on the way. They hope to do the same the second time too following the
bread crumbs he had dropped on the way. The act of the children returning home
instead of facing the challenge at their front is an act of denial and
regression. It does not solve their problems instead it damages their ability
to think rationally.
Reaching
upon the house of the witch, the children start gobbling it. Doing so, they
were guided by Id pleasure principle. It forces them to fall prey to the witch.
If The house of the witch stands for mother’s body the witch herself stands for
destructive aspect of orality. The witch symbolizes that destructive
consequence of not controlling our oral desires.
Towards the end of the story Gretel is able to kill the witch using her
intelligence. It means that we have to use our conscious mind to get through
the obstacles on our way. On the way back home, the children have to get across
a body of water. They get across it sitting on a duckling one at a time. The
duckling stands for a benevolent force send to the children by God. The body of
water on the other hand, stands for a transition between two stages in the life
of the children. By crossing the pond the children are getting more experienced.
It also means that the children have to leave their home in order to gain new
experience in their life.
When the
father of Hansel and Gretel finds his children back with valuable jewelleries,
he is happier than ever before. It depicts the psychology of the parents too.
The parents want their children to become independent when they grow mature.
They also want something in return from their children. If the children do not
pay their parents back they become ready to forsake their children.
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