Showing posts with label Loathly Ladies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Loathly Ladies. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Reading Hänsel and Gretel: Stepmother and witch, the ladies we love to loathe.



The fairy tale Hänsel and Gretel features two female characters that audiences love to abhor: the stepmother and wicked witch. It is the behavior of the stepmother that frequently launches the action of a fairy tale. The scheming machinations of this female, who we know from the beginning is not really the true mother, catapults the objects of her villainy into life-defining moments of distress and terror. Her evil actions speak for themselves and in this fairy tale, nothing is said (or needs to be said) about how the children feel toward the woman. She is fully human yet fully horrid and concerned only with her own welfare. We understand this type of person and perhaps even recognize elements of her character in our own acquaintances and family. Though thoroughly bad, there is nothing preternatural in her ability to make bad things happen. She does real harm to the other characters, but in the end she is usually dead or receives her just reward. In hindsight we can usually say that the evil stepmother is crucial as catalyst for transformation in the narrative.

The witch is another story. She is aligned with the forces of evil and thus her powers are stronger than the stepmother’s. Her supernatural qualities make humans appear even more frail and defenseless. In Hänsel and Gretel her unique attributes are animal-like and include recognizing creatures by their scent. Other characteristics include red eyes and indeterminable advanced age. She usually has something that people absolutely need or even worse, absolutely desire. That is the source of her power and why she can always lure the protagonists into her lair. But her powers are not without limit. Like the stepmother, she can do real harm. But fairy tale characters who look deep inside themselves can often find the resources they need to overcome the witch. The hero or heroine can always choose to take action or not. When put up against a supernatural being, he or she must develop resourcefulness and ingenuity, those qualities that have hitherto lain dormant. When these untapped qualities are finally unleashed, the witch has no power over the individual.

In fairy tales witches or sorceresses frequently have the power to reveal the future and thus they influence human destiny. They can shape-shift, disappear, do real harm to cattle and crops and also exercise control over the weather. But they usually cannot take a person’s life and thus it is up to the individual to develop strategies to overcome their evil.* This has caused some commentators to believe that witches are merely personifications or symbols of our inner struggle to become more fully human. Other writers have lamented the fact that the loathsome characters in fairy tales are mostly female. I would argue that the crucial characters in fairy tales are almost exclusively female. The male characters, such as the father in Hänsel and Gretel, are frequently weak and indecisive. Even Hänsel is not the true hero of the story for it is Gretel’s swift thinking that saves the day.

* The fairy tale Frau Trude is one exception. The witch ends up killing the girl because she is not up to the challenges of transforming her character.


To read the fairy tale Hänsel and Gretel click on the link:

 http://www.fairytalechannel.com/2009/09/fairy-tale-about-food-or-lack-of-it.html

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Sunday, January 11, 2009

Bogey Women and Maintaining the Proper Social Order


In the morality tale Frau Trude (full text below), a bumptious maid suffers from an excess of self-assertiveness. This is the type of child parents find so irritating but children readily relate to. In a social order that calls for conformity to maintain the proper balance of things, something is fundamentally wrong when a child is allowed to freely pursue all the threads of her curiosity. The flummoxed parents command, threaten and finally disown the child. But in the end parental authority and wisdom are vindicated when the willful child meets a tragic end. Frau Trude is a bogey woman of a most sinister sort. Her allure might be illusive to the reader, yet the child is inexplicably attracted to the woman. Like a moth to the flame, the girl cannot resist her own self-destruction. The hobgoblin Frau Trude is very useful to parents, who can frighten their children into obedience with the words “Silence! Or Frau Trude will get you!” But what exactly does she represent to the child? Beside the fact that the child is curious and attracted to strange things, there are no clues to Frau Trude’s appeal. If we take a careful look at the three frightening apparitions the girl describes, we might come a step closer to deciphering another layer of meaning.

In the fairy tale, the child admits to being frightened by her visit to Frau Trude. The scales fall from her eyes so-to-speak and she might also have said “I finally understand what I've gotten myself into and I’m terrified.” The three men she describes might really personify three aspects of the girl's encounter with Frau Trude. The black man could represent evil, one's worst nightmare. The huntsman, a popular figure in German folk and fairy tales, often represented the god Woton and by extension old pagan beliefs and practices that are forbidden in a Christian world. The bloody-red butcher might suggest violence and sexual transgression. A possible interpretation of Frau Trude's speech is that her intense yearning for the child has ignited like fire, a metaphor perhaps for an illicit passion. “Ich habe schon lange auf dich gewartet und nach dir verlangt, du sollst mir leuchten“.
Another more literal translation is “you shall light the way for me.” However you read it, the end is the same. The girl burns like a hot, glowing ember and is thus consumed.

There is a lot to like about this tale. For one thing, justice comes swiftly to the sinner and a sort of balance has been restored to the social order. We are left with the image of a glowing fire that will soon turn to ash: proof of the importance of knowing the proper way to behave. In the end a certain amount of boring wholesomeness will win the day.

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Friday, January 9, 2009

Grimm's Fairy Tale No. 43 Frau Trude




Translation Copyright FairyTaleChannel.com
(Please read, enjoy, link to or pass this story on to friends. Please do not plagiarize, copy or pilfer. Thanks!)

Here follows the firey tale of a bumptious maid and Mistress Trude
There once lived a young maid who was so bumptious and stubborn that when her parents told her to do something, she didn’t mind them. How could anything good happen to a child like that?

One day the girl said to her parents “I have heard so much about Mistress Trude that I have decided to visit her. People say there are strange goings-on in her house and the oddest things are always happening there. I have become quite curious.”

Her parents forbade it and said “Mistress Trude is an evil woman, who pursues godless endeavors. If you visit her, you shall no longer be our child.”

But the maid did not change her mind just because her parents had forbidden it and did indeed go to visit Mistress Trude. When she arrived Mistress Trude asked “Why are you so pale?”

“Oh,” the girl recoiled, her entire body shaking in fear, “I am so terrified by what I have just seen!”

“What have you seen?”

“I saw a black man standing on your steps.”

“That was a charcoal burner.”

“Then I saw a green man.”

“That was a huntsman.”

“Then I saw a blood-red man.”

“That was a butcher.”

“Oh Mistress Trude, I was filled with dread when I looked through the window and did not see you, but instead the devil with a firey head peering back at me.”

“Aha!,” she replied. “You have seen the witch in her rightful finery. I have waited a long time for you, pining for your presence. You shall now become a light for me.”

She turned the child into a block of wood and threw it onto the fire. And when the wood was blazing hot and the embers glowed, she sat down and warmed herself. “Now things are clear and bright,” she said.