Alec Johnson
Erin Trapp
Essay One
2 October 2014
Adapting Mechanisms in “Hansel and Gretel” Jacob and Wilhelm’s “Hansel and Gretel” is a fantasy about two children, Hansel and Gretel, which are left in the woods to die after their parents leave them. Hansel and Gretel are wandering throughout the woods to find their way back, until they come upon an old little house. This is not an ordinary house, but a house made of bread, a roof made of cake and windows made of sugar. Inside lived an old woman, whom of which pretended to be nice, but little did Hansel and Gretel know she is a wicked witch. This fantasy shows the argument from which Hansel and Gretel are left to die in the woods as a coping strategy. Hansel and Gretel’s parents are very poor. Their father is a woodcutter, and rarely can find food to support his family as this great famine has come to the land. He and his wife lay in bed and his wife says to him, “Early tomorrow morning we will take the two children out into the thickest part of the woods…then leave them by themselves and go off to our work…and we will be rid of them” (53). The stepmother gives the father no peace until he accepts this offer, about to let their children perish in the woods. Hansel, who overhears the conversation between his stepmother and father, goes outside to collect as many pebbles that he could fit in his jacket. When morning comes, the stepmother wakes the children and tells them to get ready to go into the woods to collect wood. Hansel and Gretel know what is bound to happen. The stepmother gives them bread; “Here is something for midday. Don’t eat it any sooner, for you’ll not get anymore” (53). Hansel is placing pebbles on the ground as they walk to the middle of the woods, to succumb to the cold and scary woods. Hansel and Gretel fall asleep and when the dark night approaches, they awake. Being scared and not knowing where they are, Hansel suggests waiting until the moon comes up to find the way back home. Hansel and Gretel begin to walk home, and when they approach their home, the stepmother opens the door “You wicked children, why did you sleep so long in the woods?” as if she is concerned they did not want to come back. On this same day, Hansel overhear another conversation between his stepmother and father, “We must get rid of the children…we must take them deeper into the woods…otherwise there will be no help for us” (54). The stepmother wants the children to perish in the woods desperately so there will be more bread for her and her husband. The next morning the children awake, they begin their journey into the woods, as Hansel leaves small pieces of bread as a trail to again attempt to find the way back home. They are being brought deeper into the woods. As the parents leave them again, Hansel and Gretel begin to try to find their way home and come across an old house. This is not an ordinary house. This one is made of bread, cake and sugar. They help themselves and begin eating the house. “Nibble, nibble, little mouse / Who is nibbling as my house?” (55) “The wind, the wind / The heavenly child.” (55). The gentle voice from inside proves to be an innocent old lady who lives in the house. “Just come in and stay with me. No harm will come to you” (55). The children go inside the old lady’s house, eat a good meal, have their own beds with bright white sheets, and the children begin to think they are in heaven. As the children are left to perish outside, the author uses the comparison of their new bedrooms as to heaven. The old woman only pretends to be friendly to the children. She has built her house with intentions of children coming across it, only to capture them, kill them, cook them and eat them. The day of the children’s death is the day she would celebrate. The wicked witch grabs Hansel and locks him behind a cage door; she shakes Gretel and demands she make something for Hansel because he is locked outside. As the witch wants Hansel to be fattened up prior to her eating him, she does not give Gretel any food except for crayfish shells. The author of the fantasy is showing to us that the children are still going to agonize and die, whether in the woods, the house, or in a cage being malnourished. The wicked witch makes Gretel fetch water and get the oven hot so she can boil Hansel and eat him. She then wanted Gretel to stick her head into the oven so she could see if it were hot enough to boil a ‘human’. “Climb in…and see if it is hot enough to put the bread in yet” (56). The author also wants us to think outside the box at this point, where the witch secretly wants to shove Gretel into the oven and boil her while she has her. Yes, Gretel is a child, but a wise child. She knows what the wicked witch has in mind. Gretel, pretending to not understand what the witch wanted from her, “I don’t know how to do that. How can I get inside?” (56). Next, Gretel has shoved the witch into the kettle and closed the iron door. The woman begins to howl with fright and scream. While the witch is burning miserably, Gretel runs to get Hansel and unlocks the cage in which he is imprisoned. The story is showing us a twist, that the witch is now the one who will die and not the children. They go into the wicked witches home, fill their pockets with pearls and precious stones to bring home. As they are walking home, they come across a large body of water with no way to get across. While observing a white duck swimming in the water, Gretel is to believe she can ask the duck for assistance. “Duckling, duckling / Here stand Hansel and Gretel / Neither a walkway nor a bridge / Take us onto your white back” (57). After crossing the body of water, and trying to find their way back through the woods, they come across their fathers’ home in the distance. They run, and rushed inside and throw their arms around their father. So happy to see each other, and finding out their stepmother has died, they realize all of their cares are at an end and they live will happily ever after. “My tale is done / A mouse has run” (57). The author is recalling of when the witch compares the children to a mouse nibbling on her house, and now the mice were saved from succumbing to the witch and the woods. By the end of this fantasy, we understand the interpretation of this mechanism of coping. The children are constantly given certain situations where they need to find a way to be free and cope with their life or death situations. First, the children were left to perish in the woods, coping by having fire and utilizing their resources to find their way back home. Secondly, they were brought deeper into the woods, with the intention they were to not come home. As they came across the wicked witch’s home, they swindled around what they were to believe was the day of their deaths. After three instances where they were suppose to be left to perish, they overcame these obstacles and ended up living happily ever after. The last line of the story says “And whoever catches it can make for himself from it a large, large fur cap” (57). This is stating that the mice, being Hansel and Gretel, have overcome their obstacles and they are moving onto the next journey. There is a powerful reflection on the style of this work with reality. The contextual framework of this non-fictional story attracts audiences in reality with its style and values.