Hansel and Gretel

-          Jack Zipes

           

This story should be read in the historical context of the transition from feudalism to early capitalism. So, this is a political story.

            Zipes presents this story with the perspective of the poor. So, it presents the class conflict in the light of the social condition of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Germany.

            The parents of this story are poor. Their poverty forces them to do bad things. So, they leave the children in the jungle. The peasants of that time were forced to go to extremes to survive. The children have understood their parents’ compulsion, so they are not angry with them. They return home with jewels after killing the witch who tries to eat them. Here, the witch represents the entire feudal system or the greed and brutality of the aristocracy. Therefore, the killing of the witch is the symbol of the hatred of the peasantry for the aristocracy as hoarders and oppressors.

            Women of that time died young due to frequent child-bearing and lack of sanitation. So, step mothers were common in households.  Even though the step mother in the story is cruel, the children do not want to harm her. It is because they have understood her cruelty as a result of social forces.

            The story gives the poor the hope that change is possible if they act for it. Hansel and Gretel act and kill the witch.