Grimm's Fairy Tales (Selected) | Hansel and Gretel | Summary

Summary

At the edge of a great forest live a poor woodcutter, his two children, Hansel and Gretel, and his second wife, the children's stepmother. Famine is spreading through the country, and the woodcutter realizes he can't feed the children. His wife suggests that at sunrise the two of them should lead Hansel and Gretel deep into the woods and leave them there. Horrified, the husband refuses, but his wife finally wears him down.

Hansel and Gretel overhear this conversation. Gretel is horrified, but Hansel quickly comes up with a plan. He steals outside and collects a little hoard of white pebbles, which he then hides in his pocket.

At dawn, the woodcutter and his wife follow through on their plan to lure Hansel and Gretel into the woods. Neither parent realizes that Hansel is strewing their path with pebbles as they walk.

The woodcutter and his wife sneak away, leaving the two children to perish—or so they think. As soon as it gets dark, the moon lights up the white pebbles that the children easily follow to their home.

The famine worsens, and the parents decide they must again "lose" the children into the woods. Overhearing this conversation, Hansel tries to sneak out for more white pebbles but finds that his stepmother has locked the door. The next morning, his parents again lure the children deep into the woods, but this time, Hansel can only use bread crumbs to mark the path. Unfortunately, birds eat all the crumbs. The children have no idea where to go.

With nothing to eat but a few berries, Hansel and Gretel wander the forest for three days. Then a white bird flutters to a nearby branch and sings so sweetly that the children follow it when it flies off. The bird leads them to a little house made of bread, with a cake roof and sugar windows.

The ravenous children are breaking off pieces of the house to eat when an old woman opens the front door and kindly invites them in. She feeds them well and tucks them into cozy little beds. Hansel and Gretel don't know she's an evil witch who built the edible house to lure children into her hands. Early the next morning, the witch closes Hansel into a little shed and forces Gretel to become her servant.

Each morning the witch asks Hansel to stick a finger through the bars of the shed, so she can see how he's fattening up. Instead Hansel always pokes a small bone through the bars to make the witch think he's as skinny as ever. After a month of this, the witch's patience runs out. She has Gretel light the brick oven. Then she tries to trick the girl into crawling inside, planning to slam the oven door on her.

But Gretel claims she doesn't know how to climb into the oven. Irritated, the witch sticks her own head into the oven to demonstrate. Gretel shoves the witch into the oven, slams the iron door, and locks it. That's the end of the witch.

A joyful Gretel frees her brother. They stock their pockets with jewels from the witch's house and make their way home to their joyful father, who tells them that their stepmother has died. With the treasure the children have brought home, the little family's worries are over.

Analysis

The best-known Grimm tales are famous for good reason. They speak to universal traits in human nature. They're soundly constructed and don't wander off into subplot byways. Though the Grimm stories aren't known for vivid characterization, the memorable ones have characters with at least some personality. Even better, these protagonists usually have names, and those names are generally used as the story titles. ("Cinderella" is not called "The Girl Who Lived in the Ashes.") They're filled with little details that help fix the story in the reader's mind.

"Hansel and Gretel" meets these requirements. In addition, its plot centers on two themes that speak especially strongly to children: starvation and abandonment. These themes, which are introduced without buildup, are entwined. If Hansel's and Gretel's parents hadn't been starving, they wouldn't have had to abandon the children in the woods.

The children's father and stepmother are given character-revealing dialogue at the very beginning of the tale. Their father is worried enough to lie awake all night, "tossing and turning in despair." He put his children's needs before his own. "How can we possibly take care of our children when the two of us don't have enough to eat?"

His wife doesn't care what the children need. To her, they're an inconvenience. Calmly she suggests leaving Hansel and Gretel deep in the woods. "They'll never find their way back home, and we'll be rid of them." When the woodcutter protests, his wife thinks of a new argument. "Then all four of us can starve to death," she snaps. This is another way of saying, "We can't help the children until we help ourselves," and the woodcutter falls for it. He may love his children, but he has a weak character and doesn't want to make his wife angry.

The children's personalities are made clear by their first words. Gretel sinks into despair, but Hansel is confident he can come up with a plan to foil the adults. The white pebbles he gathers are one of the story's most satisfying details. They're not just white pebbles; they glitter "like silver coins." In the middle of all the tension, the writer takes the time to put in a charming description! It makes the children's plight seem like an adventure. It's not surprising that strewing breadcrumbs along the path doesn't work, but the fact that Hansel thought of them gives the reader further insight into his character.

The next three days are condensed into a couple of paragraphs, but they're enough to convey a sharp image of the children's distress. It's not surprising that they follow the white dove to the witch's house; what's surprising is that the three nice animals mentioned in the story—Hansel's kitten, his dove, and the duck—are also white. This sweet-seeming bird is as treacherous as the old woman inside the house made of bread.

Many later versions of "Hansel and Gretel" depict the witch's house as made of decorated gingerbread, which certainly makes for a more interesting illustration. But the idea of a bread house with a cake roof must have seemed fantastic enough to early hearers of this story. Fairy tales were born in an era when most people were malnourished. The standard diet for many was, literally, bread and water with perhaps a vegetable or two. Unlimited quantities of bread, cake, and sugar would have seemed like a dream.

The witch, too, seems to live out a food fantasy. What a vision of domestic happiness she seems to present! Her larder is well stocked, and she has plenty of clean sheets. It comes as a shock that the house and larder are both meant to trap children, her favorite food. She continues to feed Hansel well, but only to fatten him up. If Gretel despaired earlier, she has far more reason to do so once the witch has locked Hansel in her shed. But once again Hansel is using his brain, this time to trick the witch. Gretel seems more passive under the witch's control, but she rises splendidly to the occasion when her life and Hansel's are threatened.

The children are overjoyed to be safe, but it's important to the story that they collect as much treasure as possible before heading home. Their father proved unable to care for them. Their adventure ends with their being able to care for him. Of course treasure wouldn't be much use if there were another famine, but the narrator assures us that the children's worries are over. This story's extra-happy ending is one more reason it has remained so popular.