Alone in the Forest

Abandonment is a common theme in the Grimms' tales. Parents abandon their children in the forest, and children abandon their families for their forest despite their fears of starvation, wild animals, and the unknown evils lurking within, rather than live with a cruel and wicked stepmother.

In the early editions of the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales, biological mothers set the standards for the wicked stepmother. The wicked stepmothers in tales such as Hansel and Gretel and Mother Holle were originally told with the children’s heartless, biological mothers as wicked and selfish.

The Grimm brothers recognized that, "What might have been perfectly acceptable as adult entertainment required considerable modification for children." The mother who abandons her children in the forest to starve, in order for her and her husband to survive, becomes the wicked stepmother.

Although the Grimm brothers censored themes of pre-marital sex, pregnancy, and heartless biological mothers, they continued with fury to portray in graphic detail the miseries of children abused at the hand of a wicked stepmother, and their biological fathers, who used them as bargaining tools for self preservation, wealth, and riches.

In keeping with my Alone in the Forest theme of this blog post, the stories of Hansel and Gretel and Brother and Sister come to mind. Both tales share an abandonment theme; however, the difference is in Hansel and Gretel they are abandoned by their parents, while in the tale of Brother and Sister, they choose to abandon their family. Although two different tales, Brother and Sister also known as Little Brother and Little Sister, often caused reader confusion with the tale of Hansel and Gretel. The tales share certain similarities; most notably, the sisters in the beginning of the tales rely on their brothers to console and protect them from the dangers in the dark forest, but by the end of both tales, it is the sisters who ultimately save and rescue their brothers.

What I find especially interesting in both these tales are that both villains, in different ways, one by oven, and one at the stake, are burned to death in the end. As Maria Tatar points out in her book The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, the stepmother in Hansel and Gretel is identified with the witch in the forest, because she feeds the children with the specific goal of eating them herself. In Brother and Sister the wicked stepmother is identified as the witch in the story and she too is burned to death.

Starvation, abandonment, cruelty, and cannibalism especially involving children are certainly themes that as readers make us uncomfortable and shudder with disgust until the forest path takes us safely back home.

Sources:
Tatar, M. M. (1987). The Hard facts of the grimms' fairy tales.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Tatar, M. M. (2002). The Annotated classic fairy tales.
NY, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Heiner, H.A. (2010, March 1). Surlalune fairy tales.
Retrieved from http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/index.html

Brother and sister. (2010, February 10). Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_and_Sister