7 ♦ Hansel and Gretel

I have memories of sitting in a computer science lecture and viewing a graph of what looked to be white noise.  "You may think it looks random, but a truly random pattern wouldn't look so evenly distributed."  This Deal Me In challenge is confirming it in every respect - my thorough shuffling may have been random, but that doesn't necessarily equal balanced!

I'll assume you know the story of "Hansel and Gretel"...there is really not a whole lot I can add to it.  It does bring me to the question - why are the antagonists in fairy tales so very often female?  And not just female, but in a twisted mother-figure role: the stepmother in "Hansel and Gretel," the stepmother in "Cinderella," the Snow Queen, all the witches, etc.  Now I'd be curious to know whether the original storytellers were male or female, and whether any of these stories were based on real life events.  After I finish this challenge, I think I'll be seeking out further reading about the Grimm brothers and their collection of stories.

What say you - any theories as to why it's always evil stepmothers and wicked witches?

Comments

cleopatra said…
I have a book about the Grimm's Tales and how they've been changed that I wanted to tell you about, but I had a quick look for it yesterday and couldn't find it. If I come across it, I'll let you know. I don't know if it will answer your questions about female antagonists but the book was recommended to me and looked very interesting.

Stay tuned ..... :-)
January 29, 2016 at 12:47 PM
MH said…
That sounds interesting! I usually end up preferring the modified versions, Victorian or Disney, over the originals, yet I feel (or hope?) there must have been a reason for some of these stories being as bizarre as they were.
January 31, 2016 at 10:15 PM
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