The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel. He had little to bite and to break, and once, when great dearth fell on the land, he could no longer procure even daily bread. Now when he thought over this by night in his bed, and tossed about in his anxiety. He groaned and said to his wife, "What is to become of us? How are we to feed our poor children, when we no longer have anything even for ourselves? There we will light a fire for them, and give each of them one more piece of bread, and then we will go to our work and leave them alone.
They will not find the way home again, and we shall be rid of them. How can I bear to leave my children alone in the forest? The wild animals would soon come and tear them to pieces. The two children had also not been able to sleep for hunger, and had heard what their step-mother had said to their father. Gretel wept bitter tears, and said to Hansel, "Now all is over with us.
The moon shone brightly, and the white pebbles which lay in front of the house glittered like real silver pennies. Hansel stooped and stuffed the little pocket of his coat with as many as he could get in. Then he went back and said to Gretel, "Be comforted, dear little sister, and sleep in peace, God will not forsake us," and he lay down again in his bed. When day dawned, but before the sun had risen, the woman came and awoke the two children, saying, "Get up, you sluggards.
We are going into the forest to fetch wood. Gretel took the bread under her apron, as Hansel had the pebbles in his pocket. Then they all set out together on the way to the forest. When they had walked a short time, Hansel stood still and peeped back at the house, and did so again and again. His father said, "Hansel, what are you looking at there and staying behind for? Pay attention, and do not forget how to use your legs.
The wife said, "Fool, that is not your little cat, that is the morning sun which is shining on the chimneys. Hansel, however, had not been looking back at the cat, but had been constantly throwing one of the white pebble-stones out of his pocket on the road. When they had reached the middle of the forest, the father said, "Now, children, pile up some wood, and I will light a fire that you may not be cold. Hansel and Gretel gathered brushwood together, as high as a little hill.
The brushwood was lighted, and when the flames were burning very high, the woman said, "Now, children, lay yourselves down by the fire and rest, we will go into the forest and cut some wood. When we have done, we will come back and fetch you away. Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when noon came, each ate a little piece of bread, and as they heard the strokes of the wood-axe they believed that their father was near. It was not the axe, however, but a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the wind was blowing backwards and forwards.
It seemed the only one he would listen to was his wife. And all the stepmother talked about was how much trouble it was to have children in the hut, and how much she wished they would go away forever. Thank you to Artist, DartGarry. Each day there was less and less food for the boy and girl to eat. Yet the stepmother gave them more and more hard work to do.
That night the two children were not allowed to sleep in the hut. Outside in the cold, they shivered and tried to keep each other warm. Winter was coming, and the clothes they wore were so thin it felt almost as if they had no clothes on at all.
The next morning when the sun rose, Gretel turned to her little brother. We must escape now, today, into the woods! Surely we will find more to eat when we are on our own than what we get here at home. We will drop breadcrumbs behind us. If we have to, we can follow the crumbs back home. And so the two of them went off into the woods and left their hard life behind. They went deeper and deeper into the woods. Gretel was careful to drop one crumb and then after a bit, another. But alas! They looked and looked for any sign of something to eat - an apple tree, pear tree, some nuts on the ground, or even dried-up berries.
There was nothing to eat! They got hungrier and hungrier. At last, poor Hansel and Gretel knew they must return to their hut or they would surely starve. They would just need to find the breadcrumbs and that would lead them home. Yet when they looked for breadcrumbs, there were none to be found - all the breadcrumbs were gone!
A bird whooshed up into the air and in its beak was a large crumb. Hansel and Gretel were struck with grief — the birds must have taken all their breadcrumbs! A wolf howled in the distance. Your brother is locked in that stall there. I want to fatten him up, and when he is fat I am going to eat him. For now, you have to feed him. Fetch water and cook something good for your brother. He is locked outside in the stall and is to be fattened up. When he is fat I am going to eat him.
Gretel began to cry, but it was all for nothing. She had to do what the witch demanded. Now Hansel was given the best things to eat every day, so he would get fat, but Gretel received nothing but crayfish shells.
Now Hansel was given the best things to eat every day, but Gretel received nothing but crayfish shells. Every day the old woman came and said, "Hansel, stick out your finger, so I can feel if you are fat enough yet.
But Hansel stuck out a little bone, and the old woman, who had bad eyes and could not see the bone, thought it was Hansel's finger, and she wondered why he didn't get fat. After four weeks, one evening she said to Gretel, "Hurry up and fetch some water. Whether your brother is fat enough now or not, tomorrow I am going to slaughter him and boil him.
In the meantime I want to start the dough that we will bake to go with him. Whether Hansel is fat or thin, tomorrow I am going to slaughter him and boil him. Oh, how the poor little sister sobbed as she was forced to carry the water, and how the tears streamed down her cheeks! The next morning Gretel had to get up early, hang up the kettle with water, and make a fire.
And when Gretel came, she said, "Look inside and see if the bread is nicely brown and done, for my eyes are weak, and I can't see that far. If you can't see that far either, then sit on the board, and I'll push you inside, then you can walk around inside and take a look. That is what the wicked witch was thinking, and that is why she called Gretel.
And when Gretel was inside, she intended to close the oven, and bake her, and eat her as well. However, God let Gretel know this, so she said, "I don't know how to do that. First show me. You sit on the board, and I will push you inside.
How can I get inside? See, I myself could get in. Then Gretel gave her a shove, causing her to fall in. Then she closed the iron door and secured it with a bar. The old woman in the hot oven began to cry and to wail, but Gretel ran away, and the old woman burned up miserably.
The old woman began to howl frightfully. But Gretel ran away, and the godless witch burned up miserably. Gretel ran to Hansel and unlocked his door.
Gretel ran straight to Hansel, unlocked his stall, and cried, "Hansel, we are saved. The old witch is dead. Then Hansel jumped out, like a bird from its cage when someone opens its door. How happy they were! They threw their arms around each other's necks, jumped with joy, and kissed one another. The whole house was filled with precious stones and pearls. Because they now had nothing to fear, they went into the witch's house. In every corner were chests of pearls and precious stones. They filled their pockets, then ran away and found their way back home.
Gretel said, "I will take some home with me as well," and she filled her apron full. If I ask it, it will help us across. Then she called out: Duckling, duckling, Here stand Gretel and Hansel.
Neither a walkway nor a bridge, Take us onto your white back. The duckling came up to them, and Hansel climbed onto it, then asked his little sister to sit down next to him. It should take us across one at a time. That is what the good animal did, and when they were safely on the other side, and had walked on a little while, the woods grew more and more familiar to them, and finally they saw the father's house in the distance.
They began to run, rushed inside, and threw their arms around the father's neck. The father rejoiced when he saw them once more, for he had not had a happy day since they had been gone, and now he was a rich man.
However, the mother had died. The man had not had even one happy hour since he had left the children in the woods. However, the woman had died. Gretel shook out her apron, scattering pearls and precious stones around the room, and Hansel added to them by throwing one handful after the other from his pockets. Now all their cares were at an end, and they lived happily together. And whoever catches it can make for himself from it a large, large fur cap. The Grimms' specific source is unclear.
Wilhelm Grimm married Dortchen Wild in The episode of burning the witch in her own oven is classified as type Summary of the differences between the Grimms' versions of and Wilhelm Grimm was the principal editor of the Children's and Household Tales following their inititial publication.
The most significant changes were made already in the second edition , although Wilhelm continued to revise the stories until their final edition The most substantive alteration in the text of "Hansel and Gretel" is transformation of the children's mother into a stepmother. In both the manuscript version and the first printed edition of this well-known tale, the woodcutter's wife is identified unambiguously and repeatedly as "the mother.
However, with the fourth edition the Grimms introduced the word "stepmother," although they retained the word "mother" in some passages. How do they connect characters? Do they serve as indicators of change at certain crucial moments in the plot? Nelka and Telek are the romantic center of the novel.
Each is forced to undertake harrowing actions in order to protect their families and the villagers. Telek in particular is forced to inflict harm in order to prevent an even greater wrong. What do these sacrifices bring them? How do you think they are able to endure these horrors and still imagine a future for themselves as lovers?
She does, however, make some excruciating decisions for the Mechanik and his children, decisions that have major consequences for them all. Consider different points in the story when she is forced to make painful choices; do you agree with those choices? Could she have acted differently? Do you think her fate—she is, after all, the stepmother—is a necessity of the fairy-tale genre? At the start of novel, the children are given new names by the stepmother; they will struggle after a while to remember their original ones.
Other characters receive new names too: the father becomes the Mechanik, the stepmother the White Wolf. Why do so many of the Partisans go by aliases? Memory is a key theme, especially for Gretel. At the start of the novel, she is already complaining that time in the ghetto has marred her memories of life before the war.
By the end, those memories become key to her emotional well-being. How does memory serve the children during their quest to stay alive and find their father? Do you think Murphy implies there is a symbolic or real relationship between people and memory? In many ways, this novel details a fairy-tale world, one with magical animals, the true love of Nelka and Telek, and a woman known as a witch. A traumatized Gretel spends part of the novel in the realm of madness, and for her it ultimately becomes important that she leave behind her immersion in fantasy and face reality.
Hansel, too, has to give up playing war and lead his sister in a very real struggle for survival. Do you think that Murphy is suggesting that too much belief in fantasy can be an obstacle to maturity or to finding resolution?
Or do you think that she shows how belief—in fairy tales, magic, and beauty—can help us overcome trials? Will Gretel continue to be an unusual child, or do you imagine her as more ordinary—more normal—as we leave her at the end of the book? Both religion and magic infuse this story. Often traditional church-centered worship and a more female-oriented magic or paganism have been in conflict in Europe and America; here it seems that a more immediate experience of evil erodes that conflict, at least for some of the central characters.
How does this story allow church and magic to coexist? What does this say about the nature of spirituality for some of the characters? On the other hand, the Partisans are distinctly antireligious; they dream of a godless communism to supplant the bloody passions of a world they view as too irrational. The father became an assimilated, nonreligious Jew, and throughout the book he struggles with his own inability to believe in God.
At the same time he is trying with all his might to believe, against all logic, that his children will survive. How did the ending resolve this conflict in him, or did it? And what is Murphy suggesting about the place of religion in an ethical society, whether it be postwar revolutionary communist, or family-based? What place do you think religion will—or should—have for the main characters in their new lives?
The village of Piaski is populated by many types of people: there are ordinary Polish citizens, collaborators, and secret revolutionaries, alongside Nazis and their imported workers. Who in the town did you sympathize with? Try to recall villagers you would characterize as collaborators. Were their actions understandable to you? What might you have done in a similar situation? Which characters do you think achieved redemption? Who got what they deserved? What do you think the future will be like for Hansel and Gretel?
For the people of Piaski? Related Books and Guides. City of Women. David R. Shanghai Girls. The Cellist of Sarajevo. Steven Galloway. White Chrysanthemum.
Mary Lynn Bracht. American Princess.
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