Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel is a fairy tale associated with the Brothers Grimm. Two children are abandoned in a forest, encounter a house that seems to offer food and shelter, and must escape the danger concealed there.
Story Summary
This summary follows the English text of Grimms' Fairy Tales linked below.
- During a food shortage, a woodcutter and his wife take Hansel and Gretel into the forest and leave them there.
- Hansel has scattered white pebbles along the route. In the moonlight, the children follow them home.
- When the adults abandon them again, Hansel uses breadcrumbs because he has been unable to collect more stones. Birds eat the crumbs, removing the return trail.
- A bird leads them to a house built of bread and cakes, with sugar windows. They begin eating it.
- An old woman welcomes and feeds them. She is a witch who uses the house to attract children she intends to eat.
- She locks Hansel away and makes Gretel work. Hansel offers a bone when the shortsighted witch feels his finger to judge whether he has grown fat.
- The witch eventually decides to kill him. When she tries to get Gretel into the oven, Gretel asks her to demonstrate, pushes her inside and closes the door.
- Gretel frees Hansel. They take jewels from the house and leave the forest.
- A duck carries them separately across water. They recognise the landscape, return to their father and learn that his wife has died.
Grimms' Fairy Tales: Hansel and Gretel
Background to the Story
Food links the main stages of this telling. Shortage prompts the abandonment, bread is used to mark a route, an edible house attracts the children, and feeding Hansel becomes preparation for eating him. The same basic need appears in several different relationships.
The return journey contains an additional obstacle after the escape from the witch. The children reach water without a bridge or ferry. Gretel's request that the duck carry them one at a time makes the crossing depend on the capacity of their helper.
Images and Movement in the Story
- A route that remains: The pebbles preserve evidence of the outward journey.
- A route that disappears: The breadcrumbs are consumed before the children can use them to return.
- Attraction and confinement: The house invites approach through food, then becomes a place of captivity.
- Reversed positions: The witch who confines Hansel is herself shut inside the oven, and Gretel opens her brother's enclosure.
- Recognition on the way home: Familiar surroundings become apparent after the water crossing.
Related Pages
Paths and Trails, Trees, Nets, Webs and Traps, Containers, Bridges, On Fire.