Analytical Literary Response to Hansel and Gretel

Dana Lancaster English 215-007 Professor Otero-Piersante Critical response 10-28-09 Hansel Gretel In the fairy tale, â€Å"Hansel and Gretel† by the Brothers Grimm, the protagonists Serve as heroes who must overcome the circumstances of their birth in order to reach maturity and enlightenment. This hero quest takes place in three stages. The first is the separation, in which the parents cast the children away from their home. In this stage, the children are for the most part controlled by their surroundings. The second stage of their journey is the transformation, when the children â€Å"battle a monster,† or, in this case, defeat an evil witch. In this stage, the children rely upon their own increasing intelligence to control their future. In†¦show more content†¦In the second stage of Hansel and Gretel’s hero quest, the transformation, they must defeat and conquer their youth, id, and naà ¯vetà ©. They do this by killing the evil witch who had lured them into her gingerbread house. This is the most vital part of their development, yet they begin it in their most vulnerable position. When the children are alone in the woods, they have l ost a sense of security and previous values. They must work towards a higher level of psychological existence: their form of heroism. â€Å" The cottage was made of bread and roofed with cakes, while the window was made of transparent sugar.† (48) A gingerbread house is a symbol of the mother, who nurses the infant from her body. In this way, the house serves as the Good Mother to the children. When the children are shocked to see the failure of the witch as a mother figure, it only further intensifies their oedipal development. By eating the gingerbread house, the children show they are ready to destroy somebody’s home, which is what caused them to be deserted by their parents in the first place. By allowing their id to behave unchecked in this manner, they endanger themselves. In order to defeat the witch, they must ignore the pressures of the id and follow the superego. This balance then gives rise to their ego, which is an essential component of their enlightenment . Birds appear once