Gretel in Darkness” Is Louise Glück’s
Left in the Darkness
Many stories have underlying and unsolved mysteries that are intertwined into minute details of the plot line. “Gretel in Darkness” is Louise Glück’s poetic interpretation of the Gretel’s emotional aftermath in the Brothers Grimm classic tale, Hansel and Gretel. Although Glück’s poem strongly relates to Hansel and Gretel, she only vaguely mentions the major events that have harnessed such strong emotional consequences in “Gretel in Darkness.” Omitting these critical events and leaving only the outcome begins to unravel an underlying mystery of the classic children’s tale; that the stepmother and the witch are the same person. With a new vantage point on the story, a common theme of betrayal is encountered in Gretel’s lifelong quest for affection. There are three scenes that Glück eliminated that are crucial to the development of the proposed witch and stepmother congruency. The first scene is the one in which the stepmother explains her motive for getting rid of the children. In the story, it is clearly stated that the family had a miniscule amount of food, and the stepmother was not willing to sacrifice any of her own. Her only plausible solution was to eliminate the children. The second omitted scene is the death scene of the witch. The text in the story describes in thorough detail how Gretel killed the witch and rescued Hansel. The third, and final key scene that is left out is the one in which the children return to their father’s house and find that the stepmother is dead. Unlike the other two scenes, not much is said about how the stepmother dies in the story, but the fact that she dies is mentioned. With these three scenes eliminated in the poetic adaptation, the reader is now able to draw a new conclusion to the story. These scenes may appear to be rather straightforward, but once the surface is broken and simple details are connected it becomes apparent that Glück’s interpretation strongly supports the hypothesis that
Many stories have underlying and unsolved mysteries that are intertwined into minute details of the plot line. “Gretel in Darkness” is Louise Glück’s poetic interpretation of the Gretel’s emotional aftermath in the Brothers Grimm classic tale, Hansel and Gretel. Although Glück’s poem strongly relates to Hansel and Gretel, she only vaguely mentions the major events that have harnessed such strong emotional consequences in “Gretel in Darkness.” Omitting these critical events and leaving only the outcome begins to unravel an underlying mystery of the classic children’s tale; that the stepmother and the witch are the same person. With a new vantage point on the story, a common theme of betrayal is encountered in Gretel’s lifelong quest for affection. There are three scenes that Glück eliminated that are crucial to the development of the proposed witch and stepmother congruency. The first scene is the one in which the stepmother explains her motive for getting rid of the children. In the story, it is clearly stated that the family had a miniscule amount of food, and the stepmother was not willing to sacrifice any of her own. Her only plausible solution was to eliminate the children. The second omitted scene is the death scene of the witch. The text in the story describes in thorough detail how Gretel killed the witch and rescued Hansel. The third, and final key scene that is left out is the one in which the children return to their father’s house and find that the stepmother is dead. Unlike the other two scenes, not much is said about how the stepmother dies in the story, but the fact that she dies is mentioned. With these three scenes eliminated in the poetic adaptation, the reader is now able to draw a new conclusion to the story. These scenes may appear to be rather straightforward, but once the surface is broken and simple details are connected it becomes apparent that Glück’s interpretation strongly supports the hypothesis that
Cited: Brothers Grimm. Hansel and Gretel. East of the Web. Glück, Louise. "Gretel in Darkness." Introduction to Literature. New York: Pearson Custom, 2009. 161.