Hansel And Gretel Feminist Lens

It is widely felt that fairy tales have the tendency to depict women as mistress in distress, passive characters who are often rescued by their male counterparts who and lack of qualities considered masculine as intelligence, cunning, and courage. Nevertheless, these folktale perfectly balance stereotypical representations with positive portrayal of female figures. They show what at first sight appear as inept and powerless characters develop into not only active characters, but authentic heroins. This paper aims to demonstrate how both the fairytales “Bluebeard” and “Hansel and Gretel” can be analyzed through a feminist approach, and how these text continuously challenge gender stereotypes and construe a new narrative of femininity.
The story
In order to “engage the affection” of the two daughters of a virtuous woman, Bluebeard invites them at his country house, a marvelous place where “The time was filled with parties, hunting, fishing, dancing, mirth, and feasting. Nobody went to bed, but all passed the night in rallying and joking with each other. In short, everything succeeded so well that the youngest daughter began to think that the man's beard was not so very blue after all, and that he was a mighty civil gentleman” (Perrault,
Cristina Bacchilega believes that the woman in Perrault story is an authentic, active heroin. Her decision to disobey her husband’s command was not simply curiosity, but bravery and strenght, qualities often considered as masculine. As she claims “she must be clever to see him not as the Law but as the enemy” (110). Following this path, it is possible to re-view even her behavior at the end of the story, when she begs Bluebeard for her life. In my opinion, at that point she demonstrates to be a dynamic figure because she directly impede her execution. She is not a passive character who helplessly wait for her death, but she is an active characters who make up many excuses to delay her destiny. She took an initiative and showed to be smart and cunning. Her smartness could have been see even before, during her discovery of Bluebeard’s chamber. Her husband, in fact, wanted to kill her as the other wives because he could not stand the idea that she knew his secret. By opening the secret room, she gained supremacy through knowledge. Also, the ending of the story is unusual and interesting as well. It is a non-traditional ending for a fairytale: in this story there is not an end with a wedding or a marriage proposal. The woman, the protagonist of the tale, begins in a marriage and eventually ends up alone and rich. She receives in heritage the country house of Bluebeard and all his properties, becoming an independent