Magic in the Grimm's Brothers Tales

The Beauty of Magic in the tales of the Grimm’s Brothers

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, more commonly known as the Grimm’s brothers, are the men responsible for countless fairy tales that are still loved and cherished today. Over one hundred and fifty years later, their renditions of tales are so readily available and amongst the finest fairy tales known. Full of enchantment and magic, their tales lead characters through journeys of hardships, discovery and truth where only their underlying morale will determine their fate. In the Grimm’s Brother’s tales of “Rapunzel,” “Mother Holle,” and “The Goose Girl,” magic as well as physical appearance are used in parallel in order to bring justice to certain characters in the form of punishments and rewards. The Grimm’s make a special effort to validate young and beautiful characters as representing virtue and honesty while greed and malevolence are typically represented by ugly and often timeworn characters, or simply not at all; as is clearly demonstrated in “Rapunzel.”
In the beginning, the tale introduces a husband and his wife, who is longing for the most beautiful and delicious rampion growing in the garden behind their house. Although she is aware that the garden belongs to a powerful and unkind enchantress, she sends her husband forward over the large guarding wall to fetch what she desires. Successful on his first quest, he is sent out once again the following day to bring more of the alluring vegetable, but not scot-free, for this time he is greeted by the enchantress. Not impressed about the theft of her mystical ‘rapunzel’ rampion, the enchantress demands the husband to trade his first born child in exchange for the entire inventory of rampion in her garden. The husband cowardly consents and the moment the child is born, it is magically whisked away to lead a life of captivity and curiosity locked high in a tower with no company other than that of the enchantress. As can be noted, the physical appearance of the characters thus far has been withheld leading to the notion that these characters are unworthy of the positive effects of magic and must therefore be punished for their wrong doings. Justly so, the husband and wife are punished for their greed and cowardliness by losing their only child to the magic of the enchantress. That being said, the enchantress who is described as old, and is evidently unpleasant, receives a punishment of her own for at the end of the tale she is left with nothing. The beautiful child had grown into a beautiful woman ironically named “Rapunzel” and when she is stricken by curiosity, the enchantress abandons her; the only family she had ever known. On the other hand, however, magic has also been revealed in this tale to provide reward; to both striking Rapunzel and her handsome, youthful prince. Although one may be doubtful of this as the prince is blinded by thorns while escaping from the enchantress and separated from his Rapunzel, who is bearing their children, they are eventually reunited by the power of magic. Their innocence and kindness are finally compensated when they find each other and the curse of blindness is magically lifted from the prince and (you guessed it) they live happily ever - as is necessary to conclude any true fairy tale.
What is more, the parallels between beauty versus ugliness, industriousness versus laziness, and purity versus greed are all very much evident in the Grimm’s tale of “Mother Holle.” To begin, two sisters are introduced to the story each carrying a set of the previously stated traits; simply put, “One of them was beautiful and industrious, and the other was ugly and lazy.” (“Mother Holle” Line 1) Due to the fact that the ugly daughter was a ‘real’ daughter and the beautiful one was simply a stepchild, their mother loved the lazy, ugly sister much more and thus the pretty daughter was made to do all of the housework and is even compared to “Cinderella” (“Mother Holle. Line 5.) Expectedly, through a means of magic, the industrious daughter is rewarded while the other receives her punishment in quite a contrasting way. After jumping into the well while chasing a spindle one day, the beautiful daughter awakens to find herself in a stunning meadow thus beginning her adventure to virtue. She is lead through a series of morale-testing tasks which include helping magical talking bread loaves to escape an oven, assisting a speaking apple tree to be rid of its heavy apples, and finally ending up at Mother Holle’s house who promises happiness in exchange for her help around the house. Diligently completing all of the challenges, the daughter returns to her mother and sister showered with gold in reward for her actions. Occupied with greed, the mother sends the lazy daughter out to test her fortune also, but contrasting actions nevertheless lead to contrasting results for when the lazy daughter comes across the loaves and apples, she refuses and passes on to Mother Holle’s house. Upon arrival at Mother Holle’s, she too is promised happiness for her courteousness but of course, no such thing exists for this daughter. She sluggishly completes the tasks assigned of her with barely any care at all and is thrilled when she is told she can go home. Expecting a shower of gold, the ugly lazy daughter is surprised with a shower of pitch instead which is stuck to her until the day she dies. In this tale, the use of magic is clearly demonstrated in a complementary way of rewarding beauty and goodness and punishing ugliness and badness. Similar to both the previous tale and the following tale to be discussed, greed is an additional contributing factor for punishment that is consistent to the Grimm’s brothers’ tales.
Similarly, in the tale of “The Goose Girl,” the punished character is ultimately driven by greed, but also jealousy. This tale commences with a beautiful and lovable princess on her venture to be united with her future king. With her, she brings a magical talking horse, a magical lock of fairy’s hair, and for company, a waiting maid. Throughout their travels, the maid turns against the princess and slowly starts to rob her of her magical belongings, clothing and ultimately her identity in selfish hopes for a better life, something she only gets a taste of. Upon arrival in the prince’s kingdom, the waiting maid is treated like royalty while the true princess is made a goose girl even though even the king immediately notices that she is much too pretty to be a simple waiting maid. The princess, afraid that she might be assumed a liar, doesn’t say a word about the adjustment and hopes that good will and magic will prove her just, however, when her magical horse is killed by the awful maid, the princess loses all hope and confesses the entire story to the boy she tends geese with. He runs to tell the king that he has been witness to the magic and the king, already suspicious, is prepared to see for himself. Through a window, the king is able to witness the goose girl, and the true princess, speaking with the decapitated horse head which is mounted in the village. After confirmation, the king asks the false ‘princess’ what she thinks a suitable punishment for this type of wicked should be and she receives just that. This tale, though more indirectly that the other two, is still a product of the punishments and rewards of magic. The magic of the horse and fairy is what ultimately causes the confession of the waiting maid and brings truth to the true princess’ situation, which doesn’t go unrewarded. As can be assumed, the true princess is married to the prince and, of course, lives happily ever after.
In conclusion, “Rapunzel,” “Mother Holle,” and “The Goose Girl” provide clear and concise evidence of the Grimm’s Brothers intent. Characters that are honest, industrious, and innocent are portrayed by their beauty and rewarded for their goodness. Meanwhile, characters that are evil, selfish, greedy and lazy are punished not only by magic but also by a lifelong curse of ugliness. Magic, in the Grimm’s tales comes from a variety of sources including enchantresses, nature itself, and as the genre assumes; fairies, and works in parallel with the power of beauty to provide payments and reprimands for the deserving. These timeless fairy tales provide entertainment as well as lessons that have, and will continue to, thrive for many years to come and for these classic treasures; one has only the Grimm’s Brothers to thank.

Works Cited
Grimm Brothers. “Goose Girl.” Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Trans. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. Project Gutenberg. 14 Dec. 2008. EBook. 12 Mar. 2013. Web
Grimm Brothers. “Rapunzel.” Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Trans. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. Project Gutenberg. 14 Dec. 2008. EBook. 12 Mar. 2013. Web
Grimm Brothers. “Mother Holle.” Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Trans. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. Project Gutenberg. 14 Dec. 2008. EBook. 12 Mar. 2013. Web

Cited: Grimm Brothers. “Goose Girl.” Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Trans. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. Project Gutenberg. 14 Dec. 2008. EBook. 12 Mar. 2013. Web Grimm Brothers. “Rapunzel.” Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Trans. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. Project Gutenberg. 14 Dec. 2008. EBook. 12 Mar. 2013. Web Grimm Brothers. “Mother Holle.” Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Trans. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. Project Gutenberg. 14 Dec. 2008. EBook. 12 Mar. 2013. Web