Use Of Villains In Hansel And The Briffault Brothers

Fairy Tales Paper

Once upon a time, every adult was a young reader in awe of the child underdogs that came out on top in their bedtime fairy tales. No matter the circumstance, these child protagonists managed to outsmart their matched villain to save their life, and often the lives of their loved ones. Both the Grimm Brothers in “Hansel and Gretel” and the Briffault Brothers in “The Story of Grandmother” use villains to deceive the main child characters through lies to satisfy their own various desires. The threat of consumption by the antagonists drives the children to use different tactics to escape and overcome the unpleasant situations in order to survive. The villain in each of these tales was deceitful and cunning, but their
The house itself is quickly revealed as a deception and it soon becomes obvious that the sole purpose of the house is to lure in children like Hansel and Gretel. The witch greets them with false sincerity: “Well dear children, how in the world did you get here?” As if the witch does not know why the kids would be attracted to the house she coaxes, “‘Come inside and stay with me. You will not meet with any harm here’”, another direct lie (Grimm, 187). The witch manages to trick the kids with her savory house, offer them more food to get them inside, and then trap them once they have no place to run. Her only motivation in taking these extreme measures is to eat the children to quench her child hunger. As soon as Gretel learns that not only is her brother’s life at stake, but hers as well, she uses her wit and feigns stupidity to trick the witch into standing close enough to the oven so that she could easily push her to her death. “‘I don’t know how to get in there. How can I manage it?’” Gretel asked knowing better (Grimm, 188). Although the stepmother and the witch lie and deceive the children into dire circumstances, the children nevertheless learn to support each other as a team both mentally and physically. This display of maturity bonds the children and allows them to live another day. Both
The themes of “The Story of Grandmother” fall along the lines of curiosity, disguised danger, and sexual maturity. In this short story the girl puts herself in a bad situation, instead of being set up by the parents as seen in “Hansel and Gretel”. She is sent by her mother to deliver a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk to her grandmother. Once at Granny’s house, the girl shows promiscuous behavior for the wolf, disguised in the grandmothers clothing. There is less sympathy for the girl at this point in the tale when “she asked the wolf were to put all her other things, her dress, her skirt, and her stockings, each time [the wolf] said: ‘throw them into the fire, my child. You won’t be needing them any longer’” (Tatar, 11). Once she is in bed with the wolf, she begins to make remarks about the wolf’s physique, “‘Oh, granny, how hairy you are!’” coming across as a playful flirtation the wolf replies, “‘The better to keep you warm, my child!’” (Tatar, 11). It is not until the wolf mentions he plans on eating her, or threatens her virginity, that she realizes she had placed herself in imminent danger. Before that moment, her perception of danger was clouded by her own uninhibited actions. While the girl’s actions could be perceived as reckless, the wolf’s deceit by lying and seducing the girl was solely in