The Most Evil Stepmother Of Them All--The One In "Hansel And Gretel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                              Most people think of that candied gingerbread house, when musing on "Hansel And Gretel."  And, in some renderings of the story I have read, it is the father who takes the children into the woods, and abandons them.

                                Fairy tales prey upon our fears, and "Hansel And Gretel" dwells upon abandonment.

                                 True to the fairy tale tradition of the evil stepmother, and, as I consider the definitive rendering of the story the one I first read in "My Book House," whose illustrations I wish I could have found for you, I am going with the stepmother as the one who abandons them.

                                  At the start, though, I had to wonder about the children's father, or his relationship with his second wife.  He states outright that he does not want to abandon the children, because he loves them, but she works on him, till he prevails.  Probably just to shut her up.  Better he had belted her in the mouth, tossed her out of the door, and changed the locks on the doors and windows.

                                   But then, there would be no story.

                                   Now, there is obviously no love lost between this stepmom and the kids.  Because Hansel and Gretel overhear the plot, and know what they are in for, so they leave some pebbles behind along the way.  When they find their way back, the father is overjoyed, but the stepmother locks the door, so Hansel cannot get out, and pull another trick.  Finally, the kids are abandoned in the woods.  The father, obviously, shows some remorse, but he should not have been  such a fool.  What hell it must have been, living with this bitch, without his children.

                                   But, what goes around comes around.  The candied house sustains the kids, and builds up their energy.  The witch seems to have a yen for Hansel, wants to fatten him up, and eat him first.  She must hate men.   Hansel outwits her, since she cannot see--probably cataracts-- by using a stick as a finger.  But it is the resourceful Gretel, who really gets them out of it by tricking the witch to go into the oven, and pushes her in!  Good for you, Gretel!  Like the song in "Hello, Dolly!" says, "It Takes A Woman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                   Now, I cannot remember if this happens in the Book House version, but in some rendering I read, the house is surrounded by a fence like grouping of gingerbread figures, all of whom, upon the witch's death, turn into normal children, who endured the fate that would have fallen to Hansel and Gretel.  I guess they went safely home, too,  Whether they were abandoned or not is up for interpretation.

                                    But Hansel and Gretel were, and when they get home, their father is genuinely glad to see them!

                                      Now, you will notice, by this picture, that the bitch is gone!  He tells the children that the evil stepmother is dead.  I never gave it much thought; I was just glad she was gone, and that things came to a happy end!

                                        Yet, her unexplained disappearance is open to several interpretations.  One is that the witch and stepmother are one and the same; that when the witch is destroyed, and the gingerbread children are restored to life, the stepmother dies, too.  Though, how can they be one and the same, and in two places at once?  Even within the realm of fantasy, this strains credibility.

                                        I think the witch is the stepmother's counterpart.  Like in the movie of "The Wizard Of Oz," how everyone in Dorothy's fantasy has a counterpart to her reality.  Meanwhile, in reality, the guilt ridden father is inconsolable over the loss of his biological children, which he allowed this evil woman he married to goad him into, and so, fueled with rage, he does the same to her.  Like Elly Kedward, he takes her out into the freezing woods, ties her to a tree, lights a fire for her, then leaves her to die there.

                                        I call that justifiable homicide!

                                        Remember, in "All About Eve," when Margo (Bette Davis) says to Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe), "ALL playwrights should be dead for three hundred years."

                                          Just change "playwrights" to evil stepmothers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!