The Brothers Grimm are responsible for some of the most famous fairy tales that are still read to children to this day. Although many of the fairy tales have been sanitized and changed for today’s children, the original stories are still masterworks of literature, often referenced and alluded to in other pieces of fiction and nonfiction. In “Rapunzel,” “Hans and Gretel,” and “The Little Peasant,” the Brothers Grimm utilize different types of symbolism, but regardless of the type and purpose of the symbolism, they use symbols that are easily grasped by the reader and serve to further the purpose of the story.
“Rapunzel” is, perhaps, one of the most uplifting fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm. Unlike so many of the others, the ending of “Rapunzel” is a happy one, although the path to the happy ending is fraught with difficulties and pain. In the Brothers Grimm 1812 version of Rapunzel, Rapunzel, the girl with the long golden hair, is imprisoned in a tower by Dame Gothel (“Rapunzel”). A prince who happens to be riding by hears her singing and climbs into her tower by way of her hair. Together, they make a plan to escape the tower, and the prince visits her every night (“Rapunzel”). Eventually, Dame Gothel discovers the deception and cuts Rapunzel’s hair, casting her out into the wilderness; when the prince returns, he climbs the hair and finds the witch. In his despair, he throws himself out of the tower onto the thorns below, which blind him; he wanders for a time, blind, until he hears Rapunzel singing in the forest. Upon seeing him, she cries and her tears return his sight, and he takes her home to be his queen (“Rapunzel”).
The story of Rapunzel is rife with symbolism, but perhaps the most interesting symbol in the piece is the symbol of Rapunzel’s hair. Her hair is the way in which Dame Gothel possess Rapunzel; without the girl’s hair, Dame Gothel could never enter the tower (“Rapunzel”).
When Dame Gothel cuts her hair in a fit of rage over her indiscretions with the prince, the witch is essentially relinquishing control over the girl, albeit accidentally. The hair is a source of pride and control for Dame Gothel; when she casts Rapunzel into the wilderness, she keeps the girl’s hair, even though she has no real, practical use for it. The story of Rapunzel is, essentially, the story of the continued attempt at possession by one individual of another, and the dangers of coveting the valuables of another. The symbol of Rapunzel’s hair fits perfectly into this thematic idea; without the hair, the story would be much less effective and the ultimate escape of the girl would be less cathartic for the reader.
The story of “Hans and Gretel” is somewhat different, however. “Hans and Gretel” is the story of the children led into the woods by their father at the request of their evil stepmother to starve; in the forest, the leave a trail back to their home, first of pebbles, then of bread crumbs on the second outing (“Hans and Gretel”). When the birds eat the trail, Hans and his sister, Gretel, are stuck in the forest, trying to find their way home. They stumble upon the gingerbread house of a witch, who puts Gretel to work and locks Hans in a cage, saying she intends to eat him (“Hans and Gretel”). The children outwit the witch, leaving her to burn in her own oven (“Hans and Gretel”).
The symbolism in “Hans and Gretel” is vastly different than that in “Rapunzel,” perhaps because the overall message of the story in “Hans and Gretel” is so different than that in “Rapunzel.” While one of the main thematic ideas of “Rapunzel” is possession and the nature of obsessive possession, the children in “Hans and Gretel” are abandoned. The virtue that is presented as important within this particular fairy tale is the virtue of resourcefulness; the children, in their attempts to stay alive, have the ability to think their way out of a variety of different stressful and dangerous situations.
In “Hans and Gretel,” the symbol of food is perhaps the most important one. It is both a danger and a savior; the children are only saved initially because their hunger keeps them awake and gives them time to plan their escape (“Hans and Gretel”). However, the bread crumbs prove to be a dnagerous ploy for the children, as they are incapable of finding their way back home after the birds eat the breadcrumbs. Later, the witch is overcome by her gluttony when she tries to kill Gretel and thus leaves herself open to being pushed into the oven (“Hans and Gretel”).
The symbol of food becomes the symbol of temptation and danger when the children find their way to the witch's home. Her home is a veritable feast for the starving children, tempting them with a variety of foods that must have been incredibly desirable for two starving young people. However, the Brothers Grimm were not decrying the dangers of eating food; instead, the food in this tale became a symbol for gluttony, and the hunger of the children became a symbol for the virtue of self-restriction. The stepmother’s greed and the witch’s gluttony were both overcome by the virtues of the children; in this way, food as the symbol for gluttony became a warning for all those who may act without moderation in respect to this particular cardinal sin.
The last story of “The Little Peasant” is perhaps one of the least well-known Brothers Grimm fairy tales. This story is the story of a peasant who begins in a bad situation and works his way up to being the mayor of the town; it begins with a peasant so poor he could not buy a cow. However, he and his wife ask the cabinetmaker to make a small wooden calf. The story proceeds, and the peasant becomes more and more lucky over the course of the tale; first, he outsmarts a cowherd, then a miller, then a shepherd and finally, the whole town; because the whole town drowned themselves in the river in search of wealth, the little peasant becomes the heir to the wealth of the whole town (“The Little Peasant”).
In “The Little Peasant,” the driving vice and thematic idea of the story is the idea of greed. The little peasant and his wife are not greedy; they merely want a cow, although they do not have the money to purchase one. The little wooden cow becomes a symbol for the ingenuity and intelligence of the little peasant; as the peasant outwits more and more people, he becomes more and more wealthy. However, he does not become greedy, and thus, the reader continues to like the peasant, and the story becomes the quintessential tale of the success of the downtrodden.
The river is another interesting symbol in “The Little Peasant.” At the end of the story, the peasant uses the river to drown the entirety of the town; he claims that there are sheep at the bottom of the river, and the people dive in, thinking that the reflection of the clouds in the river are sheep (“The Little Peasant”). The river becomes symbolic of the little peasant’s resourcefulness; he literally drowns the other people in the story in his resourcefulness and intelligence.
Although each story utilized a different type of symbolism and different symbols, it is clear that the Brothers Grimm were very concerned with the thematic ideas of vice and virtue, and often utilized the symbolism within their fairy tales to further the discussion of different vices and virtues. In “Hans and Gretel,” the Brothers Grimm used the symbol of food to discuss the dangers of gluttony and the virtues of moderation; in “Rapunzel,” they used the symbol of the hair to discuss the vice of of envy, and in “The Little Peasant,” they used a the symbol of a little wooden calf to discuss the vice of greed. Without these symbols, the overall effect of the stories would have been much weaker, and many children would have been unable to understand the overall message.
Works cited
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. "Hans and Gretel". Children's and Household Tales. By Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. 1st ed. 1812. Online.
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. "The Little Peasant". Children's and Household Tales. By Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. 1st ed. 1812. Online.
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. "Rapunzel". Children's and Household Tales. By Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. 1st ed. 1812. Online.
Zipes, Jack. Spells of enchantment. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Viking, 1991. Online .
Zipes, Jack. The great fairy tale tradition. New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton, 2000. Online.
