January 20, 2009 "Hansel and Gretel"

Since "Hansel and Gretel" and stories related to it deal almost exclusively with lack of food and hardship, there was obviously some sort of famine occurring at the time. The references to cannibalism make it seem that the famine had drawn on for a long period of time, and people were desperate.
If I were to make a movie about the world that created "Hansel and Gretel," the main characters would be around nine or ten. Hansel and Gretel would be the two oldest children of a large peasant family that was struggling to make ends meet. The supporting cast would consist of the large peasant family who were hard working and practical, and a richer, aristocratic family that had not been greatly affected yet by the famine.
The peasant family's struggle for money and food would be the main problem that fed the storyline. In order to survive the family would sell Hansel and Gretel to a rich family as servants. In return, the family would receive money to buy food, and also have less mouths to feed because Hansel and Gretel would be at the richer family's home.
The fairy tale could serve as the warnings that their parents gave Hansel and Gretel about how they should behave as servants: always be prepared like Hansel in the story with his pebbles, do not go looking for trouble like the children in the story did when they began to eat the house, and always keep your wits about you like Hansel in the tale by using the bone as his finger and Gretel did by pushing the witch into the oven. If the children obeyed their parents and behaved, they could return home someday like the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel".

Audra Crosby