The Witch Must Die: The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales

Hop o’ My Thumb

Not only did parents turn their children out in the streets to beg and steal, they left infants in the woods to die of exposure or starvation.

How does the witch know? Because she is the children; she is the sinful or bad part of Hansel and Gretel, the part driven by gluttony.

The fear of being eaten reaches its most graphic expression in Hansel and Gretel, the popular tale of a hapless brother and sister who happen across a gingerbread cottage

The overarching significance of food in people’s lives helps explain why food and feeding play such a prominent role in fairy tales, and why ravenous witches are so central to these stories.

are essentially maternal dramas in which witches, godmothers, and other female figures function as the fantasy derivatives of early childhood splitting.

Rather, we are talking about naturally occurring splits in the self that evolve from attempts on the part of young children to reconcile conflicting maternal experiences early in life.

The way fairy tales resolve these struggles is by offering children a stage upon which they can play out inner conflicts.

Fairy tales have many appealing qualities, but teaching lessons is not one of them.