Rumpelstiltskin By The Brothers Grimm

Themes
     The
themes that are prominent in this story are mainly power and greed. The poor miller,
the King, and Rumpelstiltskin all want power or use what they have to get an upper hand.
The poor miller wants to seem more powerful in the King’s eyes and so he tells him about his
daughter’s “talent”. The King uses his power by forcing the daughter to spin the straw into
gold or face death, and Rumpelstiltskin uses his magical power to gain an advantage over the
miller’s daughter in her time of need.

     Greed shows up as a theme in both the King and Rumpelstiltskin as well. The King’s
greed for more gold keeps the miller’s daughter locked up under the threat of death. He even
takes her as a wife because of his greed. Rumpelstiltskin gets increasingly greedy with what
he wants from the miller’s daughter for helping her with the straw. He takes her necklace and
ring, the only two items she owns of value, and then makes her promise her first born child.