Suzuki 1

Junko Suzuki
Professor Smith
Theme Writing
4 November 2008
Fairy tales as Representations of Human Nature:
An Analysis of Hansel and Gretel
Introduction
Fairy tales are very popular stories for people all over the world. One of the reasons is
that many people regard fairy tales as education for children. However, this is not enough to
explain why fairy tales are very popular. The most important reason is fairy tales represent
human nature in various forms. In fact, many psychologists have even investigated fairy tales
as the key to find out what human nature is. C.G. Jung is the most famous depth psychologist.
His idea about human mind is that there are consciousness and unconsciousness in human
mind and, moreover, in the bottom of the people’s mind, there is “collective
unconsciousness.” “Collective unconsciousness” means that all human beings have a
common mind as fundamental to human spirit (Robertson 85). In other words, human mind is
composed of not only personal consciousness and unconsciousness and but also common
unconsciousness of human beings. In the collective unconsciousness, there are archetypes
that influence and make up human nature (Robertson 85-89). Human nature is collective, but
the characteristics of it could be classified into some categories—for example, the nature of
man and woman, and the nature of good and evil. Marie-Louise Von Franz, one of the
followers of Jung, said “Fairy tales are the purest and simplest expression of collective
unconscious psychic processes” (1). It means that fairy tales reflect human nature. Since
fairly tales reflect human nature, they are therefore useful to understand the causes of
problems about the human mind today. This paper particularly focuses on “Hansel and
Gretel.” One of the main themes of “Hansel and Gretel” is the process of children’s spiritual
independence from their mothers. There are two reasons why this essay analyzes this story as
children’s independence: the first reason is that this story includes the theme about the nature
of mother—particularly negative aspect; the second is that Hansel and Gretel start to have
their own inner world and overcome the negative nature of mother.
Children’s Independence in Hansel and Gretel
To begin with, the reason why “Hansel and Gretel” reflects children’s independence
from mother is that the nature of mother is one of the themes in this story. In “Hansel and
Gretel,” there are five main characters: Hansel, Gretel, their parents, and the witch. As people
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know, the story is, in short, Hansel and Gretel were deserted and they met the witch, who
lives in the cottage which was made of bread and cake, and then they were caught, but finally
they beat the witch with their wisdom (Opie 236-244). In this tale, there are two women: the
mother and the witch. The mother suggests to the children’s father the idea that they leave
their children alone in the woods. On the other hand, the witch leads on Hansel and Gretel
with the cottage which was made of cakes. Jung called the nature of women “Great mother”
(Von Franz 71,130). Great mother refers to the nature of mother, including positive and
negative aspects (71,130). According to Jung’s idea, Great mother has mainly two
characteristics: generosity and rejection. People seem to have only the good image about
“mother” like the Blessed Mary. Nature of mother, however, has negative character like a
witch. Hansel and Gretel’s Mother has a character “extreme rejection.” Conversely, the
cottage which the witch lives in has a meaning “excessive indulgence.” That is to say, both
women have the negative aspects of mother. Both of them, “extreme rejection” and
“excessive indulgence,” spoil children (Kawai 38-44). In this respect, the mother and the
witch are the same character in this story. Hansel and Gretel faced the negative nature of a
mother. To know the negative character of the mother is the start of independence. If children
only knew the “positive” side about the nature of mothers, they could not be independent
(Kawai 44). Of course, if children only know the “negative” side of great mother, they also
could not become independent, because to become independent, children need help to some
extent. This is the problem about “excessive indulgence” in the real world. Some parents
accept everything that their child wants. It seems that parents shut their child into the candy-
cottage which the wicked witch built. It hinders their child from independence. In the story,
when Hansel and Gretel are in the candy-house, they feel “in heaven” (Opie 242), but
actually this is a “sweet” cage. In this cage, the witch (negative aspect) tries to kill them.
Moreover, another negative way, “extreme rejection,” also prevents child from reaching
independence, because there is no love between the parents and children completely. Hansel
and Gretel experienced those two types of negative aspect about mother. Therefore, they
could realize the negative nature of mother.
The Negative Nature of Mother
Next, in addition to knowing the negative side of nature of mother, children need to
overcome the negative nature of mother. In the start of story, Hansel and Gretel eavesdrop on
their parents’ conversation. From this, Hansel and Gretel think of a method to find the way
back home. It means that they start to have their own inner world, because parents do not
realize their understanding. To fight the mother’s cruel nature, children need their own world
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to think alone. In the scene in candy-cottage, they also think up some methods to outwit the
witch. In this scene, they act with wisdom more actively. In addition to having their inner
world, wisdom is very important to become independent. To analyze and solve a problem on
their own is essential to become independent. In many fairy tales that the hero or heroine is a
child, the child approaches the problem with wit and solves the problem. This fact suggests
that to use wisdom is very important to overcome the negative mother’s nature and to begin
independence for the child. Max Luthi observes, “The fairy tale shows not only that children
have need of care and protection, it also gives them the ingenuity to make their way and to
save themselves” (65). His explanation is to the point. Turning now to the scene after Hansel
and Gretel beat the witch, they find treasure and then they find the way back home alone.
Finally, they reach home and their father is pleased about their return, but their mother was
dead. The mother’s death implies the fact mother and the witch are the same character in
different forms (Kawai 51). To beat the witch and obtain the treasure means the nature of
mother changed from negative to positive in this story and to find their way home alone and
death of mother means they can get independence from negative nature mother.
The Peculiarity of Fairy Tales
Von Franz and Luthi conclude that fairy tales express human nature. In spite of their
statements, there are, however, many kinds of things that express human nature—for
example, literature, philosophy, religion and art. Nevertheless, for three reasons fairy tales are
one of the best keys to investigate human nature: the first is freedom from specific location;
the second transcendence of time; the third is the power that fairy tales have over the reader
to provoke the same emotion of hero or heroine (Von Franz 5,6). The first and second reasons
are very plain. General fairy tales begin from these phrases: “once upon a time” or “there
were (king and queen or something).” That is to say, fairy tales do not belong to a specific
time and place. Therefore, everyone can sympathize with fairy tales. Of course, there are
some cultural elements to some extent—for instance, there are cultural differences between
“Momotaro” and “Snow White.” But in fairy tales, cultural difference appears only in small
things: food, clothes, tool, and the name of monster. Von Franz states, “In myths or legends,
we get at the basic patterns of the human psyche through an overlay of cultural material. But
in fairy tales there is much less specific conscious cultural material and therefore they mirror
the basic patterns of the psyche more clearly” (1). In short, she suggests that fairy tales are
more useful to investigate what human nature is, compared with myth or legend. The third
reason is the power that fairy tales provoke the same emotion or feeling of the hero and
heroine in the reader. Luthi states that fairy tales are experienced by their readers as their own
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stories (66). According to this statement, readers have an idea of what human nature is,
through their experiences in the story. Fairy tales are not an explanation of human nature.
Fairy tales are an image or symbol of human nature. Therefore, people do not “understand”
what human nature is. People “feel” or “experience” what human nature is.
Conclusion
This essay has demonstrated that fairy tales are representations of human nature
through an analysis of Hansel and Gretel as a characteristic fairy tale. To discuss human
nature in fairy tales as a whole is beyond the scope of a brief paper. Therefore, this essay has
concentrated on analysis of only one tale and paid scant attention to other tales. The tale
“Hansel and Gretel” reflects children’s independence from mother in two ways: it suggests
the fact that children should know the negative nature of mother to become independent; and
it illustrates that children should have an inner world and overcome negative nature of mother
with wisdom to become independent. Added to this analysis, this essay explained three
peculiarities of fairy tales: lack of specific location, transcendence of time, and the fact that
fairy tales give readers not an explanation but experience and feeling of what human nature
is. However, if people do not use this kind of analysis in the real situation, analysis is just
analysis. The point is how to make good use of study from fairy tales in the real world. Many
modern people suffer from twisted psychology. Thus, today, many counselors are hired by
schools and companies to solve the student and staff problems. The root cause of mental
problems is related to human nature. Therefore, to solve the problem, generally, counselors
and psychiatrists search for a similar case in other country and in past, because human nature
is universal nature. This approach has two directions, “time” and “place.” Therefore this way
seems useful to find a similar problem which related to same aspect of human nature and a
solution. Fairy tales represent human nature in simplest form. Only fairy tales have these
peculiarities. In other words, fairy tales could be a third direction to find solution to
psychological difficulties. Thus, this paper suggests that fairy tale is one of the useful ways to
find the solution to mental problem of modern people. To use three directions: time in real
world; place in the real world; a fairy tale which transcends time and place, could be a more
effective way to consider the twisted psychology of modern people.
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Works Cited
Kawai, Hayao. Mukashi Banashi no Sekai [The World of Fairy Tales]. Tokyo:
Iwanamisyotenn, 1994.
Luthi, Max. Once upon a Time on the Nature of Fairy Tales. Indiana University Press, 1976.
Opie, Iona and Peter. The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Robertson, Robin. C.G. Jung and the Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious. New York:
Peter Lang Publishing, 1987.
Von Franz, Marie Louise: Interpretation of Fairy Tales. Boston: Spring Publications, 1978.
----. C. G. Jung. His myth in our time. New York: C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical
Psychology, 1989,