Jack Zipes makes a political and social interpretation of the story, Hansel and Gretel. The perspective of the story is one of the ordinary people. Hansel and Gretel is a story of hope and victory. It is the story of a poor woodcutter and his family who have difficulty finding food, which forces them to abandon the children. They did it not out of enmity or hatred but because of the social forces, which are beyond their control. Even having a stepmother was the outcome of the social force – mothers died young and men had to marry again so that the woman could look after children.
The children struggle in the jungle and kill the witch with ingenuity, and then return home with jewels. The struggle depicted in the story is against poverty and against feudalism and aristocracy. Peasants and lower-class people at the end of the eighteenth century had to struggle against widespread famine and poverty because of the war, which ultimately led to the breakdown of the feudal patronage system. Ordinary people at that time were forced to banditry, migration or abandonment of children.
The witch signifies the entire feudal system and aristocracy. As becoming of a feudal she had a house made of bread, sugar and cake, and she was cruel enough to live on the flesh of ordinary people. She is a hoarder and oppressor. The children ultimately kill her, and thereby put an end to the cycle of exploitation and miserable life that feudalism put plebeian into.
The witch signifies the entire feudal system and aristocracy. As becoming of a feudal she had a house made of bread, sugar and cake, and she was cruel enough to live on the flesh of ordinary people. She is a hoarder and oppressor. The children ultimately kill her, and thereby put an end to the cycle of exploitation and miserable life that feudalism put plebeian into.
Jack Zipes also highlights the transformative impact of the class conflict from feudalism to early capitalism. The apathetic condition meted out to the poor people is very nicely depicted in the tale. The prejudices and injustices of the feudal ideology are forcefully exposed. Feudals pretend to be kind. The witch acts very kindly with the children on the first night of stay at her extraordinary house, but later she wants to eat them. However, the children see what the witch was after, and hence trick her to death. The emphasis is on hope and action. The poor people can learn that they can change their awful condition if they struggle actively. The children’s return home with the jewels signifies the rise of the poor and an expression of the victory of the poor over an unjust society.
Nepali society is blighted by caste system. The dalits are languishing in darkness whereas the Brahmins and chhetris have privileged position in the society. The dalits live in the periphery of social system. They are discriminated and exploited. They don’t have access to good food, education, health. The constitutional rights given to them have no societal endorsement.. The society is unjust and indifferent towards them. Social evils like dowry system are rampant. Many places in Western Nepal has the kamaiya pratha that has seriously affected the social rights of the kamaiyas. The landlords keep large stretches of land and make poor people work for trifle. Unless such discriminatory and feudal practices stop, Nepal cannot be a socially equitable society.
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