The Narrative Art María José Avalle

15208064

The portrayal of Women in the Grimm

Brothers’ Tales

Although that is the legend, it is not true that the Grimm brothers themselves wrote the stories from
Children’s and Household Fairy Tales, nor that they collected them from peasants or farmers who best
represented the “Volk” of Germany1 . The collection was the result of work of scholars and multiple
contributors, but for the most part it was women, educated ladies, who brought the stories to the brothers and
had them written in nearly the same words that reach the audiences today. The nature of this source,
therefore, must have had an influence on the messages the imagery and characters transmit; Paradiz (2005)
states: “When I read the Grimm fairy tales, I feel the handmaid’s presence. I read between the lines the deep
gender ironies and paradoxes”2. Taking a few stories as examples, this essay will analyze the role and
portrayal of the women in them, and how they are alternately made into victims, villains or, in some cases,
even heroes.
In “The Fisherman and his Wife”, a poor fisherman earns the favor of an enchanted fish once he lets him
go after catching him. But the man’s greedy wife keeps sending him back to the sea to ask for more and more
favors (including to let her become a king), until eventually, when she, Isabill, demands to be the master of
the sun and the moon, the fish replies to the man: “Go home to your pigsty again”, and every granted wish is
undone3 .
This is one of the few stories that was delivered to the Grimm brothers not by a woman but by a man,
romantic writer Ludwig von Arnim, who also contributed titles like “The Juniper Tree”4. What both these
tales share is a greedy woman as the villain, and their husbands as unaware or passive participants in their
schemes. The amount of power the woman handles over the man in “The Fisherman” is unusual, and it can
be said that its title is ironic, a more fitting one being “Isabill and her obeying husband”. But the portrayal of
women in this story, however empowering, is a very negative one. The Grimm tales serve to create the
images of the ideal versus the undesirable woman. The recurring good girl is young, fair, docile, and usually
her passive behavior is rewarded with marriage and a happy ending; whereas the evil woman is old, ugly,
proud, and her ambition is punished with either death or the loss of everything she owns5 . The latter is the

1! J. Zipes, (2002), The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World, New York: Palgrave McMillan.
p. 159.
2 V. Paradiz, (2005), Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales, New York: Basic Books, p. xvi
3 J. Grimm; W. Grimm (1876). The Fisherman and his Wife, in E. Taylor, ed. Household tales by the Brothers
Grimm London, R. Meek & Co. p 63-72
4 V. Paradiz. (2005), Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales, New York: Basic Books, p.
36.
5 C. Kamenetsky, (1992) Feminist Views and Counter-Arguments, in The Brothers Grimm and their Critics: Folktales
and their quest for meaning. Ohio: Ohio University Press, p. 283.
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case of Isabill, as a consequence of her greed sent back to her humble pigsty, an image closely associated
with the unpleasant wife.
Generally, the female villains in the Grimms’ tales are so because they abuse of a power expressed in the
form of magic. This is the case in “Jorinda and Jorindel” and “Lily and the Lion”, two stories that share the
motif of a young person having to rescue their magically transfigured beloved. In “Jorinda and Jorindel”, an
“old fairy” transforms Jorindel’s fiancé into a bird and imprisons her in a cage. He then spends a long time
wondering near the witch’s castle but unable to approach it. Aid comes to him through a dream, which
indicates what magical flower will revert the spell; With it, he manages to save all the seven hundred
imprisoned girls, including his6. “Lily and the Lion” has a very similar plot: Brave Lily, whom for a start
spares her father’s life by marrying an enchanted lion, has to go behind her husband for seven years before
she can wrestle him from a dragon, then from the human form of this enchanted dragon (a princess), and
finally take him home. This she manages with the help of the personified Sun, Moon and Winds, who
provide her magical gifts and advise in her journey7.
The fact that the Grimms anthology includes two similar stories, with the only difference in the gender of
their heroes, really contradicts the widespread assumption that their tales shape the image of women as
inferior to men. Both Jorindel and Lily are put through the same tests, such as traveling for long years after
their couple and defeating a powerful female villain. It can be argued, however, that whereas Lily needs the
help of various magical agents to accomplish this, Jorindel conjures the answer through a dream, that is, with
no external help; as a young man, he is independent and mighty on his own.
Finally, a very unusual tale regarding this subject is “The Twelve Huntsmen”. In it, a dying king tells his
son that he has been promised to marry a foreign princess instead of his chosen fiancé. He agrees, but the
first bride dresses up eleven girls and herself as knights, who offer themselves as the prince’s huntsmen. He
is delighted, but his advisor, a talking lion, warns him that they are all women. So the girls are put to a series
of test which do prove their “masculinity” thanks to the wit of the first bride. But eventually the prince
discovers her real identity, and is so moved that he pronounces that he will marry her, his truly beloved, and
the foreign princess is dismissed8.
This one was told to the brothers by Jeanette Hassenpflug, a nineteen year old collaborator who lived with
her father and sisters. She also contributed “Hurleburlebutz”9 , about a king who forces his daughter to marry
a dwarf. Both these stories stress the weight of a father’s authority over his children’s lives, but the outcomes
are not equal. The prince is able to get away from the fixed marriage and choose the maid he does love,

6 J. Grimm; W. Grimm (1876). Jorinda and Jorindel, in E. Taylor, ed. Household tales by the Brothers
Grimm London, R. Meek & Co. p 24-29.
7
J. Grimm; W. Grimm (1876). Lily and the Lion, in E. Taylor, ed. Household tales by the Brothers Grimm
London, R. Meek & Co. p 321-330.
8 J. Grimm; W. Grimm (1876). The Twelve Huntsmen, in E. Taylor, ed. Household tales by the Brothers
Grimm London, R. Meek & Co. p 372-376.
9 V. Paradiz. (2005), Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales, New York: Basic Books, p.
86-87.
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whereas the princess in “Hurleburlebutz” sees no exit to her situation and ends up marrying the dwarf (who
then, however, does become a handsome prince).
But although “Hurleburlebutz” sends the message of how powerless a girl is in reverting a man’s decision,
“The Twelve Huntsmen” serves to state the exact opposite. It is rare in the Grimm brother’s tale for there to
be not just one but a group of females joining forces to overcome the order of a man (in this case, a king),
and succeed at it. It could be argued that they attempt to do so by dressing up as men, and strictly behaving
like men; but the whole plot goes to show that this proves unsuccessful, and only when the maid shows her
real (female) identity does she win her beloved back. It is truly a girl-empowering tale that stands out among
the Grimms', and it comes as no surprise that it was told to them by a woman.
Literature as rich in archetypes, symbolism and imagery as the Grimm brothers’ tales are is an invaluable
source to analyze the historical and social context in which it was produced. The marked influence that
women as narrators had in the assembly of this collection serves, therefore, to depict the limitations that they,
as members of the society, had in that time. Paradiz (2005) reminds us of the importance of storytelling as an
activity back then; for women, she says, “sexual symbolism present in the stories was thrilling to utter
aloud”, and so it worked as a way of expressing their suffering or limitations and obligations imposed on
them10.
When the stories are criticized for having anti-feminist messages or for spreading negative images of
women, whether for them being too weak and passive or greedy and vain, it should be remembered that this
collection serves to portray not today’s reality but that of the early and mid nineteenth century, when the tales
were collected. Studying the tales with this social context in mind should help to appreciate the improvement
that woman’s social position has gained since, and compare it to the portrayal that they receive in the
literature written today.


10V. Paradiz. (2005), Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales, New York: Basic Books, p.
44.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

-Grimm, J.; Grimm, W. (1876), E. Taylor, ed. Household tales by the Brothers Grimm London, R.
Meek & Co.

-Kamenetsky, C. (1992) The Brothers Grimm and their Critics: Folktales and their quest for
meaning. Ohio: Ohio University Press.

-Michaelis-Jena, R. (1970) The Brothers Grimm. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

-Paradiz, V. (2005) Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales. New York: Basic
Books.

-Zipes, J. (2002) The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World. New York:
Palgrave McMillan.