Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Clever Hans
Reading Clever Hans, it seems that this particular fairy tale is meant for humor, rather than adventure or moral example. Hans continues to go back and forth from Gretel's house to his own, asking for and retrieving gifts, and all the while is being chastised by his mother for doing things wrong. In Hans' defense, he is just doing what his mother is telling him to do, but unfortunately he ends up with a calf on his head and his bacon on a leash. This tale is much different from the traditional coming of age tales. Instead of venturing into the wild and becoming a man with flowing golden hair, Hans ends up lonely after cutting out the eyeballs of all of the livestock and throwing them at Gretel. In fact, by the end of the story it does not seem that Hans has changed even a little bit! This tale, unlike the others, obviously was not meant to teach an example for young coming of age men. It seems that even 18th and 19th century Germans needed a little slapstick comedy, too.
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The function of this particular tale may have been twofold. Aside from being instructional on how specifically to relate to certain types of objects (goat, bacon, etc.) it also acts as a warning that one must be prudent and careful in the application of maxims because otherwise there is always the possibility of going astray. There is a specific way to interact with different things and to take one way of interaction as a universal is detrimental.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this tale is more humerous rather than written to teach morals. However, the end kind of catches the reader off guard when it comes to the rather gruesome conclusion. I think that the ending is a warning to not take things too literally and to think for yourself so that bad things don't happen.
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