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Performed Subservience and Practiced Rebellion:
Gender and Power Relationships in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimms Childhood and Household
Tales

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12 June, 2014

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Picture this: a beautiful princess wiles away her days in isolation, wishing that someday
her prince will come and rescue her. The fairy tale princess has become one of the most well
known symbols of female subordination and passivity in western culture. As a result, influential
writers and compilers of fairy tales, such as the Brothers Grimm, have been heavily critiqued for
their alleged misogyny. Yet in analyzing the Grimms tales, critics frequently impose contemporary standards on the past and fail to explore the complexities of gender and autonomy in literature. They often suggest that the stories either support the complete subordination of women or
that they are unproblematically empowering. My article, by contrast, reveals the complexity and
ambivalence of female power within the tales by exploring the ways in which female characters
are encouraged to perform subservience while secretly manipulating events and individuals to
work for their practical benefit. Much of the feminist disproval of the tales is rooted in the misconception that the heroines desire nothing more than romance in the form of marriage to a
charming prince. Yet despite popular belief, the heroines goals (and even their marriages) are
practical, not romanticit is the male characters who the Grimms portray as sentimental and
passive, not the women. The mens passivity, even in the face of wrongdoing, encourages women
to subtly manipulate external events while maintaining the appearance of subservience in order
to improve their circumstances. The distinction between the heroines performed and internal
selves provides them with a way to circumvent gender limitations; they appear disinterestedly
obedient to their male peers while secretly working to improve their own fortunes. Alan Lius
theory of contained rebellion, which claims that individuals must rebel from within the confines of their society, suggests that performed subservience is a legitimate route to autonomy

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rather than just lip service.1 That said, the Grimms are at times idealistic about the success of
contained rebellion, and their stories are not free of misogynist bias, as is evidenced by their
tyrannical portrayal of women who usurp male positions. This article examines the ways in
which women can experience autonomy and containment simultaneously, thereby dismantling
societys simplified all or nothing view of empowerment. It analyzes the value of performed
subservience and ultimately recommends a localized, subjective view of autonomy rather than a
generalized and objective one. The following texts will provide the bulk of the analysis: The
Frog King, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Hans, My Hedgehog, and The Fishermans Wife.
Feminist scholars have been largely critical of the Grimms allegedly derogatory portrayal
of women. As is stated in the Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, feminist interpretations of fairy
tales are fundamentally...critique[s] of patriarchal literary and cultural practices.2 Some of the
most influential fairy tale critics, such as Ruth Bottigheimer and Maria Tatar, have claimed that
not only are the women of the Childhood and Household Tales portrayed in a misogynistic fashion, but that this sexism was part of Wilhelm Grimms editorial intent (Zipes p. 158). In Grimms
Bad Girls & Bold Boys, Bottigheimer claims that male characters who defy social standards are
seen as trickster heroes, while women are punished for committing equivalent transgressions.
She points to the fairy tales tendency to blame a wicked woman such as an enchantress or stepmother for all wrongdoing, while fathers stand innocently to the side.3
Bottigheimers conclusions simplify the complexity of female power in the Grimms
tales. In claiming that men are rewarded for their transgressions while women are punished, Bottigheimer overlooks the many female characters who gain happiness through disobedience. The
Frog King goes so far as to depict obedience as the cause of female dissatisfaction and trans-

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gression as its cure. The princess spends the beginning of story obeying the commands of two
male figures, her father and her suitor (the frog). The text is littered with demands that the men
make of the heroine (Let him in, Lift me up, Take me to your room), but in following them
the princess gains only unhappiness, disgust, and tears.4 This implies that the road to satisfaction
does not lie through subservience. The princesss fortune only changes for the better after she
rebels by refusing one of the frogs requests and throwing him against the wall with all her
might (pp. 9-10). The phrase with all her might focuses our attention on the princesss
strength, which shed withheld in previous encounters with her suitor. In seeing her might, the
reader realizes that the princess never lacked the ability to act independentlyher strength had
simply been masked by her subservience. Its notable that the Grimms chose this as the catalyst
for the frogs transformation from amphibian to human rather than the famous kiss seen in other, non-Grimm versions of the tale. The princesss docility doesnt turn him into a manrather,
the way she harnesses and expresses her power is what forces the frog to change from an amphibian who makes her weep to a royal who becomes her dear companion (p. 10). This suggests that heroines can obtain satisfaction by expressing their own authority rather than obeying
the demands of others. The princess in The Frog King is not punished for her transgression, as
Bottigheimers theory would suggest; instead, she enters a prosperous marriage. Likewise, other
heroines, are rewarded for rebellionRapunzel, for example, gains freedom from imprisonment
not through virtuous passivity but by entering a forbidden relationship and plotting her own escape,5 and Cinderella improves her social standing by sneaking out of the house against her
guardians wishes to meet a prince.6

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Bottigheimers other observation, that fairy tales tend to have female villains, is accurate,
yet critics should not assume that this is purely the result of misogyny. The fact that women are
often both the protagonists and the villains in the Grimms stories actually indicates their power:
in the Childhood and Household Tales, female characters frame the conflict between good and
evil. This woman/woman dynamic appears throughout the Grimms stories: we see Snow White
versus the Evil Queen, Cinderella versus her Evil Stepmother, Gretel Versus the Witch, and so
on.7 Its notably different from the male/male trend seen in many films and novels, where the
conflict centers around two men who occasionally interact with bland, female love interests. In
fact, it is almost the exact opposite; in the Grimms tales, women drive the story lines while men
remain marginalized. Examine the stories Snow White and Cinderellathe princes in these
tales are virtually indistinguishable, and do little to drive the plot besides ultimately marry the
heroines. All the significant action in the tales (Snow White running away, the Evil Queens attempt to murder her, Cinderella sneaking out to the ball, the Stepmother giving her endless
chores) is performed or instigated by women. As the embodiments of sin and virtue, the female
characters represent the moral boundaries of their societies. No prince can achieve as perfect a
sense of virtue as Snow White; similarly, no king has the potential to wreak as much havoc as the
Evil Queen. Contemporary feminist readings often overlook the way female characters frame
moral conflicts in the Grimms tales, perhaps because they are focused on the heroines individual autonomy, which low compared to modern standards.
While its easy to judge the tales against contemporary standards of feminism, failing to
examine their historical context obscures their messages about femininity. The gender based limitations within the tales speak to womens social standing during the Grimms lifetime. A German

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encyclopedia published around the time of the second edition of the Childhood and Household
Tales explains the differences between men and women in the following manner: The man must
acquire, the woman seeks to preserve, the male with force, the female with her virtue or wiles.8
Men are encouraged to actively earn their desires while women passively preserve the status quo.
This focus on maintaining the status quo is part of the reason why the Grimms heroines perform
servility rather than blatantly rebellingif their actions threatened the social hierarchy, the
women would be considered unfeminine. Another encyclopedia from Grimms lifetime describes the male disposition as individual and the female as universal, suggesting that men
may follow their own interests while women must work for the good of those around them.9 A
German womans destiny was to become a wife, housekeeper, and mother, and female independence threatened both the patriarchy and the good of the household.10 As if to deny or prevent
women from gaining independence, German society treated them like flat, empty objects incapable of rough workand intellectual achievement.11 Since women were said to lack strength
and intelligence of their own, they were expected to latch onto men, existing as extensions of
their husbands. The first task of a woman according to Gods order is to be a helpmate to her
husbandin everything his crown and honor Heinrich Buttner wrote in Woman as God Wants
Her.12 When a man looked at his wife, he expected to see a reflection of himself rather than an
autonomous being. It was mandated by law that the German wife must submit to her husbands
will in all areas of lifefor example, until 1957, a German man had the right to prevent his wife
from earning her own livelihood.13
With these popularized attitudes towards the role of women, it would be unrealistic (and
even deceptive) for the Brothers Grimm to write stories whose heroines never dealt with patriar-

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chal oppression. Thus, none of the female characters live without a man at their side, with the
exception of a few elderly enchantresses.14 Women never becoming heroes by saving entire
towns from dragons,15 though they do have the strength to save themselves by drowning wolves16
and burning murderers.17 By recognizing the misogynistic atmosphere in which the tales were
written, one becomes aware of how the stories were progressive for their time period. Whats notable about the Grimms tales is not that their heroines are in unique positions of power, but that
the women manage to circumvent their degraded positions through wit and diligence.
Critical analysis should take into account not only the tales historical context, but also
how the Grimms rewrote the stories (originally popularized by writers such as Charles Perrault
and Giambattista Basile) in ways that increased womens authority. The brothers strengthened
womens presence by inserting them into roles previously held by men. For example, the wise
men who predict the heroines lengthy slumber in Basiles version of Briar Rose (Sleeping
Beauty)18 are replaced with the Wise Women of the kingdom.19 These women are undoubtably
the most powerful characters in the tale, even more so than the king. Instead of simply predicting
Briar Roses sleep, as the wise men did, two of the women respectively enact the curse and save
the protagonists life (Briar Rose p. 241). In this way, women are responsible for the tales conflict and its resolution, which reinforces the aforementioned woman/woman dynamic.20 The
Grimms also increased the significance of preexisting female characters, such as Cinderellas
mother. In both the Perrault and Basile versions, all that can be said of Cinderellas mother is that
she dies. Contrastingly, the Grimms version opens on the final conversation between her and her
daughter. After the mothers death, her gravesite becomes the place where Cinderella symbolically nurtures her strength by tending for the tree that eventually provides her with tools to reach the

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ball (Cinderella pp. 121-122). Her care for the tree reflects the care she would have been
shown by a maternal figure: Cinderella waters and nurtures it as a parent would an infant. Both
these details and the way that the tale opens on the mother/child image imply the importance of
female relationships, an implication that is made in neither the Perrault or Basile versions.21
The Grimms also altered the tales in a way that highlighted the heroines strengths, along
with their ability to accomplish their goals. Unlike Perrault and Basile, who suggest that Cinderellas success is due to the random intervention of magical creatures (the infamous fairy godmother22 and the dove of the fairies,23 respectively), the Grimms attribute Cinderellas success
to her own hard work. The little ash girl isnt given the gift of a happy ending from a fairy
godmother, but earns one through her own diligence. In addition to maintaining the order within
her household, she plants and nurtures a tree whose magic makes it possible for her to attend the
ball. After disguising herself for the ball, she walks all the way to the palace (not a pumpkin
coach in sight) and charms the prince to such effect that he discards countless eligible maidens
and a staircase worth of pitch to become her husband (pp. 121-133). This is a particularly sharp
contrast from the Perrault version, which not only makes Cinderella completely dependent on an
outside force for her happy ending, but also suggests that Cinderellas greatest virtue is not her
agency but her feminine conduct. In his conclusion, Perrault writes that a heroines best qualities
are her physical appearance and proper behavior. To him, Cinderella is ultimately successful
not because shes clever, but because she knows how to behave like a queen.24 Contrastingly,
the Brothers Grimm highlight the protagonists clever mind and resourcefulness, thereby suggesting the value of womens work and intelligence.25

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However, claiming that the Grimms fairy tales are unproblematic and empowering is no
more accurate than arguing that the tales heroines are completely subservient to men. In The
Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettleheim claims that men and women exhibit equal autonomy in
the Grimms tales, but women appear more passive because they are symbols of inner development, while men represent outer development.26 The phrase inner development implies that
ones problems remain within the private sphere, unrecognized by outsiders. This is why so many
female protagonists suffer in silence; its also why they must attract the attention of those of
superior social positions (men) who are able to take blatant action (such as proposing marriage)
to improve the womens welfare. In contrast, outer development suggests that ones foes exist
outside of the self. Maturity comes from battling these enemies in the public sphere and thereby
developing a chivalrous reputation. Thus, men can act upon the outside world by going out and
performing great deeds (as in A Fairy Tale About The Boy Who Went Out To Learn About
Fear,27 The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes,28 Hans My Hedgehog29 and virtually every story with a
male protagonist), whereas women are expected to solve their problems by either accepting their
fates or using their wiles to gain mens assistance (as in Cinderella, The Goose Girl,30 and
virtually every story with a female protagonist). Bettleheim fails to acknowledge the inherently
sexist nature of this difference in the portrayal of men and women. Why must women act so subtly? Why do they require the assistance of male saviors? He accepts the limitations imposed on
female characters on the basis that they reflect women and mens allegedly complimentary natures, failing to recognize the misogynistic roots of that concept.
Like Bettleheim, Lutz Rorich argues that the tales empower women, yet he too fails to
acknowledge the heroines sex-based limitations. He addresses Bottigheimers observation that

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women are made to suffer significantly more than men in the Grimms tales by arguing that such
suffering empowers the women, elevating them to a position of martyrdom. He sees female
compliance with harsh punishments as a sign of strength rather than a result of the authors
misogyny.31 Rorich is justified in arguing that the womens intense punishment does not necessarily indicate misogyny. However, he ignores the fact that the heroines compliance with said
punishment is not a result of their moral fiber but of their presumed inferiority. Female characters
do not endure hardship in silence because of their strength, but because society has dictated that
they have no other choice. In nineteenth century Europe, silence and obedience were considered
feminine virtues; therefore no proper woman could vocally reject the systems that cause them to
suffer.32 As a result, women living during the time of Brothers Grimm were forced to rebel silently, which is precisely the idea behind performed subservience.
To comprehend the purpose of performed subservience, critics must understand the heroines motivation: the improvement of their socioeconomic circumstances. Many readers interpret
the Grimms heroines as emotional rather than rational, partly because nearly ever tale ends with
a wedding. In the contemporary, Western world, marriage is typically interpreted as an act of
love. Therefore, modern readers assume that plots resolved through marriage are romanticjust
think of the phrase fairy tale wedding, which implies amorousness and sentimentality. Feminists have been understandably critical of this aspect of the tales, as it suggests that the lives of
the Grimms heroines revolve entirely around their emotional attachments to men. Scholars like
Karen E. Rowe frequently vocalize their disdain for the way the tales loves stories cause women
to tailor their aspirations and capabilities to conform with romantic paradigms.33 However, the
assumption that weddings signal the heroines obsession with romance is inaccurate. At the time

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that the tales were written, weddings were commonly arranged for financial rather than romantic
purposes.34 The Grimms original audience probably interpreted the tales weddings as signs of
money gained rather than true love. This is why, during Cinderellas wedding, the Grimms refer to the good fortune she has gained financially but fail to describe any loving feelings that
she might have for her prince (Cinderella p. 133). Similarly, the heroines of The Frog King
and Rapunzel are never said to fall in love, yet both improve their social standing through marriage. The heroine of The Frog King marries her paramour not because she cares for his personality, but because he is revealed to be a wealthy royal (if shed cared for him as an individual,
she wouldnt have waited until he turned into a king to get engaged; The Frog King p. 10). Rapunzel comes closer to an affection-based motive than Cinderella or the heroine in The Frog
King, since she decides to marry the prince because he will be more loving than the enchantress (Rapunzel p. 60). Yet by loving, she means that he will treat her with kindness, not
that he will be more romanticotherwise, it would be absurd to compare him to a maternal figure. While kind treatment is not an economic motive, its still a practical one: Rapunzel intends
to leave a neglectful home for one in which she is treated well, which is vastly different from
wanting to fall in love. Rapunzel never mentions actual feelings of affection that she has for the
prince, only the possibility of him being kind to her. Furthermore, the primary interactions we
see between her and her suitor are those in which Rapunzel plots her escape, which suggests that
their relationship centers around the princes ability to offer Rapunzel a way out of her tower
rather than on romantic passion (pp. 60-62).
The heroines focus on their social and economic status is emphasized through the motifs
of gold and social class. In Cinderella, the protagonists greatest desire, as articulated by the

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tale, is not to fall in love or reconcile with her stepmother but to attend a lavish ball so that she
can attract the attention of the prince and increase her social mobility. Cinderella and her female
peers place great importance on social class; the protagonists stepsisters insult her not by calling
her stupid or ugly, but by mockingly referring to her as a proud princess and dubbing her rags
finery (Cinderella p. 122). This degradation is rooted in class consciousness, a point driven
home by the fact that despite Cinderellas ill treatment, her father is actually rich. Based on
these details, I suggest that the true injustice of the heroines situation, according to the Grimms,
is that if all were right in the world, Cinderella would be treated like a lady rather than a guttersnipe. The Brothers Grimm describe how Cinderellas stepsisters [take] away her beautiful
clothes and force her to work hard, depriving her of the comfort that she, a rich mans child,
is entitled to (p. 121). The plot then centers not on a search for love, but on a quest to regain (or
even outstrip) her original status, metaphorically taking back her beautiful outfits and shirking
the labor being forced upon her. Before attending the ball, Cinderella stops by her magical tree
and requests that it send her silver and gold. On the surface, her desire is to obtain a silver and
gold gown, but the Grimms exclusion of any word specifying that shes asking for clothing suggests the dual meaning behind her request. The whole purpose of attending the ball is to attract
the prince and thereby improve her economic standing, gaining silver and gold of a literal sort.
Her appeal is akin to a prayer: let this evening go well so that I will possess the silver and gold
of a royal. Fittingly, when she arrives at the ball, her gown causes people to assume she is the
daughter of some foreign king rather than a neglected housekeeper (p. 128). Her outfit claims
that she is a princessall thats left to do is make her position official by marrying a monarch.

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The motif of gold is emphasized with even less subtlety in The Frog King, a tale which
suggests that economic practicality is more important than morality. The princess in this story is
essentially defined by her lavish lifestyle. The reader is assaulted by a barrage of imagery showing the princesss great riches, such as her jewels, pearls, silken sheets, and an assortment of
golden objects including plate, crown and most importantly, a golden ball (The Frog King pp.
6-10). The princess values these objects above anything as Disney-fied as romance or friendship.
When she and the frog bargain over what shell give the amphibian for fetching her ball, the
princess offers the things she treasures the most: her crown, pearls, and jewels. The frog, however, is much more sentimental, and desires only her love and companionship (p. 6). Here, the
Grimms set up an explicit comparison of values: love versus money. One might expect that the
tale would end with a lesson on the superiority of the frogs priorities, but not only is the princess
never punished for her greed, her financial focus is ultimately reinforced. When the princess
throws her suitor against a wall, he literally changes from an unappealing paramour to one who
can provide the princess with the social position and riches she wishes to maintain (p. 10). I believe the creatures transformation from a suitor who offers only companionship to one who offers material goods is the crux of the tale, rather than his evolution from frog to human. The
kings amphibian form is merely a metaphor for his unattractiveness as a suitor; he differs from
his human counterparts in no other way, as we see by his ability to barter and eat at the dining
room table (pp. 8-10). Thus, readers should not assume that the princess is rejecting the frog because hes a literal animal, but because his amphibian nature shows that he metaphorically has
nothing to offer but a life in the mud. The princesss dislike of the frog is a refusal to settle for
someone who cannot satisfy her material desires, and her throwing him against a wall is her way

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of rejecting a financially unsatisfying future. Luckily, her rejection turns him into a royal, and
thus the princesss economic focus is rewarded with the most financially beneficial marriage
imaginable.
The practical focus of women like the princess in The Frog King stands in stark contrast to the emotionality of their male counterparts. The only times the words love or heart
are mentioned in the tales discussed is in reference male characters affection for lovers, friends,
or familythe one exception is when a womans heart pounds from fear.35 This demonstrates
how the Grimms choose to describe passion only when speaking about men, thereby defining
love as a masculine trait. The characters actions reflect this connection between masculinity and
affection. While Cinderella runs away from her prince every night without a second thought, her
suitor is so enamored of her that he launches a kingdom-wide search for her hand (Cinderella
p. 131). Similarly, Rapunzels prince becomes emotionally dependent on the captive maiden
rather than vice versahe only has to hear her voice to determine that he cannot rest until he
makes her his lover. He proposes marriage instantly because of his desire, while she accepts because, as was mentioned before, it seems more logical to go with him than to stay with her captor
(Rapunzel p. 60). Love, longing, and becoming a slave to ones emotions are mens work,
while calculation, ambition, and industriousness lie within the womens domain.
Since the men in the tales are sentimental and passive rather than rational and active, they
cannot be relied upon to right social wrongs. They either remain blind to injustice or give in to
villains; it is the women, not the men, who take action to improve their lives.36 In Hansel and
Gretel, a woman informs her husband that she believes their children should be sent to the forest
to starve. Despite not having the heart to leave the children in the forest, Hansel and Gretels

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father leads his children off to die without putting up a fight. His passivity is passed on to his
son, Hansel, who does nothing to battle the witch who captures him and his sister. Ultimately,
Gretel must save Hansels life by murdering the witch (the first of two times she saves him in the
text).37 Similarly, in Rapunzel the protagonists father gives up his firstborn child without complaint when an enchantress38 says he must. One can compare this story to Rumpelstiltskin;
when Rumpelstiltskins heroine is forced into an agreement that involves giving away her child,
she outsmarts the male villain and wins the baby back.39 The father in Rapunzel makes no such
attempt. Finally, we have Cinderellas father, who fails to save his daughter from her stepmothers abuse, and the princesss father in The Frog King, who refuses stop the frogs unwanted
advances (Cinderella p. 122; The Frog King p. 10). As a result of the mens inaction, the
heroines choose to take their fates into their own hands. Time and time again, the female characters exhibit greater strength than the men around them, yet their society demands that they appear
docile so that men are not forced to question their authority. For the womens ambition to exist
within these restrictions, they must develop subtle methods of manipulating their surroundings
while pretending to conform to gender stereotypes (performed subservience).
Womens propriety has long been judged not by the presence of good qualities, but by the
absence of inappropriate ones. Chastity, for example, is less about the presence of purity than
the absence of sexual knowledge or experience; modesty is the absence of arrogance, and restraint is the absence of gluttony. Therefore, in ensuring ones good reputation, it has often been
more productive to hide sins than to show off virtues. Western women in the nineteenth century showed their chastity by hiding any consciousness of their sexuality, and proved their obedience by never voicing rebellious thoughts. Since women were thought to be simple-minded, their

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superficial virtuousness was often taken at face value.40 We see this in the Grimms tales, where
womens honesty is assumed until proven otherwise. The entire court in The Goose Girl assumes that a maid is a princess simply because she tells them so,41 and the enchantress in Rapunzel believes her captive to be chaste because Rapunzel never mentions the prince. It is only
when a womans sins become apparent, as Rapunzels do during her pregnancy, that she faces
judgment (Rapunzel p. 60). Consequently, the women of the Grimms tales must become adept
at hiding their rebellion and maintaining a superficial appearance of obedience. The Grimms'
tales, simplistic by nature, lack the textual nuance required to prove the existence of performed
subservience through direct quotes. Therefore, I construct my argument using both the patterns
Ive observed through the Grimms stories as a collection and comparisons between individual
tales.
My theorythat women in the Grimms tales must rebel subtly and maintain the social
order, rather than be publicly insubordinate and force men to question their dominanceis largely rooted in the contrasting endings of two tales, The Frog King and Hans My Hedgehog. In
both stories, a princess rejects a suitor whom she finds unappealing because of his animal form.
Yet in the former, the princess ultimately marries the king and lives a life of wealth and splendor
(The Frog King pp. 8-12), while the latter princess is deeply humiliated for her rejection
(Hans My Hedgehog). What distinguishes the successful princess from her unsuccessful counterpart? The only notable difference between the tales is that one princess performs subservience
while the other makes her disgust for her suitor publicthus, I argue, the latter princess gives
her suitor reason to reassert his dominance over her in a highly visible fashion.

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The heroine of The Frog King maintains the image of docility towards the frog, making
it unnecessary for him to publicly reestablish his superiority through her punishment. In front of
her father and courtiers, the princess acts as though the frog is her companion. She lifts him up to
sit with her at dinner, allows him to eat from her plate, and brings him up to sleep in her room
(The Frog King pp. 8-10). When the two of them are in public she calls him dear and
promises him gifts. Her internal motives, however, do not match her external show; even as she
calls him endearing names, all the while she was thinking: what nonsense that stupid frog is
talking. She describes him sitting down there in the pond, an image that shows how, both socially and physically, the princess sees herself as above him (p. 6). Yet she does not show her
disgust until she and the frog find themselves in the only place where the princess can escape the
eyes of her father and the court: her bedroom. Once theyre no longer visible to outsiders, the
princess balks at the frogs requests and attempts to murder him (p. 10). One might expect that
once the frog transformed into a king, he would punish the princess for her failed homicide, yet
he doesnt. I argue that this is because the princess never broadcasts her disdain, and as a result
her court assumes she has always been subservient to the frog. Therefore, the creature has no
need to reestablish his dominance over the princess through a degrading display of power.
The princess in Hans My Hedgehog, on the other hand, asserts her power over her suitor (Hans) publicly, causing him to reassert his authority by teaching the woman her place in
front of the entire kingdom. The public nature of the princesss rejection is the only major difference between this tale and The Frog King; thus, I contend that it is the reason behind the
princesses differing fates. Since the princess in Hans My Hedgehog denies her suitor in front
of her kingdom, thereby publicly implying his inferiority, Hans retaliates by punishing her in a

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strikingly visual manner. He forces the princess to wed him, and on their wedding night he removes her clothes, mutilates her with hedgehog needles, and sends her back to her kingdom
eternally cursed (Hans My Hedgehog). Readers should note that the Grimms were known to
make punishments fit the crime, such as when the vain Queen in Snow White is executed by
being forced to wear burning (yet fashionable) shoes.42 This punishment fits the crime pattern
recurs in Hans My Hedgehog, yet it isnt vanity but the act of public humiliation that is reflected in the princesss suffering. Hans responds to her rejection by turning the princesss own appearance into her source of shame, stripping her and mutilating her body. As a result, those who
witnessed Hanss degradation become witnesses to his authority, as he turns the princesss body
into an inescapable reminder of his power.
The princess is cruelly humiliated not as a moral lesson but a social observation: its not
that women who visibly assert their power over men should be punished, but that they will be.
The Grimms are not suggesting that women should never reject men. In fact, the brothers make it
quite clear from the beginning that Hans, like the title character of The Frog King, is obnoxious, demanding, and entirely worth turning away. He sticks his mother with quills when she
tries to feed him and slaughters a group of pigs so violently that they could hear the noise two
hours away! His parents loathe him: if only he would die, his father muses, and when Hans
eventually wanders out into the world his family is happy to get rid of him (Hans My Hedgehog). Most readers would prefer to do as the princess did and set Hans aside. Yet reasonable as
it may be, the princesss rejection of Hans is handled with a degree of visibility that condemns
her. In illustrating the princesss degradation, the tale warns readers that those who threaten a
dominant force must be prepared to face its backlash. Herein lies the reason why spoiled, selfish

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characters like the heroine of The Frog King thrive while faultless ones like that in Hans My
Hedgehog fall: the Grimms are illustrating that success comes not from virtue but from ones
ability to rebel while maintaining an appearance of obedience.
Cinderella is a prime example; her strength derives from her ability to manipulate her circumstances while remaining within the confines of her gender role. Her peers never see more
than she wants them to see because Cinderella maintains an image of docility, breaking the rules
only when no one is watching. Cinderella pretends to do her chores when her stepmother demands it, but orders birds to do the work for her as soon as her guardian is out of sight. Tame
little dovesall you little birds in the sky, come and help me, she cries after her stepmother orders her to pick up all of the lentils in the yard. She then presents the lentils to her stepmother,
knowing well that her guardian ordered her to do the task herself but choosing not to disclose the
birds assistance (Cinderella pp. 125-126). Through this interaction, we see that Cinderella is
intentionally defying her stepmothers wishes while hiding under the guise of docility. If she
were truly obedient, she would have done the chores herself or admitted to receiving help; likewise, if she werent performing subservience, she wouldnt have bothered pretending to pick up
the lentils at all. Further instances of performed subservience pop up throughout the story, such
as when Cinderella asks her stepmother for permission to visit the ball even though she plans to
go regardless of what the woman says. We know the stepmothers permission is irrelevant because she refuses Cinderella three times, yet the protagonist retrieves her gown as soon as her
guardian leaves (p. 127). Cinderella is not deterred by her stepmothers refusal because what
matters is not whether or not she receives permission to go. All thats important is that Cinderella
asks to attend the ball, thereby maintaining an obedient appearance so that her unfeminine re-

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belliousness remains a secret. She doesnt reserve her docile act for villainous characters like her
stepmother, but uses them on everyone, including the prince. With her suitor, Cinderella acts the
part of the innocent beauty, never giving him reason to believe that she is anything but an obedient, and therefore desirable, woman. Instead of asking him to visit her home or telling him about
her neglectful stepmotheracts of domestic betrayalshe subtly lures him to her house with her
nightly flights. Cinderella undoubtedly strives to gain and maintain the princes affectionsotherwise, she wouldnt go to the ball three times and spend each night dancing only with him. Yet
she runs from her suitor every time, hiding in a dovecote and climbing up a tree as nimbly as a
squirrel to keep him from catching her (pp. 128-131). These intentional maneuvers show how
Cinderella is playing hard to get to increase the princes attention, and her method of seduction
is ultimately effective. To marry Cinderella, the prince must go out and find her; thus, he believes
he is in control when he is really a pawn in the heroines deft hands. Cinderellas decision to play
hard to get is problematic for feminist scholarsby using this method to attract the prince, Cinderella is accepting her status as a sexual being, a prize for the prince to fight for. This is hardly an empowering model, yet few alternatives are available to the protagonist. Hers is a society in
which men like the prince and her father are in control of all property and income, and women,
like Cinderella and her wicked stepmother, can only gain access to wealth through marriage.
Marriage, in turn, can only be gained if Cinderella sets herself apart from a literal palace-full of
adoring women. What better way to do that than to act as though she doesnt want to marry the
prince by running away? While playing hard to get turns Cinderella into an object to be won, it
also offers her way out of her unpleasant circumstances that does not involve outright familial
betrayal. Cinderellas ability to run and hide from the prince suggests that she could easily escape

!20

home on her own, yet in doing so she would be abandoning her family. In contrast, forcing the
royal to come find her gives Cinderella a selfless excuse to leave homewho would turn down a
prince? Thanks to her clever tactics, Cinderella gains the wealthy status she has longed for
throughout the story, and her family cannot accuse her of disloyalty. Yet while performed subservience proves successful in Cinderellas case, does it provide her and other heroines with a
significant degree of power? Alan Lius theory of contained rebellion, as articulated in his article
Trying Cultural Criticism: Wordsworth and Subversion, suggests that it does.
In his article, Liu argues that in order for subversion to be successful, it must work within
the confines of the dominant society (p. 71). He quotes Jonathan Frow, stating that there is no
outside of power. Individual members of a society cannot escape the influence of the dominant
social system, therefore they must rebel from within, broadening the systems boundaries rather
than rejecting them entirely (p. 82). From this perspective, the heroines of the Childhood and
Household Tales cannot escape the patriarchal societies they live in, yet they can stretch the limits of femininity by expressing their agency and increasing their quality of life through the manipulation of their peers. Thus, while readers dont meet about heroines who blatantly rebel
against abusive stepmothers, they hear about women who take action to ensure that they are removed from their negligent households in tales like Rapunzel and Cinderella. While women
cant fight the wishes of men in public, they do so, often successfully, in private, in stories like
The Frog King. It would be unrealistic for the Grimms heroines to reject the patriarchy entirely, yet they can increase their agency by finding ways to thrive within their oppressive society.
However, the theory of contained rebellion is somewhat simplistic, as it does not acknowledge the negative effects of emotional repression. The Grimms attitude towards women

!21

appears to have been influenced by their close friend Countess Bettina von Arnim, a writer and
social activist to whom the first edition of the Childhood and Household Tales is dedicated.43
Like the Grimms, Countess von Arnim had a relatively progressive view of womens capabilities.
She was a vocal feminist with a disdain for both the biological dichotomies of gender and domestic life.44 Despite this, she eventually married and had children in a move that resembled performed domesticityoutward conformity to the patriarchy by a woman who was intellectually
opposed to it (p. 38). Fittingly, the Grimms heroines seem like literary von Arnims. Theyre determined and intelligent, yet they too adhere to social standards and marry for practical purposes.
However, the Grimms tales fail to reflect a crucial aspect of von Arnims history: her domestic
life and the self-repression it entailed left her profoundly unhappy, quite unlike the princesses in
the stories. Twenty years of a troubled marriage along with seven pregnancies served as a school
of self-denial for von Arnim (p. 39), and in 1823 she wrote to her sister: I have spent the
years of my marriage on the rack, physically and spiritually, and my claims to consideration are
not being met.45 Her letters show how contained rebellion, successful though it may be, necessitates the repression of ones thoughts and needs. The degradation and frustration involved in this
repression remains unrecognized in the tales, perhaps because the Grimms, middle class men
who had no obvious reason to limit themselves socially, were not even aware those feelings
might come into play. Instead of suffering from the negative effects of self-repression, the
Grimms princesses gain vaguely happy endings as wives and mothers in idealistic conclusions
that ignore the complications of real life.
Not only do the tales veer into idealism when it comes to female agency, they also contain misogyny in their tyrannical characterization of women who attempt to usurp male posi-

!22

tions. There is a distinct difference between these women and those like the princess in Hans
My Hedgehog, who are seen not as villainous but foolish. While the princess in Hans My
Hedgehog carelessly fails to obey the men around her, women like the titular character of The
Fishermans Wife explicitly cast themselves in male roles. The latters problem is not her mere
lack of deference to men, but her desire to be a man. The fishermans wife asks a magical fish to
make her King, then Emperor, then Pope, all explicitly male positions; she then exercises her authority over her spouse, ordering him about and stating Im the emperor and you are [just] my
husband.46 These attempts to dominate her husband reach a climax when she tears her bodice
open, literally and figuratively breaking free from her femininity, while screaming that she wont
stand for her husbands disobedience any longer (p. 104). Actions such as these upend both her
marriage and the social hierarchy, and the Grimms use imagery to reflect the unnaturalness of the
womans attempts to be a man. With each demand for power, the sea outside grows more violent
until it begins to smell and appears to be vomiting water (p. 100). The imagery implies that just
as a sea should not smell rotten or vomit, neither should a woman be in a position of power. The
womans gender, not her desire for a higher position, is undoubtably what the Grimms take issue
with. Where the male protagonists of A Fairy Tale About A Boy Who Left Home to Learn About
Fear47 or The Worn Out Dancing Shoes48 have their desire for authority portrayed as endearing ambition, the Fishermans Wife shows the womens attempts to gain agency as tyrannical
power lust. The ambition thats flattering in a man is unseemly in a woman, so unlike the aforementioned male characters, the fishermans wife is not rewarded with royalty but punished by
having a magical prince strip her of her papacy and return her to her humble state (The Fishermans Wife p. 105). It is an act of public shaming akin to that in Hans My Hedgehoga

!23

woman forgets her place, so a man forces her to pay the price. As the prince reminds the woman
and the title reminds the reader, the womans real identity is and always will be that of wife, the
property of a man who will ultimately hold all visible vestiges of autonomy.
The above misogyny and the limitations of performed domesticity lead to the following
question: at what point does contained rebellion become complicit in the continued repression of
women? Performed subservience allows for genuine pockets of agency, yet it also disguises the
personhood of the women who engage in it by recommending that they split themselves into two
personas, one powerful and hidden, the other domestic and visible. Is a method of subversion
empowering if it asks women to mask their autonomy? Women like Cinderella may change their
futures for the better, but they do nothing to alter the positions of women in their society. One
could argue that the effects of performing docility and actually being docile are the same, which
suggests that performed subservience accomplishes nothing in terms of advancing womens social position.
The limitations of performed subservience explain the tales critical legacy as misogynistic textsthe heroines act out docility so well that readers confuse their performances with their
personalities. Readers notice Cinderella doing her chores and dont think, shes doing this to
avoid the criticism of the patriarchy! but rather shes doing this because women should do their
chores. On the one hand, we can see this as the readers failure to keep the historical context of
the tales in mind. On the other, we can view it as a sign that while contained rebellion may benefit the individual acting it out, it obscures his or her autonomy to such an extent that society as a
whole cannot benefit from it. To focus on either of these perspectives at the expense of the other

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fails to do the Grimms justice. We cannot blame the Grimms for being limited by their historical
context, yet we must acknowledge the boundaries of performed subservience.
Scholars must also reflect on our expectations in regards to subversion: what standards of
rebellion do we demand, and are they entirely fair? In the case of the Grimms tales, which are so
often judged by modern notions of feminism, I argue that theyre not. In order to sidestep our
tendency to judge the stories by contemporary standards, I propose that scholars treat agency as
localized and subjective rather than generalized and objective. Inherent in this approach are the
acknowledgements that the Childhood and Household Tales were influenced by a specific sociohistorical context and that this context differs vastly from that of the modern day. Instead of treating agency as a concept that has meant the same thing throughout history, a localized approach
would recognize how it evolves alongside social standards and relationships. As Peter Taylor and
Hermann Rebel wrote,

A more fruitful approach to fairy tales is to see them in connection with actual social life and
social institutions as a[n]ideological product focused on the inherently imperfect and
conflicting workings of a given social orderfairy tales are indeed ideological creations
emerging from the folk and often do address themselves to the psycho-social strains in an
historically evolving social system; the crucial difference in approach is [to seem them as]
conception materialsby which members of a population fashioned for themselves
analyses that continually interpreted and reinterpreted their social politics.49

The Grimms tales may occasionally adhere to a sexist social system, but this is because they are
the ideological products of individuals living in a society where men were social and political
leaders and women were confined to the home. Yet in calling these tales the ideological products
of their time, this article is not stating that the Grimms were passive writers who merely jotted
down what an entire generation was thinking. As Mary Poovey states, ideology is inescapable,
yet instead of adhering to it completely, many texts challenge it or reveal its tensions.50 The

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Household and Childhood Tales is one such text. While the Brothers Grimm did fall prey to
some of the common beliefs of their lifetime, they also used childrens literature to defy popular
notions about gender in their society. Their heroines industriousness and intelligence, along with
the guiltless ease with which they act in their own self-interest, suggest that women do not have
to be inactive symbols of moralitythey can be social players rather than mere pawns. In nineteenth century Germany, where women were taught to long in silence for what they desired, the
idea that heroines might manipulate their circumstances to accomplish their goals was both radical and empowering.
As a result of my observations about the Childhood and Household Tales, I suggest that
scholars rethink their attitudes towards both feminism and power relationships. Presently, we
view power as something that is either had or lacked, an understanding that defines contemporary approaches to gender relations. For example, dominant western society views the hijab as
evidence of Muslim womens complete disempowerment when, contrastingly, many women
wear one because it allows them to traverse the public sphere while remaining modest, therefore
broadening their geographic boundaries and increasing their agency.51 In the same vein, when a
woman works as a homemaker, many people assume that shes either being completely disempowered by being restricted to domestic life or expressing her empowerment fully by deciding
that this lifestyle is what fits her best. Critical treatment of the Grimms tales mimics this tendency to take an all or nothing approach when it comes to female empowerment. What we must
recognize is that no act or position is one hundred percent limiting or empowering. For the sake
of modern women, we should experiment with the idea that autonomy and containment can exist
simultaneously, both in meaningful ways.

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Some aspects of the Grimms influence on young women are clear, such as the idea that a
happy ending always involves a marriage (be it for economic or romantic reasons), or that a
helpful weapon in attracting a man is ones appearance. Yet the tales teach many other lessons
that often go unrecognized. The Grimms stories promote sneakiness, ambition, and resourcefulness, only the latter of which Disney might approve of. Its time to take a closer look at the values were consuming and what theyve told us about what it means to be a woman for just over
200 years.

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Notes

1. Alan Liu. Trying Cultural Criticism: Wordsworth and Subversion, in Local Transcendence
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 82. Subsequent references will be cited parenthetically in
the text.
2. The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, ed. Jack Zipes (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2000), s.v. Feminism and Fairy Tales. Subsequent references will be cited parenthetically in the text.
3. Ruth Bottigheimer. Grimms Bad Girls and Bold Boys (N.p. : Yale University, 1987), 81-82.
4. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The Frog King, in The Annotated Brothers Grimm (New York:
W. W. Norton and Company, 2012), 8-10. Subsequent references will be cited parenthetically in the text.
5. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Rapunzel, in The Annotated Brothers Grimm (New York: W. W.
Norton and Company, 2012), 60-62. Subsequent references will be cited parenthetically in the text.
6. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Cinderella in The Annotated Brothers Grimm (New York: W. W.
Norton and Company, 2012), 128. Subsequent references will be cited parenthetically in the text.
7. This dynamic is somewhat troublesome, as it perpetuates a Madonna/Whore binary: one character embodies virtue, the other, sin. Yet the Grimms add complexity to this binary by blurring the moral
lines that separate their heroines from their villains. Stories like Snow White and Hansel and Gretel
show us that the gap between sin and virtue is thin. Snow Whites affinity for pretty lace shows that
shes just as vulnerable to vanity as the Evil Queen, and Gretels consumption of the gingerbread house
reveals that she shares the Witchs gluttonous greed. The only difference between the heroines and the
villains is that the heroines ultimately recognize and defeat their sinful natures (Grimm 255; 78-81).
8. Conversations-Lexicon oder Handworten bach fur die Gebildeten Stande, 3rd ed. (Leipzig: n.p.
, 1815), 4:211.
9. Meyers grosses Konversationslexicon, 6th ed. (Leipzig: n.p. , 1904), 12:748.
10. Karen Hausen. Family and Role Division: The Polarzation of Sexual Stereotypes in the
Nineteenth Century - an Aspect of Dissociation of Work and Family Life, in German Family, ed. Richard
J. Evans and W.R. Lee (Totowa: Barnes and Noble Books, 1981), 60-62.
11. Kathe Schirmaches, "Marriage Prospects in Germany," in The Congress of Women (Chicago,
IL: Monarch Book Company, 1894), 181.
12. Heinrich Bttner, Woman as God Wants Her (n.p. , 1863), 219.
13. Schirmaches, "Marriage Prospects in Germany," in The Congress of Women, 181.
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14. Notably, a handful of these enchantresses, like the title character of Mother Holle, are portrayed in a positive fashion. We can therefore presume that living independently is not a sinits simply
not a choice many young women would make in a society where economic rights and properties went
directly to men.

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15. The idea behind this seems to be that men are the caretakers of society when it comes to displays of physical strength. Women like Gretel and Red Riding Hood are capable of committing murder,
but they would never be asked to do so on behalf of their respective villages.
16. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Little Red Riding Hood, in The Annotated Brothers Grimm
(New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2012), 82.
17. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Hansel and Gretel, in The Annotated Brothers Grimm (New
York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2012), 174.
1893).

18. Giambattista Basile. Sun, Moon, and Talia, in Il pentamerone (London: Henry and Co.,

19. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Briar Rose, in The Annotated Brothers Grimm (New York: W.
W. Norton and Company, 2012), 240.
20. Notably, the Wise Womens physical appearances are never described; their value lies not in
their potential beauty, but in their knowledge and powers (the same can be said for heroines like the title
character of Mother Holle). Also worth observing is that they are not fairies but magical women, which
suggests that females dont have to be supernatural beings to have great power.
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21. Indeed, the primary relationship in many stories, such as The Goose Girl, Snow White,
and Hansel and Gretel is that between mother and daughter, while the secondary relationship is typically between the daughter and a female villain.
22. Charles Perrault, Cinderella; Or, the Little Glass Slipper," 1697, in The Blue Fairy Book,
comp. Andrew Lang: (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1889), n.p.
23. Giambattista Basile, "The Cat Cinderella," 1634, in Cinderella: A Casebook, ed. Alan Dundes
(Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982), 6.
24. Perrault, Cinderella; Or, the Little Glass Slipper," in The Blue Fairy Book, n.p.
25. The Brothers reject the importance of elegance and beauty, describing Cinderella as less attractive than her stepsisters while theyre in the home. At one point, they say she climbs a tree as nimbly
as a squirrelnot a stereotypically graceful image (Grimm 122; 131)!
26. Bruno Bettleheim, The Uses of Enchantment (New York: Vintage Books, 2010), 226.
27. Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, A Fairy Tale About a Boy Who Left Home to Learn
About Fear, in The Annotated Brothers Grimm, ed. Maria Tatar (New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
2012).
28. Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, The Worn Out Dancing Shoes, in The Annotated Brothers Grimm, ed. Maria Tatar (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012).
29. Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, eds., "Hans My Hedgehog," University of Pittsburgh,
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm108.html. Subsequent references will be cited parenthetically in the text.
30. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The Goose Girl, in The Annotated Brothers Grimm (New York:
W. W. Norton and Company, 2012).

!29

31. Rorich Lutz, And They Are Still Living Happily Ever After: Anthropology, Cultural History,
and Interpretation of Fairy Tales, ed. Wolfgang Mieder and Sabine Wienker-Piepho, trans. Paul Washbourne (Burlington: University of Vermont, 2008), 111-112.
32. Mariana Zikou, "Visualization of Evil: Muted Women, Horror, and Censorship in 19th and
20th Century Grimm Tales." (lecture, The Brothers Grimm and the Folktale: Narrations, Readings, and
Transformations, Athens, November 2012).
33. Karen E. Rowe, "Feminism and Fairy Tales," Women's Studies: An Inter-Disciplinary Journal
6, no. 3 (1979): 222.
34. Jo Elridge Carney, Fairly Tale Queens: Early Representations of Modern Queenship (New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 73.
35. Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, eds., The Annotated Brothers Grimm, trans. Maria Tatar
(New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012), 8; 11-12; 57-60; 74.
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36. This suggests that male femininity might also be an issue in the Grimms texts, one worthy of
a separate article.
37. Grimm and Grimm, Hansel and Gretel, in Brothers Grimm, 74; 83-84.
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38. It is worth noting that the Grimms referred to this powerful female figure as the enchantress
rather than the witch, which speaks to the moral ambiguity she displays in the tale (Tatar qtd. in Grimm
56). Unlike the witch in Hansel and Gretel, the enchantresss motives are not purely evilshe desires to
raise a child, not eat one!
39. Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Rumpelstiltskin, in The Annotated Brothers Grimm,
(New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2012) 266-268.
40. Mary Poovey, The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1984), 23-24.
41. Grimm and Grimm, The Goose Girl, in Brothers Grimm, 329.
42. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Little Snow White, in The Annotated Brothers Grimm (New
York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2012), 261.
43. Lisabeth Hock, "Bettina von Arnim," in A-F, ed. Donald Haase, vol. 1, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales (Westport: Greenwood, 2008), 68.
44. Elke P. Frederikson and Katherine R. Goodman, eds., Bettina Brentano-von Arnim: Gender
and Politics (Detriot: Wayne State University, 1995), 24; 36. Subsequent references will be cited parenthetically in the text.
45. Bettina von Arnim to Gunda von Savigny, 1823.
46. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The Fishermans Wife, in The Annotated Brothers Grimm (New
York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2012), 98-102. Subsequent references will be cited parenthetically in
the text.

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47. Grimm and Grimm, A Fairy Tale About a Boy Who Left Home to Learn About Fear, in
Brothers Grimm, 27.
48. Grimm and Grimm, The Worn Out Dancing Shoes, in Brothers Grimm, 369.
49. Hermann Rebel and Peter Taylor, "Hessian Women, Their Families, and the Draft: A Social
Historical Interpretation of Four Tales From the Grimm Collection," Journal of Family History 6 (1981):
352.
50. Poovey, The Proper Lady, xiv.
51. Lila Abu-Lughod, "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?," American Anthropologist 104,
no. 3 (2002): 785.