“Gretel in Darkness” by Louise Gluck, is written from the perspective of Gretel. The poem made an impression on me in its very denial of anything female. Both stepmother and witch are dead, and Hansel and Gretel are living in the apparent security of their father's home. But Gretel is troubled. She cannot forget. She seems to be the only one who remembers her and Hansel's troubled past. In the poem, Gretel ruminates on what she had to do in order to save her brother – "But I killed for you". Hansel, alas, no longer acknowledges her selflessness and heroism. He seems not to remember, or maybe he chooses not to. She is alone, haunted by fear and guilt. In contrast, it seems that that world around her has become masculinized and sanitized, populated only by her father and brother. The women – her mother, stepmother, and the witch- are all dead and gone. What is this poem saying? Is this the plight of a woman trying to live in a man's world? Must the feminine ultimately be denied in favor of the masculine? Is this poem a criticism of Western patriarchal rule?
Read the poem here: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/gretel-in-darkness/
The image at the top of the post is also titled “Gretel in Darkness” and can be found here: http://theatreofthesublime.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html
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