Gretel still kills the witch at the end of the story, in a similar way to traditional versions: she “pushes” the witch into the fire that was meant to cook Hansel. When they leave the witch’s house at the film’s end, returning to their childhood home is not an option they must each continue onward towards adulthood. When they leave their mother’s house, they know they are on their way to adulthood, whether they are ready for it or not. Gretel and Hansel must face the realities of complete abandonment without the hope of salvaging the relationship with either parent. The mother has also seemingly resolved to give up on living her own life, ready to die. The mother’s abandonment of her children in the film is absolutely final: she warns Gretel she’ll kill them if they return to their house, and there is no father left alive to stop the mother from doing this, no father for the children to run back to if their mother dies like in the traditional story. The children grieve their father because he is dead, but this is a different sort of grief than believing that he has abandoned them in the forest. In Gretel & Hansel, the father is dead from the beginning of the film, so the film’s ending has to depart from the traditional ending, allowing for a different set of tensions and dramas to unfold. The plot alterations, especially the ending, of Gretel & Hansel allow filmmakers to create an entirely different and more complex character arc. Their journey is circular in that they leave home in order to return home again, perhaps having learned something along the way. In the traditional story, the children seem to get rid of their mother in order to create a comfortable, happy family with their father. Some readers interpret this as a suggestion that their mother and the witch were the same person. Their mother has died, but no explanation or comment is given about her death. The children then find their way home to their father’s house. She fattens them up to eat them, but they ultimately trick and kill her by shoving her into the oven that was meant for them. The children accidentally come upon the witch’s house, and become imprisoned by her. In the traditional story, the children’s “journey” is to find their way back home they are not intentionally heading for some other place. He takes them into the woods, but rather than killing them, he simply leaves them there (which, given the age of the children, how deep in the woods they are, and their lack of food, would have essentially been a death sentence anyway). The mother demands that the father take the children deep into the woods and kill them. The mother feels that they should abandon the children and feed themselves, whereas the father feels that they should keep the children with them. In traditional versions, the mother (or step-mother) and father are at odds about what to do with the children since they cannot afford to feed them. In traditional versions of the story (mostly published in the nineteenth century or before), Hansel and Gretel live with both their parents, and, like in the film, the family is impoverished. Although there is some degree of variance between the numerous traditional versions of this story, Gretel & Hansel departs from the traditional plot more than most adaptations. The film’s innovative ending is made possible by various alterations to the traditional story’s plot and point of view throughout the beginning and middle of the film. RELATED: The 'Blackcoat's Daughter Ending' Explained: What Isolation Can Drive People To Do
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