The Witch Must Die

Henry Biller

"A dazzling tour de force for anyone interested in the inner world of children and parents."
—author of The Father Factor

New Yorker

In his new psychological study, The Witch Must Die: How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives (Basic), Sheldon Cashdan analyzes dozens of stories in terms of the seven deadly sins. He explains how children's empathy for a character like Snow White, who embodies Vanity, may be less important than their identification with the evil queen: "As children mature, 'kill thine enemy' needs to evolve into 'know thine enemy'....[They] need opportunities to become conversant with parts of themselves they are going to have to deal with for the rest of their lives." In a lighter vein, Cashdan notes that one early version of "Little Red Riding Hood" featured the heroine doing a striptease for the wolf before jumping into bed with him.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In a thematic survey of the stories the world tells its children, noted psychologist Cashdan (Abnormal Psychology) explores why fairy tales maintain their enduring power. Despite the elaborate Technicolor animation in which traditional stories often appear, most are watered-down forms of original versions that were devised not for the moral education of children but for the entertainment of adults. According to Cashdan, this partly explains the lifelong attraction of the deeper psychological journeys and moral quandaries that fairy tales address. Focusing on the drama of basic human attachments and temptations (abandonment, vanity, greed, envy, lust, sloth--each of which he examines in individual chapters), Cashdan interprets fairy-tale plot elements in relation to basic psychological development while discounting psychoanalytic interpretations as convoluted and at times illogical. Ultimately, Cashdan contends that fairy tales work their magic by acknowledging our identification with the darker parts of ourselves. In order ``for a fairy tale to have a lasting effect on young readers," he writes, "the hero and heroine must... be tempted by the same temptations [as the witch].'' Though some of his insights are fresher than others, one of the pleasures of his study is the breadth of his examples: Cashdan offers not just familiar Disney, Grimm and Perrault tales but lesser-known variations, some of which have not survived the delicate sensibilities of the modern age, fueled as they are by adultery and aggression. Agent, Linda Chester. (July) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Fairy tales introduce fiction and moral lessons to youngsters, but originally they were written for adult entertainment and were often gruesome and immoral. This is a scholarly analysis of familiar fairy tales and their audience, origins, and impact. The work evaluates traditional narratives, showing them to be ancient in origin, often changed in the historical continuum, and endlessly interesting to artists, writers, teachers, and audiences of all ages. Extraordinary motifs follow the common introduction "Once upon a time," including ancient superstitions, archetypal fears, contemporary folk beliefs, exotic conventions, symbolism, enduring wishes, and social commentary. Cashdan, a noted psychologist, works on three major levels, providing an original understanding of these eloquent tales, investigating subtle meanings that were glossed over when we were young, and introducing readers to tales that never found their way into standard children's literature. This rich cultural panorama is an excellent companion to Bruno Bettelheim's classic The Uses of Enchantment (LJ 6/1/76) and should join the standard studies of this beloved literature.--Richard K. Burns, MSLS, Hatboro, PA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Cashdan (psychology, U. of Massachusetts-Amherst) explains how fairy tales help children deal with psychological conflicts by allowing them to project their own internal struggles between good and evil onto the battles enacted by the characters. He highlights the role of iconic images like glass slippers, gingerbread houses, evil stepmothers, and sorcery. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kirkus Reviews

A disappointingly disjointed attempt to elaborate on fairy tales' psychological mission. Cashdan, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, begins with general statements about fairy tales that are then contradicted in subsequent discussion. For example, the author claims that fairy tales are not faithful representations of reality, while demonstrating that they are in fact products of their time and cultural environment. Further, Cashdan finds in many fairy tales the same dynamics of power, envy, and control as exist in the workplace. He traces transformations that over time shifted the plot of some of the best-known tales, showing that the changes were induced by the mores of each particular society. In a separate line of reasoning, Cashdan declares that fairy tales were originally conceived as entertainment for adults and not to teach children any moral lesson. However, the central argument is that fairy tales address pragmatic concerns, helping children to personify and combat the reprehensible parts of their own character and emotions. Hence the central position in many fairy tales of the witch, a carrier of such deadly sins as sloth, greed, gluttony, vanity, and deceit. The witch's inevitable death at the end of the tale serves to ensure the child permanent victory over the self's sinful side. To reinforce the effficacy of moral instruction in fairy tales, Cashdan provides suggestions on the use of specific tales in child education, and a reading guide for parents and teachers. When he ventures beyond psychology into literary and folklore studies, his analysis appears even weaker. Evidently not familiar with Vladimir Propp's seminal work,"Morphology of the Folktale," which has informed folklore studies for the past 70 years, Cashdan invents his own superficial structural model of fairy tales. Most of the book merely retells well-known fairy tales, while the contradictory and confusing main argument could easily have been condensed to just a few pages.