Female protagonist in fitcher's bird by the brothers grimm

The Brothers Grimm fairy tale “ Fitcher’s Bird,” provides a look into a tale of three parts: what men are capable of, role reversal, and good versus evil. Both primary characters in the story fall under either evil or good. For the sake of tradition, in the end the heroes are male figures. However, the characteristics that the heroes have are demonstrated by the female protagonist. For instance, the wizard embodies characteristics that men hide – a womanizer and a killer – while the third sister is everything that a man should be – smart and brave. In the end this controversy is resolved when the brothers and kinsmen reclaim their position as heroes and kill the evil wizard, while the women are returned to a position where they need protecting.

To the readers, the wizard displays a form of serial womanizing when he continually kidnaps women and forces them to live with him. He seems to have the idea that only the ‘ perfect girl’ will do for his bride. Thus, he constructs a test in which the girl must pass or be executed because she is not ‘ good’ enough for him. It is not until he abducts the third sister that the cycle is broken. When the girl looks around her ‘ prison’ and enters the forbidden room she finds the mangled remains of the other women the wizard had ensnared and killed. She realizes this is what happens to women who let themselves be taken captive by a womanizer. They end up torn to pieces. The third sister realizes this is what could happen to her so she decides to do something about it – decides to overcome the evil. Once she passes his outrageous test the wizard tells her, “ You have passed the test, and you shall be my bride” (150). Because the youngest sister did pass, she was able to stop the cycle of kidnapping and killing.

All the body parts that the wizard leaves behind reveal not only that is he a serial womanizer, he is also a serial killer. If he did not revel in the act of removing limbs from torsos, he would have simply slit their throats and removed the bodies. However, he both mutilated the women and left their corpses in the ‘ secret’ room. From this, the reader may infer that the wizard enjoys the acts of torture and killing and also enjoys returning to his ‘ trophy room’ of women. These actions of the wizard show who men can truly be on the inside: someone who would destroy a woman if given the chance.

These qualities that the wizard displays are qualities that all men potentially possess. Men who act on these characteristics are capable of seducing women and leading them to their demise. They are also able to mercilessly kill those same women. Men such as the wizard, are heartless, ruthless, and should be feared. These men see most women – until they find the ‘ perfect’ one they are to marry – as their victims. Thankfully, most men choose not to act on these desires. Instead they choose to suppress them and have their more amiable attributes more prominent in their lives – attributes that the female hero in the story provides.

As implied earlier, the youngest sister was the smartest and most level-headed of all the women the wizard had encountered. She was able to realize that it was foolish to carry something as breakable as an egg around in her pocket. By keeping it safe off her person, she was free to find the mystery behind the man, which turned out to be the fact that he had mutilated women in his spare room. The sight of all the blood and guts did not deter her from finding the correct pieces of her sisters, nor did it stop her from putting them back together. Her ability to place her sisters’ body parts together correctly shows that she is clever on her feet and knows what she is doing. In addition to this, she is able to trick the wizard into carrying her sisters – now put back together – home to their family. She accomplished this feat by placing “ them in a basket and cover[ing] them with gold until they could not be seen” and then sends the man on his way (150).

In addition to outwitting the wizard, this unconventional girl can be seen as brave. She faced the evil and become the unsuspected hero. Towards the end of “ Fitcher’s Bird,” she has completes her hero-like ‘ quest’ and thus has power over the ‘ beast.’ This can be seen when she tells the wizard to bring the basket of gold (containing her sisters) home to her mother and father. The only way she was able to do this was because the wizard “ no longer had any power over her and had to do her bidding” (150). If the sister had not been in the role of hero, she would not have had that power. She shows the reader that being smart and brave provides a person with the ability to be a hero. Meaning, in order for a man to become the ‘ rightful’ hero, he must realize his potential for both before he can assume the role.

In this traditional tale of good versus evil, tables are turned for most of the narrative. Usually men are seen as guardians and protectors – the hero types. In this story, however, the women – the third sister in particular – had been the hero. For example, she was the one to figure out what the wizard was doing and how she could stop it. At the story’s finale, the men are set back in their traditional role of being the heroes when they are the ones to finally destroy the evil. This outcome places women back where they ‘ should be’ as the ones who need to be protected. They once again become the damsel in distress.

The feedback I received on my draft was mostly about placement of words, word choice, narrowing focus in paragraphs, and adding some more supporting quotes in places. To fix these issues I’m going to read through the comments given to me again and decide what I want to agree with and what I am going to ignore. Then, I’m going to go back into my essay and correct the problems starting at the beginning working my way to the end. After that, I will read my essay one more time to make sure it flows and is all fixed up.

In addition to all of the minor language changes, I completely removed a paragraph in which I talked about the wizard being stupid/consumed with desire. I would have talked about how he could not recognize the girl’s voice from the basket as not the one he was going to marry and also how he saw a skull in the window and thought it was his bride-to-be. I took the paragraph out because it did not flow well with the rest of the essay, and I could not find much evidence to back up my claims.