The Father
supporting · human
A woodcutter who agrees to something he knows is wrong, builds his children an unnecessarily good fire, and cannot look at them.
What they are like
- Kind
- 6/10
- Brave
- 2/10
- Clever
- 4/10
- Honest
- 5/10
- Curious
- 3/10
- Patient
- 6/10
How we meet them
Losing an argument he should not be having. His only line of resistance is two words: 'They're children.'
Personality
Weak rather than cruel, and painfully aware of it. He does the wrong thing, hates himself, and does it again a few weeks later.
What they want
He genuinely cannot see another way, and that is not the same as there not being one.
How they change
Loses his children twice, is given them back twice, and does not have a happy hour in between.
How they speak
Barely anything, and never to his children directly except once, without looking at them.
How the story treats them
The story does not forgive him and does not condemn him. It simply notes that he cried when they came back, and lets the reader sit with that.
One surprising thing
In the Grimms' first edition of 1812 it is the children's own mother who suggests abandoning them. Wilhelm changed her to a stepmother in a later edition.
If they were real today
He would be the parent who knows the decision is wrong and makes it anyway because he is too tired to fight.
Things they say
- “They're children.”
- “Wait here. We won't be long.”
Key moments
They're children
His entire resistance, two words long, offered once and then abandoned in a silence that Hansel hears from the next room.
“They're children.”
A better fire than he needed
He builds them a fire far larger than the job requires and takes a very long time over it, because as long as he is building it he has not left yet.
“Wait here. We won't be long.”
Sitting in the doorway
Found at the end exactly where he has been for weeks, and unable to get up when he sees them at the end of the path.
Who they know
Hanselfamily
A father who cannot look at him, and a son who notices everything.
Characters like The Father
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