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The Witch Must Die: The Hidden Meaning Of Fairy Tales | 
 enlarge | Author: Sheldon Cashdan
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy New: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 295505
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0465008968
Dewey Decimal Number: 398.45
EAN: 9780465008964
ASIN: 0465008968
Publication Date: July 6, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Publisher's Overstock, Excellent Condition, may have remainder mark
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Product Description
In The Witch Must Die, Sheldon Cashdan explores how fairy tales help children deal with psychological conflicts by projecting their own internal struggles between good and evil onto the battles enacted by the characters in the stories. Not since Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment has the underlying significance of fantasy and fairy tales been so insightfully and entertainingly mined.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 The Witch Must Die by Sheldon Cashdan May 3, 2008
Cashdan, Sheldon. 1999. The Witch Must Die: The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales. New York: Basic Books.
Author Sheldon Cashdan's parents read the more popular fairy tales such as Hansel and Gretel and Jack in the Beanstalk to him as a child. Still, he admits his most vivid childhood memories of fairy tales were brought to him courtesy of Walt Disney. He recalls "sitting in a darkened movie theater watching Snow White and holding (his) breath as the gamekeeper prepared to cut out the heroine's heart" (Cashdan, 1). However, as an adult, teaching undergraduate courses; particularly a seminar titled "The Psychology of Fantasy and Folklore", he became aware of fairy tales as both a teaching tool and a forum for understanding child psychological development.
In chapter one Cashdan discusses some of the myths concerning fairy tales.
*Myth 1-Fairy tales are stories written for children. During his research of fairy tales Cashdan found that many of them "never made their way into children's storybooks" (Cashdan, 2). Of the hundreds of fairy tales Cashdan unearthed only a few, those free of incest, sexual innuendo, and other perversions, were appropriate for children. Their intended use, Cashdan asserts, was entertainment at adult social gatherings.
*Myth 2-All fairy tales were written by The Brothers Grimm. Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm collected centuries-old stories, gleaned from the memories of and relatives, and created an anthology that "many consider the most comprehensive fairy-tale collection of all time" (Cashdan, 7).
*Myth 3-The intent of fairy tales is to teach children lessons. Morality in fairy tales was added later by Charles Perrault. For example, the never talk to strangers caution in Little Red Riding Hood was not part of the original story, but added by Perrault for didactic purposes. According to the author Little Red Riding Hood is about "food and cannibalism" (Cashdan, 9).
In chapter two Cashdan discusses why, although they were not originally intended for children, fairy tales are so appealing to children and why they are helpful psychologically. Fairy tales contain insight into feelings all children struggle to understand. Things such as loving and being loved, fear of abandonment, and even where they stand in the hierarchy of the family find a voice and a release through fairy tales.
Chapters three through ten provide a breakdown of inappropriate behaviors and feelings all children struggle to overcome and compares them to the seven deadly sins; vanity, gluttony, envy, deceit, lust, greed, and sloth. Cashdan points to the witch-like character in various fairy tales; the evil step-mother in Snow White is vain, the witch in Hansel and Gretel is gluttonous, the evil step-mother in Cinderella is envious, the maid-servant in The Goose Girl is deceitful, the Sea Witch in The Little Mermaid is lustful, the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk is greedy, the evil step-sister in Mother Hulda is slothful; and associates the witch's death in each story with a child's ability to overcome inappropriate feelings and behavior.
As a method for understanding the inner workings of a child's mind and an historical index of both well and lesser known traditional tales The Witch Must Die is an excellent resource for parents, teachers, and child psychologists attempting to help children navigate some of the more terrifying impulses, feelings, and actions associated with childhood.
 Interesting analysis of fairy tales February 8, 2008
After reading "Wicked", I became interested in the origins and functions of fairy tales. This well researched book offers insight into such questions.
 Insulting to the genre of fairytale exploration July 21, 2007
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
When I first picked up the book I was floored by the vain reviews of some writers on the back cover, referring to themselves and their work in the book. Next as I opend Cashdan's work in hopes of understanding witches in fairytales, I was disgusted by his use of the word "myth" referencing non-truths rather than the original meaning referring to spiritual metaphor that writers of tales and stories recognize and embrace. I briefly skimmed the material in spite of reservations born from these initial impressions and was deeply disappointed by Cashdan's shallow analysis of his topic. If you want to understand fairytales from a psychological perspective read any of Marie-Louise Von Franz, Clarissa Pinkola Estes and/or Robert Bly's works. The title of Cashdan's work is misleading - he offers no insight into what is perhaps the most wonderous group of stories possible.
 Less than I had hoped for November 9, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I picked up, Sheldon Cashdan's The Witch Must Die: The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales because I had an idea for a fairy tale inspired short story and wanted to do a little bit of research. I gleaned a few insights from the pages of the book, but mostly found it did not live up to all my expectations.
The book is classified as pscyhology and Cashdan makes the case for fairy tales offering psychologists and patients insights into psychological problems. This was something I had a hard time swallowing, but then maybe this has something to do with my lack of conviction in pscyhology.
There are a lot of fairy tales out there, and there's no way Cashdan could possibly be expected to offer a full analyzation of each one, but he does base his conclusions on a very small sampling of fairy tales, to the point that some of what was said seemed a bit repetitive.
There was also far too much time discussing the movie versions, particularly the Disney versions of many of the stories. While a comparison of Disney movies to their original tales would make an excellent subject for a book, in The Witch Must Die it only serves to confuse the issue.
So, I will continue with my fairy tale research. I have a volume containing the complete Brothers Grimm fairy tales which I intend to get to one of these days and a couple of weeks ago picked up a copy of Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim, which Cashdan had referenced a few times, at a used book sale.
Poorly researched and misogynistic October 24, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Early in the text Cashdan makes clear the fact that fairy tales were never intended as children's stories, nor were they meant to convey lessons. Rather, they were a source of entertainment and adventure for adults - characteristics that made the same stories viable later to be adapted for children. He asserts that, rather than teaching specific moral lessons, fairy tales do help children learn to deal with the struggles of everyday life, particularly struggles with what he terms "the seven deadly sins of childhood:" vanity, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, lust, and deceit. He asserts that the tales teach children through subtle means to resolve "struggles between the positive and negative forces in the self."
Cashdan characterizes the witch-villain as an external manifestation and magnification of the child-hero/ine's inner flaws. Later he states that good and bad female figures relate to the child's positive and negative experiences with the mother figure in her life (never addressing the fact that the good mother is almost always dead or absent in the stories). Cashdan quickly dismisses the possibility of misogyny in the negative portrayal of stepmothers and female villains simply because fairy tales aren't meant to be taken as faithfully realistic.
Later still he returns to the idea of the witch as representative of the hero/ine's sinful characteristics. The primary premise of his text is that the "Witch must die because the witch embodies the sinful parts of the self." This concept reinforces the patriarchal implication that evil is feminine in nature and suggests that it is the "negative" female aspects of the child's character which must be annihilated in order for her to live happily ever after.
Cashdan also claims that witches in fairy tales are often depicted as cannibalistic in order to identify them as fully repugnant and therefore deserving of annihilation; in fact, cannibalism was perceived as an earmark of witchcraft during the European witch hunts. This simple statement (as well as his flaccid bibliography) betrays the fact that Cashdan's text is poorly researched and that he often substitutes speculation for informed observations. Due to its inherent inconsistencies and oversights, Cashdan's text is utterly useless unless to provide points to argue against.
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