Brothers as animals and defeating death

When I first read “The Juniper Tree,” I was struck by the similarity to another Grimms’ story we read, “Brother and Sister.” In both stories, there is a loving brother-sister relationship, a brother that is transformed into an animal, and the return of a person from death. I would say that, like the fawn in brother and sister, the brother in “The Juniper Tree” is mostly human, even as a bird. He still has the love of his sister and still plots his revenge on his stepmother. In “Brother and Sister,” the sister recognizes that the brother is the fawn, making him still seem very human. Though Marlene does not necessarily know that her brother is the bird, she does seem to have some idea. After the bird first appears, the story says, “Marlene was very happy and gay. It was as if her brother were still alive.”

I found the song to be very eerie in the story, and it bothered me that the people that the bird sings the song to seem overtaken by the beauty and ignore the lyrics. No one seems to even hear the lyrics except the stepmother. I think it bothered me because they understand him when he talks but ignore the chilling song lyrics.

I think in these stories we just have to accept that people come back from the dead. Clearly this is not an ordinary bird, as it can carry a lot of weight. Though the stepmother is never specifically called a witch, she seems to act like one, and in fairytales there is always the idea that witch’s magic can be reversed, as the sister in “Brother and Sister” is brought back to life even though the witch killed her. Also, in the Hansel and Gretel movie we watched in class, the eaten children come back to life. It seems as though murder committed by witches is not permanent, and can be reversed by the right actions.