After the Witch snags them, Hansel and Gretel experience her hospitality for a month.
Hansel gets stuck in a cage and is fed on pies, cookies, donuts, macaroons, lollipops, bon-bons, and some apples . Gretel must clean house, carry water and firewood, and fatten up Hansel.
Is it any wonder that Gretel eventually goes ballistic?
Your Inner Rhino 
You’re right. I hadn’t thought about it before. This arrangement really is weird. A fairly extreme depiction of the role of men and women in society? At least, in the not so distant past.
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True that. We would point out that it’s the Witch who makes the assignments here. According to the Grimm Brothers, she is fattening Hansel up, which dictates Gretel’s servitude. If Hansel were plumper when he and the Witch met, the whole story might be a lot shorter.
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