A villainous hero
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The company I work for is primarily a printing firm and its specialism is the arts. Around about this time of year, many of the theatres we deal with are gearing up for their winter seasons and, in particular, their Christmas pantomimes. This is the only company I've been to where a group of up to ten adults can call a 'panto meeting' and approach it with all seriousness, completely devoid of any leg-slapping and audience participation. But I digress. It was while seeing some of my colleagues working on one of our pantomime programmes this week that I was reminded of one of the stories in it—Jack and the Beanstalk—and its obvious flaws.
For those who aren't familiar with the tale, Jack and the Beanstalk is about a young man (Jack) who lives with his widowed mother. When they fall on hard times, they are forced to sell the family's cow. Jack duly sets off to the local market, but is waylaid by a stranger who agrees to swap the cow for some magic beans. Jack's mother is understandably upset by this and throws the beans out of the window where, overnight, they grow into a towering beanstalk. Throughout the course of the story, Jack climbs the beanstalk and finds the home of a giant, whereupon he begins to steal the giant's riches and take them home, eventually being discovered when he tries to steal a harp, which alerts its master and forces Jack to run away and chop down the beanstalk.
Several things bother me about this story. Firstly I worry about the mentality of somebody who, went sent to sell a treasured cow in order to gain some money, decides that some beans would be more useful. I'm forced to wonder why he is so keen to trust a stranger who says the beans are magic, not least because if they really were magic, surely they'd be more valuable to said stranger than a cow. The story has its origins in folklore many hundreds of years ago and was likely conceived in a time where people were more trusting, but even so, "I've got some magic beans" isn't a line I would be willing to take somebody's word on if it was going to cost me a whole cow.
Next, we have the beanstalk itself, which grows extremely tall overnight. There are a number of things wrong with this. Firstly, nothing I know of grows that fast. Secondly, most of the beanstalks I've seen have been a little too wiry to support their own weight, let alone that of a grown youth—regardless of how long it has actually been there. Thirdly, anything that grows as high as the story suggests would need to be truly colossal, else it would simply fall over once it reached a certain height.
Upon ascending the beanstalk, which is presumably quite a risky endeavour, Jack found not just a road, but a house as well. While the variations of the tale I am familiar with don't go into any specific detail of the surrounding area, I would imagine there is much more of this in the fairy tale land too. After all, the giant in the story is frequently away from home. I am curious to know how the laws of gravity feel about these things being up so high above wherever it is Jack is from.
When he arrives at the house, the giant's wife takes pity on Jack, feeds him and even hides him from the giant who smells his scent and wants to eat him. Despite her kindness, Jack knowingly deceives her on three separate occasions when he visits the house, each time stealing something from the giant—money, a hen that lays golden eggs and a magic harp (we'll come back to those shortly). While obviously very callous, this shows a cunning far beyond the young lad who knowingly swapped a cow—worth actual money—for a handful of magic beans.
The items Jack steals, and that he and his mother ultimately profit from, grow increasingly peculiar. Firstly we have a bag of money. This I can understand. Next, however, we have a hen that lays golden eggs. If this is a unique creature, I would fear for its health if it had to carry multiple gestating metal eggs inside it. If it is not unique, I would wonder where on earth it came from, given that it is from a species that lays golden eggs. The final item, however, is the most bizarre: a harp with some level of sentience. It can play itself and respond to requests. It can also alert its owner when it is being stolen.
With the exception of the wife, the giant is the character I feel most sorry for. He's often away from home, presumably earning the money to be able to afford these extravagant items, only to have them stolen from him. He seems quite bright too. He appreciates fine music (hence the harp). He has an eye for a sensible purchase (a hen that lays golden eggs). In spite of this, however, when he eventually catches Jack in the act of stealing his harp and tries to get it back, he is effectively murdered when Jack cuts down the beanstalk while the giant is climbing down after him.
Nothing in this story paints Jack as a hero. He is either a fool (trading a cow for beans), a cunning trickster (duping the giant's otherwise kind-hearted wife), a thief or a murderer. Ultimately, however, he and his mother profit and 'live happily ever after' from his ill-gotten gains. Personally, I would like to see 'substance abuser' added to that list. My own view is that Jack was offered some "magic beans", which, when consumed, triggered the most wonderful hallucinations that accounted for his family's sudden windfall. What I feel the story lacked was a backdrop whereby the village bank had mysteriously been robbed overnight. Enjoy the pantomime, kiddies.