Michael, I will agree that many more women died in childbirth in
previous centuries than now. But that has no real bearing on the
current question. For one thing, mothers had =more= of a presence in
earlier version of many fairy tales. Hollywood wasn't around when most
of these stories came into being. The "dead mother" syndrome is more
prevalent in our modern versions.
Even if we ignore that, the plethora of dead mothers still makes no
sense. Sure, more mothers died then than now. But not ALL of them.
As for the evil stepmother, the point is not that she is a step mother
but that she is usually evil. We have plenty of step-mothers in modern
society too. That doesn't make them inherently bad. Distracted,
perhaps, but not evil. The fathers were certainly distracted too, but
they fare better in stories.
Michael Marc Levy wrote:
>
> Well, if you go back to the folklore originals, the grim truth
> (pun not entirely intended) is that she probably died in childbirth. This
> was the leading cause of death in married women prior to the mid-nineteenth
> century and it didn't matter whether they were poor women or nobility.
>
> Which is why their are so many kings without queens in fairytales.
>
> Which is also why there are so many wicked stepmothers. A man who lived
> until 45 had better than even odds of long outliving his wife, remarrying
> at least once, and having children by the second (and third wife). In a
> poor family, a woman faced with the task of having to take care of ten
> kids, only half of them hers, would be more likely than not to treat her
> own children better than her stepchildren. Child abandonment and
> infanticide were quite common in the middle ages. Even the Church tended
> to turn a blind eye to these practices in many cases.
>
> Mike Levy
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