Handless Maidens: Grimm Tales in Contemporary Cinema
Hank doesn’t realize his own poverty of spirit until his wife, Alice (Sissy Spacek), leaves him and checks into a motel. He is now isolated from the Feminine (a genderless notion equating to being-in-relationship represented by Alice). But, at the union meeting when Josie tries to speak, he stands up for her. He stands up for the dignity of his daughter as a union member and as a human being; he demands that she be heard, whether anyone agrees with her or not, and in so doing he stands up for the dignity of everyone in the room. This act results in – and here critics might say we are in the realm of fairy tale – the entire room coming around to the requirements of civility. In a matter of moments, Hank begins to heal himself by valuing the Feminine, and as a result he has begun to heal the community.
At the hearing to initiate a class action suit, Josie tells for the first time how she was raped by a high school teacher. A classmate, Bobby Sharp, witnessed but did not report the rape or try to help Josie. He works at the mine and had harassed her there but backed off without injuring her physically. Bobby Sharp can be seen as embodying a part of “Parsifal le chetif”— Parsifal “the puny” or stunted, meaning “the cowardly, poor in spirit, pitiful,” as the latter is named in the Grail legend after he misses his opportunity to inquire about the significance of the Grail and cure the Fisher King.
We see that Hank is changed when he attacks the rapist who has been brought into court as a witness meant to degrade Josie and discredit her demands for the suit. Hank finally acts to protect his daughter, the embodiment of the innocent Feminine, and redeem himself by attacking this perverted masculine figure.
At this point in the courtroom drama, Glory, now wheelchair bound, uses her hand to knock on the metal of her chair to get the court’s attention. It is significant that she uses her bound-up hand to “speak” before her husband actually reads her declaration, stating that she wishes to join the class action suit and “stand with Josie.” We can thus see Josie and Glory as separated parts of the “handless maiden” now reunited.
The father’s speech at the union meeting is the first healing moment in the story, and Glory’s chair-rattling racket with her hand is the second. No doubt critics will suggest that the women remain dependent on men taking their part, but such an argument seems to ignore the fact that we are not only in the story of how women achieve individuation, but of how men achieve it. Men must recognize and value the Feminine and the Feminine, though she may demand recognition, if the Masculine does not value her, the self and civilization are impoverished by the loss.
Immediately after Glory’s speech is read, two women who work at the mine stand up, followed by Josie’s mother (not a union member) and her father. Alice, who has not intervened for her daughter since the time of the rape, has come to understand her part in not valuing the daughter and all she represents. We thus see the negative or repressed father and the previously passive mother as diminished parts of the culture that permit sexual harassment of women, or more generally, devaluation of the innocent Feminine. Josie’s son, who has been furious with his mother, is reconciled as he learns who his father was and that the rape need not affect who he becomes. In this way, we see that future generations need not be tormented by the legacy of an indigent soul.
