[1] The story contains themes of child abuse, murder, cannibalism and biblical symbolism and is one of the Brothers Grimm's darker and more mature fairy tales.

A somewhat different version appeared a few months earlier Johann Gustav Büsching's Volks-Sagen, Märchen und Legenden (1812).

It was believed until the early 1870s that the Brothers Grimm re-adapted various oral recountings and fables heard from local peasants and townspeople in order to write their well-known fairy tales.

[4] However, various critics including Vanessa Joosen argue that this assumption is false, based on an overwhelming amount of disputing evidence.

[5] The Grimm Brothers themselves wrote in the appendix to the 1812 first edition of the KHM that the text was supplied by Philipp Otto Runge.

He eventually marries again and he and his new wife have a daughter named Marlinchen (in some versions Marlene, Marjory or Ann Marie).

However, when the boy enters the room and reaches down the chest for an apple, the stepmother slams the lid onto his neck, decapitating him.

Marlinchen profusely cries throughout the day whilst the stepmother dismembers the stepson's body and cooks him into a "blood-soup" (Black Puddings Sauer/Suur) for dinner.

Meanwhile, the stepmother complains about the "raging fires within her arteries", revealed to be the real cause of her anger and hatred towards her stepson.

This theme of guardianship is shown throughout other Grimm fairy tales such as Cinderella, Briar Rose, and Snow White.

In addition, he asks for a millstone from a group of millers, which he drops on the wife's head leading to her swift death.

Critic Jack Zipes suggests that the theme of child abuse leads to a more adult centered story.

The stepmother offering the stepson an apple before brutally killing him and manipulating her daughter's innocence to cover up the murder is also a direct allusion to the biblical temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Near the end, the stepmother experiences "raging fires" within her veins, symbolising the weight of her sins and possibly the damnation of her soul.

The boy reincarnating into the bird and killing the stepmother with the millstone out of revenge can also symbolize the Holy Spirit, who is often depicted as a white dove, executing divine judgement upon the wicked.

She concludes that female characters are usually described with a focus on their physical attributes such as small, petite, wicked, beautiful, and ugly compared to the adjectives used in male transformations that overall relate strictly to age and size.

"[12] For the Grimm Brother's audience "the fantasy and magic of the story can be interpreted as instruments to establish or restore social and economic justice.

"[13] Roberta Markman believes that this is the case among all of the Grimm fairy tales because the creative process' "transformative power[s]" can change social norms.

As a result, literature and other creative art forms have the power to change someone's personal attitude regarding their economic and social situations.

Critic Walter Scherf in a study of the introductions of children's literature, noted that out of 176 texts, 169 of them started with a basic family conflict.

[5] Similar to the plot in Juniper Tree, in Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel", the children live with their stepmother who does not like them, and makes a plan to get rid of them.

She states that in the morning she and her husband will take the children into the thickest part of the forest and leave them there, with the intention that they won't be able to find their way back, and end up starving to death.

[14] In comparison to the Stepmother in "The Juniper Tree" who wanted her daughter to inherit everything from the Father, killing the Son in order to guarantee this possibility.