The real story

Do you think you know the story of The Nutcracker?  Clara is given a nutcracker on Christmas, and it comes alive, leading her as her prince through a magical kingdom of living snowflakes, flowers, and dancing treats.  You might be surprised to learn, however, that this is not the full story.

As occurred with the fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm, The Nutcracker became somewhat watered down and less frightening as time went on; it actually started out as a bit of a creepy tale, very unlike the story that now entrances adults and children alike.  The article that I found about this is called, "No Sugar Plums Here: The Dark, Romantic Roots of 'The Nutcracker.'"  Naturally, I couldn't resist an article with that title.

The article gives the real author of The Nutcracker, a man by the name of E.T.A. Hoffmann: remember, Tchaikovsky only wrote the score (the music) for the ballet, not the actual story itself.  Hoffmann, similar to his fictional character Drosselmeier, seemed very interested in the animation of the inanimate, and the interview even reveals that one of his stories was the vague basis for another ballet, Coppelia, which is about a man who falls in love with an automaton girl.  Hoffman's original story was called, "The Nutcracker and Mouse King," and it followed the small adventure of a girl named Marie who, concerned for a broken nutcracker toy, is amazed when it comes to life and battles an army of mice with its toys.  The dark aspect of this story, though, is that the events take place, "...in what is either the child's delirious nightmare, or perhaps another reality into which she wanders."  Creepy, right?  I never thought of the ballet like that; it always seemed a beautiful dream or childhood adventure that Clara/Marie wandered into.  Now that I think about it more, though, even that is a bit odd...

Here's one of the most interesting sections of the article, though:

"Hoffmann, Zipes adds, wanted to make sure his readers knew that Marie was aware of the contrast between her life with the rule-bound Stahlbaums, and the dream world of The Nutcracker, 'a world of imagination, a world of her choice, where she can also make decisions that are more in accord with her own imagination.'"

This dynamic of power within the family is intriguing and suggests that Marie escaped into her imagination (perhaps a euphemism for going crazy) in order to free herself from her family's strict regulations.  The article points out that her family's name, "Stahlbaum," means "steel tree," so this perhaps is an indicator of the steel structure present in the house that forces Marie's childish insanity.

Although I like the modern versions of The Nutcracker, the original just can't be beat.  It's dark and thought-provoking in a more intellectual way than the ballet is today, and I like that.  Would I want children to see it?  I'm not sure about that, but I think they should know the real story before making a choice.