ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the meaning of destructive drives, not only in badness, but also in goodness. The human being strives towards equilibrium, like all living matter. Violence might express the badness of a person, but it might also regard it as the ultimate method of survival in situations of extreme helplessness. The Grimms’ fairy tale Little Snow-White starts by describing a queen wishing for a child as red as blood, as white as snow, and as black as ebony. The Grimms’ tale Mother Holle reminds of the Persephone myth and could depict the oedipal development in the girl of the woman’s fertility. Women fighting with the conflicts between the different desires blame themselves for not being able to be equally good enough in their roles of mothers, career women, and wives. In another classical play, Medea, the heroine kills her children to revenge herself on her husband, who has abandoned her for another woman.
