Jack and the magic Bean

Jack and the magic bean is a Conte English.

Origins

The origin of this tale is not known, but it is thought that its author was probably British. The oldest edition of the account goes back to 1807 when The History off Jack and the Bean-Stalk appears, printed by Benjamin Tabart, but the history is older since a parody entitled The Story off Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean ( History of Spriggins Jack and magic bean ) belonged to the second edition of Round Butt Our Coal-Fire published in 1734.

Summary

Jack and its mother are very poor and cannot pay their rent any more. They are thus constrained to sell their cow at the market. When Jack returns from the market, he realizes that the money of the sale was replaced by simple beans. His/her mother, furious, throws them outside. But during the night, a foot of bean pushes to the sky. Jack decides to climb it and discover what hides with the top of the clouds

Interpretations

There exist various interpretations of this tale. The giant that Jack assassinates before being made main of its fortune could represent the large of this world which exploit the people of modest means and thus cause their revolt, which makes to Jack the hero of a kind of Jacquerie.

For Bruno Bettelheim, it would be about a tale intended to facilitate the transition between childhood and adolescence from young people, the departure of Jack of the maternal house coinciding with the appearance of this phallic Symbole which is the foot of bean, metaphor of its new sexual maturity.

It could also be a question of an older Celtic tale, a remanent form of the myth of the Axis Mundi, myth paramount of the cosmic tree, bond symbolic system religious magico between sky and ground, allowing the men wise to climb towards high the nimbi in order to know the secrecies of cosmos and the human condition on ground.

Illustrations

Republished at many recoveries, the tale was put in image by famous artists such as George Cruikshank, illustrator of Charles Dickens, Walter Crane or Arthur Rackham.

Film adaptations

Jack and the Beanstalk in 1912, realized by J. Searle Dawley, with Gladys Hulette, Gertrude McCoy
under the same title, in 1913, with Helen Badgley, Leland Benham
under the same title, in 1917 carried out by Chester Mr. Franklin and Franklin Sidney, with Francis Carpenter, Virginia Lee Corbin, Jane Lee, Katherine Lee, Purple Radcliffe, Carmen Of Street
under the same title, in 1922 product and carried out by Walt Disney
under the same title, in 1924, carried out by Alfred J. Goulding, with Baby Peggy, White Payson
in 1925, Jack the Giant Killer by Herbert Mr. Dawley
Jack and the Beanstalk , 1931, by Dave Fleischer
Jack and the Beanstalk , animation, 1933, of Ub Iwerks, carried out by Shamus Culhane, according to a scenario of Ben Hardaway, on a music of Carl W. Stalling
Jack and the Beanstalk (The goose that lays the golden eggs), 1952, of Jean Yarbrough with Buddy Baer, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
Jack and the Beanstalk , animation, 1955, of Burbot Reiniger
Jack and the magic bean , ( Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story ), 2001, the United States, realizer: Brian Henson . With Matthew Modine (Jack), Vanessa Redgrave, Mia Sara, Daryl Hannah, Jon Voight, J.J. Feild

Television

Jack and the Beanstalk , television, 1967, produced by William Hanna, Joseph Will bore, on a music of Lennie Hayton, with the voice of Janet Waldo, Ted Cassidy
under the same title, in 1974, television, with Peter Jeffrey
Jack and the Beanstalk , television, 1998, with Griff Rhys Jones, Peter Serafinowicz

Video games

an attempt at adaptation on Nintendo was cancelled
It exists a version Amstrad CPC

See too

Tale
Oggie, the young girl and the bean

External documentation

Bibliography :

external Bonds :

Example of bond towards a French document

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