Trauma
This poem's speaker suffers, not simply from guilt or sadness about the past, but from feelings and sensations that past events are ongoing. She fears that past dangers remain a threat, and her sensory life is full of images, not from the present, but from the past—including the "witch's cry" and the "spires of that gleaming kiln." She uses the present tense to refer to past events and states several times that the past remains real for her. Gretel's flashbacks, emotional strain, and shaken sense of reality are elements of trauma. Here, Glück suggests that one of the fundamental problems with trauma is that it isolates its sufferer. Gretel and her brother have shared experiences, but their orientation to those experiences is dissimilar in part because Gretel feels that they are ongoing. This leaves her feeling lonely and even abandoned at what feels to her like the height of a crisis.
Gender
One way in which this poem's speaker is isolated is by her gender. She lives with her brother and her father, who bars outsiders from the house for his children's safety. Thus, her allies and protectors are men. Meanwhile, in keeping with the fairytale on which this poem is based, her oppressors and enemies (including the witch) are women. Gretel feels conflicted about this. She seems to simultaneously fear the witch and the past, and to feel a certain inexplicable kinship with the women who have harmed her. Both her fear of the witch and her lingering fascination or longing for her hint that she seeks female companionship, especially that of a mother figure. Furthermore, Glück's male characters are uncomfortable with emotion, preferring to either ignore the past or focus entirely on physical safety. In this way, the poem suggests that traditionally masculine approaches to emotional life are unhelpful or even harmful.
Justice
One of the reasons that Gretel feels so upset and haunted by her past is because she feels guilty about killing another person. She vividly recalls the violence she has enacted against the witch, and dwells on the physical pain she caused. On the other hand, she knows that she did so for the sake of her and her brother's survival, and even considers—albeit perhaps with some skepticism—that the witch's death was a form of divine punishment. Through Gretel's uncertainty and guilt, Glück explores questions of justice and punishment, asking when violent revenge is deserved (if ever) and observing that punishment can take a great toll on the person who doles it out as well as on the one who experiences it.
