akes a place in the queen's bed, her silence as well as her wicked mother's lying conspiracy about that silence conceal her true self. Later, the wicked mother's failure to keep silent about the proper punishment for those who throw someone out a window and into the water seals the doom of both her and the wicked stepsister; the fact that the king pronounces the sentence completes the circle of silence and overcomes its pernicious power. There is a kind of silence, coupled with distance and misinformation, imposed in "The Maiden Without Hands," when the devil intercepts letters between the king and his mother with the intent of punishing the good queen. The intent to impose silence is most pernicious in the devil's letter, supposedly from the king, that directs his mother to cut out the tongue and eyes of the queen as proof that she has been killed. It rema
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