In The Witch Must Die, Sheldon Cashdan explores how fairy tales help children deal with psychological conflicts by projecting their own internal struggles between good and evil onto the battles enacted by the characters in the stories. Rumpelstiltskin, Pinocchio and Rapunzel vividly dramatize lust, envy, avarice and sloth on a safe stage, allowing children to confront their own "deadly sins.".

Cashdan offers elegant analyses of how fairy tales speak to basic human concerns, highlighting the roles played by iconic images like glass slippers, gingerbread houses, evil stepmothers and sorcery. He shows how fairy tales differ from culture to culture, what happens when classic fairy tales are "Disneyfied," and why it is that fairy tales can have a surprisingly salutary effect on adult readers. Along the way he probes the eternal questions: Why does Snow White eat the poison apple?

Why is the stepmother so mean? Why is Cinderella's father never around when she needs him?