Snow White
After reading the selected readings for today, what stuck out to me the most was The Snow Child. In this tale of Snow White, the longing for a beautiful girl from the father was more evident. Oppose to the mirror or moon telling the stepmother who is most beautiful the Count is wishing for a girl that is as white as snow, black as a bird’s feather and red as blood. In his wishing, the Count refers to the person he is wishing for as a girl and not a child or daughter, which could account for the Countess being jealous even though it is assumed or implied that he is referring to the girl as his child. In the end, as most of the other tales do, the Countess drops dead due to her vengeful actions in trying to get “rid of the girl”. In this particular version the Countess dies from the same rose that kills the girl.
The Mirror Speaks, The Snow Child, and Lessons from the Mirror, all relate in the way that the story is about the “Queen’s/Stepmother’s jealousy of Snow. Each tale is told in the perspective of the Stepmother and how Snow is fairest. These reversions of Snow White are a bit hard to decipher since it is harder to relate them back to the original/common story of Snow White. These versions only hint at the more common tale by mention of the pure white virgin skin and spitefulness toward the more “beautiful” girl.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Anne Sexton is most closely related to the Disney version of Snow White. In this version, the seven dwarfs are present and tell Snow to stay with them and “keep the house” until the Queen finds her. I found it quite interesting that the Queen dressed in rags to disguise herself when tricking Snow White as if dressing in informal attire will somehow change the person’s appearance completely. For this to work on Snow White three times is another interesting addition to the story. The Queen approached Snow White three times in an attempt to kill her and everytime Snow gave into her trick despite what the dwarfs told her to do.
In the end of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a prince showed of on the seventh mountain where Snow’s lifeless body laid and would not leave her. It could be implied that he fell in love with her beauty and needed to keep her body for himself in his castle. When the dwarfs gave her body to the prince, as if somehow the dwarfs owned her body after she “died”, the Prince’s men moved her and dropped for “miraculously” waking her. Upon her awakening she marries the Prince. This is also a recurring event the comes up in many of the other versions of this story. Snow White is just expected to marry a complete stranger just because he is in love with her beauty, and not with her and she not with him. These stories teach children that beauty is the most important thing about a girl and the women should be jealous of this feature in other women.