Snow White

Snow White

Painting by Darstellung von Alexander Zick.

Author Anonymous Published 1812-??-?? Type Fiction, Short story Genre Drama, Fairy tale Themes Drama Age Group Teen

Snow White is a fairy tale first published in the 1812 compendium Children's and Household Tales which was compiled by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The tale uses a lot of themes and motifs from older fairy tales, however, unlike a lot of other fairy tales from their compilation, this one has few concrete sources. It is in the public domain.

The story revolves around Snow White, so named because of her beautiful white skin which contrasts her black hair. The Queen, Snow White's vain and envious mother (in later versions it's her step-mother), is told by her magic mirror that Snow White has grown more beautiful than she, so she orders a huntsmen to take the seven-year-old Snow White into the woods, murder her, and bring back her heart. But the huntsman finds her too beautiful to murder and tells her to run away. He kills a boar instead and brings its heart to the Queen who promptly eats it, but her mirror tells her that Snow White is still alive, having found refuge in the home of seven dwarves who let Snow White live with her provided she cooks and cleans. The Queen disguises herself as an old peddler and visits Snow White and tries to murder her by tying her dress so tight she can't breathe, but the dwarves rescue her. They warn her not to invite anyone in, but the disguised Queen arrives again and puts a poisoned comb in her hair, which would eventually kill Snow White if the dwarves didn't rescue her again. The dwarves again warn her not to let anyone in, but the Queen shows up again this time with a poisoned apple. Snow white takes a bite and is instantly killed. This time, when the dwarves find her, they are unable to do anything. Unwilling to bury her because she's so pretty, they build a glass coffin and put her inside it, and her corpse doesn't decay. A prince discovers the coffin and offers to buy Snow White's corpse so that he may always look upon her beauty. The dwarves won't sell it, but once they see how desperate the prince is to have her beautiful corpse, they give it to him. He has his men transport the coffin to his castle, but they stumble and drop it and Snow White's corpse falls out. This dislodges the piece of apple from her throat and she wakes up. The prince says he loves her and the two are married. The Queen is invited to their wedding, but when she gets there, the prince's men force her to wear red hot iron shoes and dance until they burn her to death.

Personal

Own?	Compilation book.
Read?	Margaret Raine Hunt translation.
Finished	2025-03-01.

I have only the vaguest memory of this version of the fairy tale from when I was younger, specifically the Queen's method of execution. Knowing it is one of the more popular fairy tales, I was eager to read it from the compilation book my friend bought me. Of all the fairy tales I read before it, this one was the most messed up, and that's saying a lot! I found it interesting that the story includes a "someone's been eating my food" line of dialogue a'la Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Review

Overall:

Good

• The envious queen is a diabolical villain.
• Unlike most other fairy tales, this one has a pretty coherent plot, and the motive of the villain makes sense.

Bad

• The huntsman decides not to kill Snow White simply because she's so pretty. Not a very realistic reason.
• The huntsman brings back the heart of a wild boar, which presumable would be too large to pass for the heart of a seven-year-old.
• The story has a lot of bungling oafs. The Queen's brilliant plan is to tie Snow White's dress really tight to make it hard for her to breathe, then leave before she actually dies (does she not own a knife?), and the prince's men can't even transport a coffin without smashing it to bits.
• The Queen uses the same ruse three times, and Snow White falls for it each time. I know she's only seven years old, but, come on. The Queen even suggests an apple might be poisoned before offering it to Snow White! If the author insists on using the same trick, they could have at least have the Queen don a different disguise each time.
• How is it a prince has the authority to execute a Queen?
• Once again, the villain is a woman.

Ugly

• Brutal execution, child murder, and cannibalism are a bit much for a child's story.
• The princes falls in love with the corpse of a seven-year-old and offers to buy it from the dwarves so that he may look at it always. Then, when the seven-year-old turns out to be alive, he instantly marries her based on her looks alone. Yikes!

Media

Illustrations

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  Darstellung von Alexander Zick - c.1900.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	None of the women are strong.
Bechdel test?	Pass	The disguised Queen and Snow White talk several times.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	The setting implies everyone is white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Adaptions

Due to the popularity of this fairy tale, it has been adapted to pretty much every form of media numerous times. One of the most notable is Disney's 1937 film, which is decent, but not nearly as impressive as later films.

The seven dwarves, their cottage and diamond mine are in King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella.

The story is included in Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes which actually has the heart eating scene. As a kid, I thought Dahl created this to make the story more gruesome, I never guessed it was in this version!

Links