Discussion Week 4

While reading through the various versions of Snow White this week, I noticed some interesting similarities and changes. With The Young Slave, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the Brothers Grimm version of Snow White there are many likenesses. First off, just like some of the other fairy tales which we have read throughout the semester, it seems as if the parents are absent. When I say absent, we are mainly talking about the father figure. You could say that the mother is present, but there is not much parenting going on. This is more of a rivalry or opposition between mother and daughter sort of like we see in many of the versions Cinderella. We can attribute the reason behind this historically to high “mortality rates for child-bearing women” just as Maria Tatar points out in the Norton Critical Edition (84). I would also go on to say that death was more prevalent at the time of the Brothers Grimm version, which ultimately has duplicated itself in these other versions as well. Whether the mother died in the introduction or not, the use of violence seems to be much more widespread than what we may see in newer versions. Cutting out Snow White’s lungs and liver so that the queen can dine upon them is one good example of this (Tatar 96). 

The use of lace, a hairbrush or comb, and an apple are also shared similarities with the first three versions as listed above. In The Young Slave, there was only a hairbrush used, but the effect of the character of Snow White, who was named Lisa, is the same. There are the most differences with this particular version in comparison to the other two. Lisa is, in fact, the male character’s niece and the aunt is the one who is mean to her. She beats her upon seeing her beauty and cuts her hair. Just as we see in the Grimm’s and Sexton’s versions, Lisa is found inside of a glass coffin. 

One interesting parallel that I picked up from the various versions of Snow White was the way that the queen approached the deed of taking out her daughter/stepdaughter or niece. If the queen desired to kill Snow White in a more adamant way she would always employ a male figure to do it. So for instance, if she wanted to kill Snow White and extract and organ for proof she would not engage in the act herself. In Gaiman’s Snow, Glass, Apples the queen only refers to those who cut out her step daughter’s heart as “they” but the point is that she once again does not kill her directly. When the queen does try to kill Snow White, it is always in an indirect manner, usually with poison. And even with poison Snow White more than often, doesn’t die, but is instead suspended in a deathlike trance and then usually placed in a glass coffin. In Snow White and Her Wicked Stepmother, Gilbert and Gubar point out that this character “they” or the “Huntsman” is a substitute for the missing male character (390). He “dominates controls, and subdues wild ferocious beasts” which is certainly true, because in many of the versions he kills a boar to supply the lungs and liver instead of killing the daughter or princess. If males seem to kill in more direct ways and females appear to kill in less direct ways, it appears to make sense by these stories in a traditional manner. 

The idea of eating part of a child by a parent is known as one of the most gruesome and harrowing things to do I’d just like to point out. If you dip into some of the epic tales of Greece, for instance, you find the story of Seneca or even the mythological version of Cronos who felt as if he had to eat all his children so that they would not replace him on the throne as a god. There are many ways to view this conflict between man and son or mother and daughter just as Gilbert and Gubar point out as a possible “feminized Oedipal struggle” (389). It seems though in many of these stories that the destiny of Snow White may turn out to be in the end exactly the type of situation that the queen found herself in. It almost seems through some of these versions the idea is that as if the cycle is irreversible, beauty is lost eventually and life renews itself generation after generation.

 

Works Cited 

Tatar, Maria., editor. “Snow White.” The Classic Fairytales, 2^nd ed., W.W Norton and Company, 2017, pp. 84-116.

Tatar, Maria., editor. “Snow White and Her Wicked Stepmother.” The Classic Fairytales, 2^nd ed., W.W Norton and Company, 2017, pp. 387-393.