Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White is a timeless fairy tale that has captured the hearts of audiences for generations, and its magical narrative continues to inspire and resonate with people of all ages. From the original Brothers Grimm version to Disney’s beloved adaptation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, weaves a spellbinding narrative of love, friendship, and the triumph of goodness over evil. With its classic themes of good vs. evil, love, and overcoming adversity, it’s easy to see why it’s among the favorites in people’s hearts and minds. Today, we’ll explore the fascinating nuances and captivating themes behind Snow White, a story that reminds us of the enduring magic that lies within classic fairy tales and the disturbing warnings that remain relevant even today.
A Short History of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White, as we know her today, was first introduced to the world in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm. Still, like many of their other stories, it’s believed that the tale has been around since the Middle Ages and passed down through oral tradition from generation to generation. The earliest known version comes from the 16th-century Italian author Giovanfancesco Straparola in a collection of stories called The Facetious Nights.
A Summary of Snow White by the Brothers Grimm
The Grimm’s version begins with Snow White’s mother, the Queen, wishing for a daughter to be as fair as Snow, with lips red as blood and hair black as ebony. Snow White makes her mother’s dreams come true, but the Queen dies shortly after her birth. The King later remarries a vile woman who becomes our villain and Snow White’s stepmother.
As Snow White grows up, she blossoms into a beautiful young woman, and the new Queen grows jealous. Not able to stand the presence of someone more beautiful, the Queen orders the Huntsman to take Snow into the forest, kill her, and bring back her lungs and liver as proof. The Huntsman can’t stand the thought of killing Snow White, so he lets her escape. He brings back the lungs and liver of a boar instead.
Alone and lost in the forest, Snow White stumbles across a cottage inhabited by seven dwarfs. They tell her she can stay if she’s willing to help them with some chores.
Back at the castle, the Queen continues to consult with her magic mirror, asking it:
“Magic, mirror, on the wall,
Who’s the fairest one of all?”
To which the mirror answers:
“My Queen, you may be the fairest here,
But Little Snow White, though far away,
With the seven dwarfs in her hideaway
Is now the fairest ever seen.”
Enraged that Snow White has escaped, the Queen disguises herself as different people to deceive Snow White, but thankfully the dwarfs are able to protect Snow from the evil Queen. Eventually, though, the Queen succeeds in poisoning Snow White with a cursed apple. Unable to revive her, the dwarfs place her in a glass coffin in the woods.
One day, a prince stumbled upon the glass coffin with the beautiful Snow White inside. He instantly falls in love with her and asks the dwarves if he can take her with him. While traveling with her coffin, a bump dislodges the poisoned apple from Snow White’s throat, and she awakens.
The two marry. The Queen attends their wedding and is punished for her wickedness. She’s forced to wear hot iron shoes and dance until she eventually collapses and dies.
The Differences Between the Grimm’s Version and Disney’s Version
Now let’s explore some of the big differences between the Grimm’s version of Snow White and Disney’s adaptation:
– The dwarfs aren’t given names in the Grimms’ story, unlike the Disney version.
– They are tidy, unlike the Disney version dwarfs.
– The Queen asks for Snow’s lungs and liver, not her heart, like in the Disney version.
– The Queen consumes/cannibalizes Snow White’s lungs and liver.
– The Disney version has Snow White awakened by a kiss, whereas the Grimms have it be the accidental dislodging of the poisoned apple on the road that awakens her.
– The Queen dies by being made the dance in red hot iron shoes, vs. Disney’s version where she’s pushed off the side of a cliff and falls to her death.
Margaretha Von Waldeck, the Real Snow White
According to author Eckhard Sander, Snow White may have been inspired by a real woman named Margaretha Von Waldeck, who was born in 1533 to Philip IV, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen, and his wife. By all accounts, Margaretha was a beautiful young woman with fair skin and bright red lips. She did have blonde hair rather than dark hair, though.
When Margaretha was around four-years-old, her mother passed away, and her father married a beautiful woman named Katharina vo Harzfeld. According to the stories of Katharina, she was incredibly vain. Supposedly, she loved looking at herself so much that Philip gifted her a large ornate mirror.
Katharina resented her husband’s children with his first wife, most especially Margaretha. When she was sixteen, Katharina and Philip sent her to Brussels to find a husband. The future King of Spain, Philip II, and Margaretha fell in love, but the Spanish court hoped for a more advantageous match. It’s rumored that Katharina was envious that Margaretha might surpass her by marrying upward.
Margaretha died mysteriously in 1554 at the age of 21. In Waldeck chronicles, it was suggested that she’d been poisoned by someone unknown. It’s speculated that the Spanish authorities had her killed. The jealous stepmother makes for an arguably better story, but Katharina died a while before she did.
The seven dwarfs are believed to have been inspired by children who worked in Margaretha’s father’s copper mines. The children, like the dwarfs, lived in groups.
Also, the part of the story about the poisoned apple may have been inspired by the fact that a local man from Margaretha’s hometown was arrested for trying to give children poisoned apples as revenge for stealing from his apple orchard.
Themes in Snow White
The story of Snow White explores several themes of note.
1. Beauty and Vanity: At its root, the story examines the corruption of pride and vanity. The obsession with physical beauty is all-consuming for the Queen and turns her into a monster. She will stop at nothing to obtain the idea of being the most beautiful woman in the land.
2. Jealousy and Envy: The Queen’s envy of Snow White fuels her with desire to have her killed. It highlights the devastating nature of jealousy and the extreme lengths someone might go to remove anything they find threatening.
3. Goodness and Innocence: Snow White is portrayed as the epitome of innocence and kindness. She is pure, good, and trusting. She handles even the most difficult of challenges with grace. Her virtuous nature means that she will always conquer evil—given time.
4. The Evil Stepmother (or Mother): The story delves into the dark side of maternity. In 1812, the earliest version of the Grimm’s tale of Snow White, there was no stepmother at all. Instead, it was Snow White’s mother who was menacing and jealous. Her mom was the evil one.
5. Redemption and Forgiveness: Snow White is a forgiving character who doesn’t dwell on or seek revenge for the terrible acts of the Queen. However, the evil Queen is punished in the end, and her sins are redeemed through that punishment.
6. Nature and the Supernatural: The natural world, especially the forest, is a place of nurturing and protection for Snow White. There’s an enchanting element to the Queen’s ability to alter her appearance there too. In essence, the woods are a place for both shelter and harm.
7. Love and Romance: Like many fairy tales, the story is an example of love conquering evil. The prince not only aids in saving Snow White from the Queen’s awful curse, but he also gives Snow White a happy ending (at least as far as fairy tales go).
8. Good vs. Evil: Above all, though, the story highlights the inability of evil to conquer good. It may appear to win, but Good will always pull out something or someone to right the wrongs.
Snow White and Vampires
When I asked Fabled listeners from one of my groups about what Snow White reminds them of, my friend Whitney responded with “vampires.” I asked her to elaborate, and even though my mind didn’t go there immediately, I can totally see why this story has some vampiric similarities.
Take the idea of immortality, for instance. Snow White achieves a level of immortality in the sleeping death. She remains perfect. The sleep itself resembles what we know about vampire lore. It mirrors the vampire’s slumber in a coffin during daylight hours. Like vampires, Snow White’s life experienced a transition. For her, the transition is from a life of hardship to one of peace and love. And then there’s the symbolism of allure and possibly temptation. Like vampires, Snow White seemed to captivate the prince—possibly enchant him—with just a look. Even the evil Queen is taken aback by her beauty. Vampires are often portrayed as seductive in similar ways. Not to mention that Snow White has pale skin and blood-red lips like vampires.
Similarity to “The Red Shoes” by Hans Christian Andersen
Though the foundations of the stories are different, the Queen dancing herself to death is akin to Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Red Shoes.” It’s the story of Karen, a young woman obsessed with a pair of red shoes with magical power. When she puts the shoes on, she cannot resist dancing non-stop. Even when she’s in pain, she cannot stop dancing. The shoes seem to control her every movement, and her life quickly spins out of control.
She’s desperate for relief, so she seeks an executioner and prays for salvation. An angel appears and tells her that only a pure-hearted person can take off the shoes. An older woman helps Karen to remove the shoes. As soon as they’re off, Karen realizes the error of her ways and learns that obsessions and superficial desires are dangerous. It’s who we are on the inside that counts.
Snow White and The Mandela Effect
So, we’ve discussed the various stories and myths associated with Snow White. Want to hear something strange? Have you ever heard of the Mandela Effect?
The Mandela Effect is “an observed phenomenon in which a large segment of the population misremembers a significant event or shares a memory of an event that did not actually occur.” There are many fascinating and creepy instances of this effect. I encourage you to look it up if you aren’t familiar.
Why I mention it here, though, is that the Disney film Snow White actually makes this list of bizarre misrecollections.
When you recall what the evil Queen said, was it “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
Yeah, me too. Only that’s not what she actually says. She says, “Magic mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
Earlier in this episode, I quoted the actual story, and it says, “mirror, mirror.” It’s only in the Disney’s version that “magic mirror” is used, and yet so many of us swear the Queen said “mirror, mirror.” How so many people misremember this (and a wide range of other instances like this) is a question that some people are answering with quantum theory. There is a belief that these strange instances prove that there is a parallel universe or possibly even that life itself is a simulation. Psychology, though, would akin it to deja vu or an unintentional distortion of memory. Either way, it’s odd.
And the fact that Snow White appears on this list, I thought, spoke of the power of the story. The word that’s misremembered is “magic.” So many of us remember it to be “mirror, mirror.” We know that people will repeat words that they feel need to be emphasized. Instead of singling out the word “magic,” we deleted it and repeated the word “mirror.” Could that mean we subconsciously blame the mirror for all that befalls Snow White? Or could it simply mean that we were remembering the tale as it was read to or by us? Who can say.
Wicked Mirror Superstition
There are numerous mirror superstitions that date back for forever, but while researching, I stumbled across the doppelgänger or “double shadow” in relation to mirror superstition. According to German lore, a doppelgänger is an “evil twin” or a spirit being that looks the same way as someone else but does not have a shadow. Seeing one is a bad omen and may even signal impending death.
In some accounts, the “evil twin” may attempt to provide advice to the person they shadow. This advice may be malicious.
Could the mirror’s insistence on someone else being more beautiful than the Queen have been an attempt to divide the two and wreak havoc on both of their lives—and possibly the kingdom itself? Could the mirror also be the “evil twin”? At the very least, the German lore of the doppelgänger and the fear associated with gazing at one’s twin in a mirror may hold the key to understanding the whole meaning of the story.
Body Dysmorphia and the Queen
Conversely, the Queen’s obsession with the mirror may stem from body dysmorphia. People who seek out the mirror often while suffering from this are doing it to ease their fears about what they look like. They need to check the mirror to see how others perceive them and to take note if their perceived deformity still exists or has become worse.
In this case, some sympathy may be had for the Queen. If she genuinely struggles that deeply with body image, it’s easy to understand why she behaves the way she does to Snow White, even though sympathy is no excuse.
What Can the Story of Snow White Teach Us Today?
All the fairy tales have lessons that I find to be particularly wise. The story of Snow White shares with readers the importance of friendship, the virtues of kindness, the perils of negative emotions, the value of inner beauty, and the transformative power of love. It also delves into dark subjects like the dangers of being too forgiving, too accepting, not suspicious enough, and relying on others to protect you.
The tale reminds me, too, of the trope of a passive princess vs. a practical (too much so, in this case) mature woman and how those roles shift as women age. After all, as soon as Snow White is married, she kills her stepmother. Does that make her a monster now too? Or is that redemption?
Even now, if we truly notice what we’re watching, reading, and consuming… so much of the content is made for the young. This makes sense. Youth, being a teen, is an exciting time. The whole world is at your fingertips. Anything is possible. You’ll never be as brave and beautiful as you are in those brief years…but unlike what the fairy tales will have us believe, marriage isn’t “the end,” and some princesses turn into evil queens. Sometimes for understandable reasons. But when life isn’t “happily ever after,” what happens to the mature woman? A lot of lore turned them into witches, evil queens, awful stepmothers, and manipulative wives. We need more stories about mature women and men that aren’t solely sexual. We need the wisdom of the seasoned. The world doesn’t exist only for the young.
Just some food for thought…
Conclusion
The study of fairy tales changed the trajectory of my writing many years ago. My first novel, Fabled, is a mashup of fairy tales in an attempt to create an original one. The power of storytelling took root in a way that I’ll forever be grateful for, but telling people that you study STORY doesn’t always resonate. We associate fairy tales with childhood, but we shouldn’t. Your favorite princess tells more about you than you think. Through STORY, I’m only now beginning to unpack the layers of understanding about my fears, weaknesses, and struggles.
Snow White has always been the princess I identified with most. People who love books usually identify with Belle, but not me, I’ve always been Snow. So much so, my husband still writes To: Snow on Christmas gifts. She’s my girl. Now, what that says about me… I’ll let you be the judge.
What’s your favorite princess or fairy tale, and why? Comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
Music: The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Heartbreaking by Kevin MacLeod
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3863-heartbreaking
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Other music also by Kevin MacLeod (paid licenses).
