As I read “Snow White” by the Grimm Brothers, I was shocked by its outdated
content and messages. I understand that this version of Snow White
is from 1884, and as such was written at time that held different values.
I also understand the nature of literary fairy tales. Nevertheless, as a reader in
2019, I personally found the tale ridiculous and offensive. Therefore, in this blog
post I am choosing to focus on the outdated messages of the fairy tale.
Patriarchal ideas are widespread in “Snow White”, and they are mostly portrayed
in three ways: through the Queen, the male characters (Huntsman, Dwarves, Mirror, etc.),
and Snow White herself. I found the envy of the Queen to be, perhaps, the most
obvious source of outdated content. A female character who drives herself to
death because “she could not bear that anyone else should surpass her in beauty”
seems to suggest that the authors believe many women to be vain (Grimm 1). I will
note that when the huntsman fails to kill Snow White, the Queen does take matters
into her own hands and does manage to kill Snow White for a time in the story -- an
action that suggests men do not have to do everything for women in this fairy tale.
Nevertheless, the extreme lengths that the Queen goes through in order to be
recognized as the “fairest of all” are more notable within the story (Grimm 1).
The Queen’s desire suggests that the Grimm Brothers felt women were
capable of feeling this way. The main message from the Queen seems
to attempt teach women not to be jealous or obsessed with appearance -- if so,
you may die wearing heated “iron slippers” (Grimm 5). Such a message is
actually meaningful, and useful for all readers. There are many ways to
get across this message, and to get it across to men as well,
but the story fails to do so in a universally appropriate way.
Snow White, on the other hand, comes across as unintelligent, lucky, and
reliant on men to save her. Despite such qualities, however, Snow White ends
up married to a Prince, alive, while her stepmother perishes. Early on in the story,
when the huntsman is taking Snow White to the woods, a line that immediately stuck
out to me helps illustrate the point I am trying to make: “And she was so beautiful
that the huntsman had pity on her” (Grimm 2). At first, I was not sure how to interpret
this line. Of course, the line suggests that Snow White is reliant on a man to keep
her alive, but the line becomes difficult to analyze when considering her beauty.
Attractiveness appears to be of value to women according to the authors, yet
the message of the story seems to suggest that women should not seek out
beauty -- at least not at all costs. Perhaps, the authors are suggesting that while
beauty is significantly valuable to women, any particular woman should
not be envious of another’s beauty -- or at least not overly envious. In the end,
the story relays conflicting messages to the audience, but the only group of
characters not to suffer are men.
In conclusion, I struggled to find much about “Snow White” that I enjoyed.
Beyond the backward ideas that were omnipresent within it, parts of the story seemed
abrupt and at points there were obvious attempts to push the story along. Its main
value -- beyond being a piece of history due to Walt Disney -- is, seemingly,
as a source that allows readers today (and going forward) to learn from the
mistakes of the past.
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