Snow White Is Not Just a Fairytale
It’s been a while since I saw the Disney version of Snow White but I don’t recall that Snow White was 7 years old like in the Brothers Grimm’s version. I think that in the Disney version Snow White was 14 years old. It’s interesting to read that in the Brothers Grimm’s version the Queen asked a huntsman to kill a seven year old girl. It seems that the Queen has serious issues for being jealous of a young child and wanting to eat her liver and lungs. It is apparent why Walt Disney didn’t want to include the cannibalistic crazy side of the Evil Queen in his movie. I also don’t recall that the Evil Queen attempted three times to kill Snow White because in the Disney version I remember that the Evil Queen’s first attempt with the poisoned apple was successful. It was frustrating to see that Snow White in the Brothers Grimm’s version was naive and fell for the Evil Queen’s trick three times. However, I can understand why the authors portrayed her like that because she was only seven years old and I assume the authors wanted to show children that they shouldn’t be easily fooled.
The part that surprised me the most was that a prince appeared out of nowhere and fell in love with Snow White when she was dead. It’s creepy that he wanted to take her home because who will want to have a dead corpse with them. In the Disney version the prince knew Snow White before she “died” and wasn’t as creepy as in the Brothers Grimm’s version. Another part that surprised me was the ending when the Evil Queen attended Snow White’s wedding and she was made to wear the hot iron slippers until she danced to her death. The Evil Queen could have prevented her death by not going to Snow White’s wedding but curiosity and guilt got to her. Her death impacted me because in the Disney version Snow White is portrayed as compassionate and kind while in the Grimm’s version even though she technically didn’t cause the Evil Queen’s death she wasn’t as compassionate or forgiving since she didn’t stop her from dancing to her death. It’s interesting to see that in the Disney version they get rid of the Evil Queen by a lightning bolt casually coming at the right time instead of making the prince or Snow White the killers.
Overall, I think the purpose of the Brothers Grimm’s version was to show children that they shouldn’t be easily fooled and that they should learn from the choices they make. I think that this is the theme due to the fact that Snow White was easily fooled three times and she didn’t listen to the dwarfs’ warnings causing her to commit the same mistake. She is an example to children that one has to be aware and not oblivious in their surroundings and in the advice they are given. I also believe that the main purpose of both versions of Snow White are that one shouldn’t be jealous of what another person may have whether it’s their appearance or materialistic objects because at the end they are hurting themselves. For example, the Evil Queen always wanted approval from the mirror if she was the “fairest of them all” but it always gave her the answer that Snow White was the “fairest”. The Queen was looking to be the most beautiful but she fell short compared to Snow White which caused her heart to harden with envy and anger. Through the story, children will learn that in life there will be people that are always going to be better looking, smarter, or wealthier than they are but that wouldn’t make them less worthy. The queen only focused on her beauty that she forgot that she was still beautiful and that she was an important ruler. Children can learn from this story that they have to be accepting of one self or they won’t be able to experience happiness since their heart will ache with horrible emotions just like the Queen.