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Snow White Differences by Trevor

Snow White Differences by Trevor

The original Grimm stories tend to be more vulgar and perverse than the Disney version of the tale.  The first difference I noticed in the Grimm version compared to the Disney version was the age of Snow White.  She is much younger in the Grimm version only being seven versus fourteen in the Disney version.  The young age of Snow White is an example of how the Grimm versions tend to be cruder.  Why would the evil queen need to compare her beauty to one of a seven year old?  In the Disney version Snow White was 14 years old, which in my opinion is still too young for the queen to compare herself too.

It takes two attempts in the Disney version and four attempts in the Grimm version to “kill” Snow White. The Disney one makes Snow White look less naive than the Grimm Snow White who despite several warnings from the dwarves, continued to fall for the queen’s tricks. The first two attempts of the older version show a more foolish Snow White, who is attracted to beautiful things to the point where she almost dies because of her attraction. The final attempt for both versions is the apple. However, at this point, the Grimm’s queen is smarter by making the apple half poisoned and eating the non-poisoned half to lure a hesitant Snow White. However, the apple was supposed to be a poison to kill the young girl while the Disney apple granted “eternal sleep,” only curable by “love’s first kiss.”

In the Disney version, the queen dies indirectly through a lightning strike, causing her to fall off a cliff.  However, in the older version, her death is much more graphic. She is invited to Snow White’s wedding and at the wedding, the queen is forced to dance in iron shoes that were heated until they glowed red, causing her death.

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