Snow White: An Un-Acclaimed Interpretation

4 Pages 1078 Words

Throughout the years, many versions of this beloved fairy tale have been produced. Along with all of these slightly differing adaptations comes many different interpretations and analysis’s which correspond with each variation. The version of Snow White in which I have chosen to analyze is by the Grimm Brothers. It is important to understand that there is much more to this fairy tale than just what meets the naked eye.
I think it is safe to say that the most evident concept in the tale which gives way to a detailed analysis is the relationship between the “fairest of them all,” Snow White, and her competitor, the Queen. It seems as though Snow White and her stepmother are jealousy battling for the absent father/husband figure. To the psychoanalyst, Snow White and the Queen are competing to be a favorite to the King and their concerns over beauty are directly related to this very competition. It is when Snow White turns seven that the stepmother takes on her fairy tale role as the “evil” stepmother. It is also at the onset of Snow White’s maturity that her stepmother begins to feel jealous and seek reassurance from her magic mirror. Bruno Bettelheim describes the Queen’s consulting of the mirror as “narcissistic” and believes that “It is the narcissistic parent who feels most threatened by his child’s growing up, because that means the parent must be aging” (202). When we look at this from a broad spectrum we realize that when children are young and dependent about their parents, he or she does not threatened the parent’s narcissism, but when the child begins to mature and seek independence it is possible that he or she becomes a threat to a parent such as this. This is what happens to the Queen in Snow White.
Another element present in Snow White which should be looked at more extensively is color, for it is obviously an important part of this tale. In the beginning of the story Snow White’s biological m...