Rylee, Grimm's Snow White Response

The original version of Snow White differs from the Disney version in many ways, but for the purpose of this blog, I will focus on just the Grimm Version. An extremely common element of this story is the number 7. Seven is a spiritual number. It come from the stable and hardworking number 4 and the mystic and holy number three. Some examples of where the number 7 enters the tale is Snow White's age and the amount of dwarves. The dwarves in the Disney version represent the 7 deadly sins, but the characters aren't developed enough in the Grimm version to understand if they represent anything. As the annotations state, "seven was often considered the age of transition from child to adult." Something that people don't focus on when discussing Snow White is her age. Seven is a very young age and the story doesn't mention how much time passes during the story, so the audience is forced to assume that the end of this story is a marriage that weds a child and a stranger.

Another thing that I hadn't realized was the queen ultimately attempts to kill Snow White 4 times!!! The first being when she sends the huntsman to carve out her heart, second being her attempting to suffocate here, third being her attempt with the comb, and, of course, the apple. Apples are used in many folktales and mythologies. They symbolize sin, temptation, immortality, and beauty in many of them. Also, the way the Grimm Brothers describe Snow White's death makes it seem like she choked more than she was poisoned.

We need to discuss the ending of this two. When the dwarves find her dead they put her body in a glass coffin so they can continue to marvel at her beauty... CREEPY. The prince comes along (to sleep at the dwarves place?!) and tells the dwarves that he will give them anything to have her body, because he can't live without seeing it.... CREEPY. Then she spits up an apple chunk and the prince says, "Cool. You shall be my wife." (sort of)... CREEPY. Then, just to top of the story, they torture and kill her stepmom at the wedding. How did the Grimm Brothers come up with this?

After reading this, it made me curious how and when the audience shifted to children. This story is clearly not targeting other 7 year olds with this story. It is men attempting to control social norms and instill behaviors in men and women. Women are portrayed as beautiful, obtuse, quiet, and obedient . The Grimm Brothers made a serious point when they created the stepmother. They wanted to convince people to not behave like her. She is jealous, murderous, cunning, determined, strong, and independent. While her character does have some serious character flaws, some positive traits are villainized to make women want to fit men's standards of etiquette. People never want to imitate a villain. They always want to be the hero. I'm looking forward to seeing how Disney changed these characters, but I'm doubtful that they changed the social behaviors they possess.