Samantha Gross
Midterm Essay
February 9, 2014
The Fairest of Them All
Snow-white is a storybook character of which we are all familiar. Most
children grow up having been exposed to the original version of the tale, Little SnowWhite, as well as having viewed Disney’s film adaption titled Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs. In both of the aforementioned versions, Snow-white is depicted as
the typical damsel in distress. While she is the heroine of the story, Snow-white is
surprisingly one-dimensional and described often as “the fairest in the land,” which
is a common motif throughout the story. This emphasis on Snow-white’s beauty, as
well as the lengths to which other women will go due to jealousy, place an
underlying message throughout the fairy tale that women need not worry for much
as long as they are beautiful.
A paradigm shift can be seen, however, in ABC Family’s hit television show
Once Upon a Time. While loosely based on many different stories, the drama centers
around the conflict between Snow-white and the evil Queen. There is considerable
progression in the evolution of Snow’s character compared to that of the original
fairy tale; that is to say, Snow-white progresses from a one-dimensional, prettyfaced girl, to a strong-willed, independent, and complex woman, visually
represented by clothing choice, miscellaneous personal effects, and hair style.
In Little Snow White, conflict arises almost immediately. After the birth of
Snow-white, a child who was “as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the
wood of a window-frame,” the Queen passed away and the King remarries. (Grimm,
249) His new wife was a beautiful, yet haughty woman whom above all, “could not
bear that anyone else should surpass her in beauty.” (249) Snow-white, however,
was described by the Grimm Brother’s to grow more beautiful with age, “and when
she was seven years old she was as beautiful as the day, and more beautiful than the
Queen herself.” (250) The Queen, speaking into the famous looking glass, finds out
that she is no longer the most beautiful woman in the land, and spends the rest of
the tale trying to murder her stepdaughter out of spite.
While Snow-white’s physical features are the catalyst of the Queen’s envy, it
is her physical features that always seemingly save her life as well. For example,
when the Queen sends a huntsman to kill her stepdaughter, the huntsman “had pity
on [Snow-white]” because “she was so beautiful.” (250) When Snow-white takes
refuge at the cottage of the seven dwarfs, they find her sleeping in one of their beds
and proclaim, “Oh, heavens! oh, heavens…what a lovely child!” (252) And lastly,
when the Queen finally succeeds in sending her stepdaughter into a sleeping death
via the poisoned, red apple, her beauty once again manages to save her life when the
Prince happens to stumble upon her glass coffin. He proclaims to the dwarfs that he
must have Snow-white “for I cannot live without seeing [her]...I will honor and prize
her as my dearest possession.” (257)
The Grimm Brother’s descriptions of Snow-white focus on her beauty,
innocence, and purity. These images are further interpreted in Disney’s film
adaption, wherein the seven dwarfs are fleshed out and given life while leaving
Snow-white’s disposition generally in-tact to the original tale. Snow-white is drawn
with soft, blended colors, and given no physical imperfections. She is almost always
shown wearing her iconic yellow and blue gown which emphasizes her hourglass
figure. One of the only times that Snow-white is seen wearing a different outfit is
when she dons rags in order to clean. In many instances, the outfit of a maid, or the
image of a woman cleaning in a dress, is extremely sexual and places that sexuality
upon the woman in a negative light. However, in the case of Snow-white, the outfit
of the maid highlights her innocence. Snow was born a princess, and to see a
highborn woman wearing rags accentuates her kindness and extreme goodness.
Unfortunately, Snow-white is innocent to a fault, and gets duped by the evil Queen
when the Queen, disguised as an old beggar woman, tricks Snow-white into eating a
poisoned apple which sends her into a sleepless death.
These images of Snow-white, and the extreme emphasis on her beauty, say a
lot about how society views women. To really think that a Prince would want to
take a seemingly deceased woman back to his palace because he wanted to look
upon her face, is a rather disturbing thought. Not to mention, in Disney’s re-telling
of the tale, the Prince actually removes the lid of the coffin and kisses her lips.
Snow-white is seen as nothing more than something pretty to look at, and
paradoxically, it is those same attractive physical features that leads the Queen to
poison her in the first place. And while there is no hope for the Brother’s Grimm to
redeem themselves, or the message that they are sending to young girls and women,
Disney was given the unique opportunity to once again retell the story of Snowwhite, on the hit ABC Family television show entitled Once Upon a Time.
Once Upon a Time puts Snow-white and Prince Charming at the center of the
drama and takes place in two different worlds: the Enchanted Forest and
Storybrooke, Maine. In the flashbacks to life in the Enchanted Forest, we encounter
Snow-white many times, repeating patterns that stem from the Brother’s Grimm.
For example, Snow-white is frequently shown on the run from both the Queen and
her huntsman. The major exception is that she is no longer helpless, which is shown
by the clothing choices selected for her character, miscellaneous personal effects,
and hairstyle.
While at times still wearing dresses, one of the most notable deviations from
the image of Snow-white that we hold in our minds, is her character in Once Upon a
Time wearing loose fitting pants and shirts. Although the original version of this tale
does not give a description of Snow-white’s clothing, one can assume that as she ran
from the huntsman she was ill prepared for a flight into the woods. The most iconic
image of Snow-white is that of the Disney animated film, wherein our heroine is
garbed in a beautiful gown that gets torn to shreds as she faces the dangers of the
wood. In Once Upon a Time, however, Disney does much to counteract this image of
a helpless girl who flees for her life in nothing but a ball gown.
Snow-white is also depicted carrying weapons. She is seen with knives,
swords, and a bow and arrow, of which she is quite proficient. This is perhaps the
biggest change from the original, because putting a weapon in Snow-white’s hand is
completely divorcing her character to the “damsel in distress” trope. She can no
longer be considered just a pretty face, and in fact, is now Prince Charming’s equal
rather than a just a woman to be saved. Not only can she defend herself, she can
also defend her friends and cause physical harm to the Queen if need be.
The last of the visual techniques that will be discussed is hairstyle. Once
Upon a Time utilizes this with Snow-white as Mary-Margaret in Storybrooke, Maine
by choosing to have Mary-Margaret’s hair kept in a very short, cropped cut. Short
hair is seen socially as a political statement that women make to reclaim themselves
as a human being, rather than someone who must be appealing at all times to men.
Long hair is seen as very feminine, and generally men are attracted to women who
keep their hair as such. Because Snow-white’s character in Little Snow-White is so
extremely feminine, it is no such wonder that the illustration coupled with the
version of the Grimm Brother’s tale used in this analysis, depicts Snow-white with
flowing hair down past her shoulders. And while the animated Disney film shows
Snow-white with her hair worn in a bob, her hair still has body and movement while
Mary-Margaret’s hair has no such fluidity.
“Who is the fairest of them all?” are famous words that almost everyone
recognizes; words that place emphasis on beauty as strength, rather than strength
of character. This is the message that is being sent to those who are familiar with
this story: that beauty is power, and if you are beautiful life is going to be quite easy.
The television show Once Upon a Time does much to undo and counteract Little
Snow-White, most importantly by showing that whether it be dwarfs or men, Snowwhite asserts not only her ability to cope and survive on her own but that she is
capable of saving their lives just as much as they are capable of saving hers. A
message like that cannot be concluded when one finishes reading Little Snow-White,
because her tale is the tale of a girl doomed to be a victim of her beauty, rather than
living independently from it.
A still from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White as seen on the television show Once Upon a Time.