Snow White Literary Analysis
Few people can grow up within today's society without knowing the tale of Snow White. From the Grimm Brothers to Disney, it has been told and retold to children throughout the ages. However, what is often overlooked is the true meaning within the story. Fairytales typically have underlying messages that can be found between the lines, generally in terms of the key themes. Snow-White discusses the theme of jealousy, and shows how humans' obsessions of material can lead to their own downfall as well as the harm of others.
When focusing on the relationship between Snow-White and her stepmother the Queen, it is evident that the jealousy inside the story results in a power struggle in which beauty and pride are seen as the basis for the stepmother’s envy towards Snow-White. Throughout the story of Snow-White jealousy is omnipresent.
The major evidence of jealousy is the daily ritual of the queen in which she consults her magic mirror on who is the most beautiful person in the kingdom. As she says, “Looking-glass upon the wall, who is the fairest of us all?” she repeatedly expects to be in her favor. One day she is outraged when it appeared that Snow-White surpassed her. This information drove the queen to hate Snow-White and generates jealousy and soon she ordered her death.
By looking at beauty as commodity through which power can be gained, this action can be interpreted as a mean for the queen to preserved her power through beauty. The stepmother is very narcissistic and obsessed with power; she constantly wants to be the center of all the attention. She is afraid that snow white will gradually take her place as the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. As a result, she fears that Snow-White could use her beauty in order to usurp power from the queen and surpasses her. The queen goes to severe measure to be sure that this does not happen.
The morals of the story are very clear; humility, selflessness, and inner beauty reign over vanity. The idea is that
When focusing on the relationship between Snow-White and her stepmother the Queen, it is evident that the jealousy inside the story results in a power struggle in which beauty and pride are seen as the basis for the stepmother’s envy towards Snow-White. Throughout the story of Snow-White jealousy is omnipresent.
The major evidence of jealousy is the daily ritual of the queen in which she consults her magic mirror on who is the most beautiful person in the kingdom. As she says, “Looking-glass upon the wall, who is the fairest of us all?” she repeatedly expects to be in her favor. One day she is outraged when it appeared that Snow-White surpassed her. This information drove the queen to hate Snow-White and generates jealousy and soon she ordered her death.
By looking at beauty as commodity through which power can be gained, this action can be interpreted as a mean for the queen to preserved her power through beauty. The stepmother is very narcissistic and obsessed with power; she constantly wants to be the center of all the attention. She is afraid that snow white will gradually take her place as the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. As a result, she fears that Snow-White could use her beauty in order to usurp power from the queen and surpasses her. The queen goes to severe measure to be sure that this does not happen.
The morals of the story are very clear; humility, selflessness, and inner beauty reign over vanity. The idea is that